A+E Studios, Big Indie Pictures, Killer Films,

Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning, Susan Sarandon, Max Casella, Jane McNeill, Bryan Batt, Matt Kane, Patrick St. Esprit, Jason Davis, Ric Reitz

As the film opens, Errol Flynn (Kevin Kline) has been reported to have died in the arms of his 4th wife, a young girl named Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning). Beverly’s mother, Florence (Susan Sarandon) is at the airport to meet her daughter when they are confronted by a host of reporters trying to get a glimpse of the girl who was with the famous actor when he died. The premise of the story is Florence’s attempt at fame herself, and perhaps the Hollywood mother a bit too push trying to get her daughter’s career going, has met a writer who wants to interview her about her daughter Beverly and the last days of Errol Flynn. The book is done without Beverly’s knowledge or consent, but via flashback, we get to see the entire story from the very beginning up until the time the book is released.

This is a biographical story. It seems that’s all I’ve been seeing lately, which is a bit odd, but that’s what it is. This is a bit sordid, but I must admit Susan Sarandon did an amazing job as Florence the Hollywood mom, who though she didn’t push her daughter into engagement with a movie star knows to have a thing for very young girls, she certainly enabled it when she had a chance to stop it. Kevin Kline is perhaps not the perfect choice for Errol Flynn, although he did a decent job of the role and kept it interesting. This is not his story anyway. Dakota Fanning, on the other hand, always seems to get into these roles. She’s playing a girl of 15 who has a fake birth certificate and is actually in the chorus line at Warner Brothers as a pretend 18 year old when Errol picks her out of the chorus and makes his predatory advance toward her. It is a bit creepy of a role, and I was never quite comfortable watching it, although I suppose since it’s really her mother’s view of the story, we have no way to know what’s true and what is the mother’s fantasy of the whole thing. All in all, it’s a bit slow, and painful to watch, and is not superbly done, but for an independent film, and a biography of the glory days of Hollywood after all, it’s not all bad. After watching the film, I researched some of the facts, and it seems like it was rather devastating time for Beverly, and despite her pleas to her mother, Florence just had to go through with the book for the fame and notoriety. It is a tragedy and a love story, and I don’t think any of the people in the story can be totally blamed for what happened, even the old lecher Errol Flynn himself who really seemed smitten by the girl, and certainly had the means to make it happen. This is a look at the seedy side of the old Hollywood studio days when movies were king.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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