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Very disappointing...

Great Film overall

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The acting in this movie is really good.

Overly long, pointless, standard issue biopic that doesn't seem to know what to make of Frances Farmer who never was a big film star, but who was apparently a big train wreck, and so is the film. She's portrayed as a victim of the press, the law, the studio, the medical profession and her mother. Hollywood and the world in general appear to exist for the sole purpose of making her life hell. And the sole purpose of the film seems to be to earn an Oscar for Lange by giving her a series of show downs that has her shrieking at and/or physically assaulting any and everyone, and though Lange does indeed resemble Farmer, she's largely shrill and one-note making Farmer look like an obnoxious, self righteous, self appointed martyr; a Lindsay Lohan with delusions of grandeur. The film is a dud and Sam Shephard plays a fabricated character who wanders in and out of the proceedings in an attempt to provide an unfocused script with a sense of structure. It's a mess, and the scenes set in the mental institution recall such camp classics as The Caretakers(1963) and Valley of the Dolls (1967). Kim Stanley who plays Frances' mother gave a powerful performance in The Goddess (1958) as a lonely, unloved, unwanted girl who sought fame as a way to escape her emptiness, but discovered Hollywood was not a cure nor as the film had it the cause of her unhappiness. Frances lacks that insight and observation.

It's incredible that neither Jessica Lange nor Kim Stanley received the Oscar they were nominated for in this gripping film of a true story of a Hollywood actress who didn't make it because of her own over-brilliant personality, getting into conflict with everyone, having problems with adjusting to a society she couldn't agree with from the beginning; and although the film differs slightly from the true story, at large it sticks to the absolute truth at least psychologically. Jessica Lange is just formidable, and this must be her best performance. The interesting thing is that she actually very much looks like Frances Farmer, she was in reality just as beautiful as Jessica Lange if not even more, and her personality in Jessica Lange's impersonation couldn't be more convincing. Her mother Kim Stanley accomplishes a similar feat, and all the other actors tune well in to make this film as perfect a documentary biography as could be accomplished. To this comes the softening and almost seducing music of John Barry gilding the hard lines of the picture and making it more digestible, while my only objection is against the lobotomy ingredient, which is the one departure from reality. Although the terrible nightmare scenes from the asylum had to be included, since they were true, the exaggeration of the lobotomy was unnecessary. Perhaps it was just put there to end the traumatic hospital sequences.Frances Farmer became a legend, and by this film the legend was given an extra injection of continued eternity, and it's a uniquely fascinating portrait of an over-talented actress at odds with a reality, especially Hollywood at that time, that in no way was humanly acceptable.

With all the witnesses and biographies exposing the lies in earlier biographies about her, it is disgusting that a major film would be produced containing so many lies from those false publications. This is a real person we are talking about, not a caricature.For one thing, she never got a lobotomy. And if she had, she would have been a near-zombie, and never gone back to acting, nor gone on to have her own number 1 rated TV program.A truer bio on Frances is available right here on IMDb.Yes, she had troubles, but she was not a Communist, and not an athiest. And though she had friction in Hollywood, she did not run away from Hollywood in favor of Broadway; (she actually walked out of a play bound for Broadway, and returned to Hollywood). In short, she never did half the things depicted in this rather sleezy film.The film is entertaining if you enjoy the shock of foul language, and the violence of squads of cops and psycho-ward bouncers wrestling her all over the place.I prefer to remember the good side of Frances, i.e., her sweet character in Flowing Gold (1940). That was the film that made me interested in her in the first place. I saw the film Frances (1982)out of curiosity regarding her personal life, and came away from it outraged. I cannot recommend it for the foregoing reasons.

Jessica Lange is "Frances" in this 1982 partially fictionalized biography of actress Frances Farmer. Farmer has been the subject of various films and books, including "Will There Really Be a Morning?", a TV movie based on her autobiography, published posthumously.The tragedy of Farmer's life is that she had an independent spirit at a time when, particularly under the studio system, this was not valued. She possibly had some sort of mental or psychological illness, maybe manic depression. She lived at a time when mental illness was not clearly understood; one treatment was to give a patient insulin, which was later debunked. Farmer had that, as well as electroconvulsive therapy. She had difficulties with alcohol, which probably exacerbated whatever she had. She was committed against her will where, according to her autobiography, she endured rape and other indignities.I can't tolerate "biographies" that create fictional characters and don't name famous people. Public personalities can be named in films and books, and legally, they can't stop it. Lauren Bacall tried to stop a film about her and Humphrey Bogart and could not; Elizabeth Taylor couldn't stop a TV film about her life, and no fake names were used. Famous names are changed in "Frances" - Lief Erickson, Lange's first husband, becomes "Dick," and there is a fake character, played by Sam Shepherd, named Harry. Farmer's devastating affair with Clifford Odets remains intact.The other thing I take issue with is the lobotomy. Farmer never had one.The performances are terrific. Farmer was a beautiful, somewhat androgynous looking woman, with a husky voice. There is a strong resemblance between Farmer and the softer, more feminine-looking Lange. Lange doesn't try to impersonate Farmer's voice; she embodies her strong spirit, emotional outbursts, and depressive episodes magnificently. It is a real tour de force. The great Kim Stanley plays Farmer's mother, and she is fantastic. As the quiet, loving, and kind Harry, Sam Shepherd is excellent.Frances Farmer did recapture some of her career. After working several menial jobs, she eventually returned to stage work and television drama, hosted a long-running syndicated television show, and lived quietly. Toward the end of her life, her behavior again became erratic and alcohol again was a problem. She finally died of esophageal cancer at the age of 57. Beautiful, talented, and original, Farmer was a victim of her own terrible demons. While I think that Jessica Lange did her justice, I really don't think that "Frances" did.