POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
A film review by Ann Hodgins
Copyright 1990 Ann Hodgins
I once dreamed that I was a Kung Fu fighter fending off several thugs at once on the edge of a precipice. I thought then in the morning how unusual that dream was for a girl to have and I think now what a perfect analogy it is for POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE.
This movie is not the comedy I took it to be from it promotion although it is consistently light and subtly witty. And the promotion also led me to hope for some hot scenes with Dennis Quaid a la THE BIG EASY. No such luck.
But on the positive side, it was not the heavy 'message' movie I feared it would be either, despite its anti-drug theme. There are no heavy themes of life vs. death or good vs. evil. What messages there are to be found in this film are indeed like postcards: short, friendly and to the point.
And rather disjointed. There is no central theme in this movie so it does not build to a grand finale like a Great Work of Art. It is simply a woman struggling through a difficult point in her life against several different but related problems, like my Kung Fu fighter dealing with several thugs at once. And like Robin Hood or Zorro the hero's motto is: be light-hearted, be gallant, don't hurt any one, and laugh in the face of death.
In the movie she fights her problems as they come. Sometimes she seems to fall back and is pushed to the edge, then comes back strong. Sometimes she grabs on to weapon that breaks in her hands. But she is always a fighter. Her habits may be self-destructive but she is determined to win.
The heroine's self image as a *woman* is, I think, the real theme of this movie. It is as though she did not quite pass puberty, but failed it.
She has remained like a pre-pubescent poised to become a woman but blocked from passing over the edge of childhood into womanhood, and the block in her *Mother*. To grow up would be to compete with her overwhelming mother at Her own game.
There is a theory, post-Freudian I think, that a young girl's first love is her mother and to grow up she must instead learn to identify with and to be like her mother. There are scenes, especially the first singing scene, when this dynamic seems clearly to be the heroine's central problem.
But whether or not you find this theme intriguing you will probably enjoy POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE. It is light, interesting and amusing. It has many unexpected twists and surprise: the singing is wonderful!
Ann Hodgins
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