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Seriously? Is there anyone who likes a remake? Look, I'll admit that ever since I was a child with braids and an anxious expression, I have been extremely resistant to change, but I could count on one hand the remakes that I've actually liked: The Office, Battlestar Galactica, and...I'm out. However, I'm notoriously picky and a bit brain-dead from new mothering, so feel free to jump in the comments and tell me which remakes you've actually enjoyed.
The thing is, this new Mildred Pierce mini-series -- starring the appropriately-eyebrowed Kate Winslet -- isn't just a remake, it's a remake of an old classic. An old classic starring Joan Crawford.
Remember the last time an old classic starring Joan Crawford got a makeover? Yeah, it was called The Women and it sported the likes of Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, and Candice Bergen. Those "saucy," gimlet-soaked trailers and commercials were enough to convince me that I wouldn't taint my all-time favorite movie by paying to see this remake. That was money well-saved, since my little sister told me the movie slapped some serious suckage on the screen.
(Just to give you a little history, The Women's 1939 screenplay was written by Anita Loos [based on a play by Clare Boothe Luce] and starred Crawford and her more anorexic eyebrows (it was only later in her career that those brows started putting on the weight that would make them famous in their own right) along with Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, Joan Fontaine, Paulette Goddard, and so many other greats. Rent it. Rent it now.)
So, what's going to happen with Mildred Pierce? With all its dark themes of a self-sacrificing mother who kicks her unemployed, cheating sadsack of a husband to the curb and sallies forth to support her two daughters on her own -- one of whom is the most ungrateful wench of a daughter you'll ever see -- the 1945 Mildred Pierce marked Crawford's comeback and earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. It was the movie that would define Crawford's career, and now people are already saying that this new Mildred Pierce is instant-Emmy material.
My resistance to change and a fanatical devotion to old black-and-whites aside, I think this remake could work for two reasons: 1. Kate Winslet; and 2. Miniseries airing on cable. While it hasn't been confirmed that HBO is giving this project a home, it's clear that, unlike network television, cable would be able to do much more with remake. Also, Liz Smith at the Chicago Tribune, points out that the length is important, since a six-part miniseries "will include all that could not go into the [original] big-screen version."
Also, just thinking of Winslet getting all angsty while wearing fabulous 1940s fashions makes me drool. Hell, if this all goes through, I might have to loosen the purse strings and start getting HBO again. That is, if they do it right. What "right" means, exactly, I don't know. I'll just know "wrong" when I see it. Like, if they modernize it in the same crass, schlocky way Diane English did The Women (2008).
On the other hand, this could flop, and if it does, it will be a flop heard 'round the world. It won't be like a U.S. Coupling flop, where people just shrug off the inevitability that, before The Office came around, we Americans really screwed up trying to remake BritComs. This flop will be huge simply because it's Winslet and not a bunch of no-names trying to recapture the magic and patter of Friends some nine years later.
Premature calls for Emmy nominations aside, I'm not the only one feeling a bit gun-shy about this new Mildred Pierce. Allison Waldman over at TVSquad says, "Remakes always make me a little queasy. After all, for every success like The Fugitive, there's a debacle like The Wild Wild West." (A-ha! The Fugitive -- there's one I hadn't thought of!)
Kara Jones at ScreenCrave isn't so concerned with how the remake will be done, but more whether it should be done at all, noting, "...Joan Crawford movies are ridiculously over-the-top, and the plot is a tad, um, dramatic...The movie did well when it came out in 1945, but audiences were much different from what they are now; there is a certain cheese-factor in these movies."
Finally, citing
