Jessica Lange gives a wonderful, believable performance as Patsy Cline. Ed Harris, as her hard drinking, womanizing, and ultimately abusive husband, plays his role to perfection. John Goodman has a small role in the film as Charley Dick's good ol' boy, meat head friend.

The movie shows how this poorly educated, young woman with a throaty and achingly rich voice went on to become one of the greatest crossover talents ever to come out of Nashville. Her flame burned brightly for several years, until it was extinguished when a plane in which she was a passenger crashed headlong into a mountain.

Her music runs throughout the entire film. If you are not a Patsy Cline fan when you first sit down to view this film, then you surely will be by the time you finish doing so. No one sang with more feeling than Patsy Cline, and she evidently lived her life the same way. This is a terrific movie and well worth watching!

18 of 20 found the following review helpful:


Great Performances Make The Film Work  Sep 18, 2003 By Gary F. Taylor "GFT"
Reality is generally more complicated than any motion picture can possibly convey--and such is the case with SWEET DREAMS, the 1985 bio-pic of singer Patsy Cline, which ran into a firestorm of criticism at the time of its release. For Patsy Cline was not a figure from the remote past. She and her life were extremely well recalled by family, friends, and co-workers, and one and all attacked the film as an extremely inaccurate portrait of her, her husband Charlie, and her life and career.

To a certain extent, the validity of these complaints about the film are a matter of opinion. But it does seem likely that the script softened Cline's harder edges and over-emphasized the stormy nature of her marriage in order to cast her in the role of victim. What isn't opinion is the way the film treats her career: it didn't happen like that, and while the film presents her as a great star at the time of her death in truth she had released only a handful of widely distributed records by 1963--and while some of them were big hits, they weren't quite as big as you might think. Even the celebrated "Sweet Dreams" never made it to the top spot on any music chart, and it was not until well after her death that she received full recognition for her remarkable work.

So instead of truth, or even a good approximation of it, SWEET DREAMS gives us the legend, the folk tale of the rough-and-tumble girl with the big, emotional voice who came from no where, married an abusive husband, and leaped into stardom that was cut short by an untimely death. And as legend, the film works very well.

The weak point of the film is the script, which plays largely to a "domestic drama" aspect and tends to smooth out the characters in a "santized for your protection" sort of way. The direction and cinematography are no great shakes either, and ultimately SWEET DREAMS looks very much like a made-for-television movie. But the cast carries it off in fine style. Jessica Lang looks no more like Patsy Cline than I do, and her lip-scynchs to Cline's work is rather hit-and-miss, but she gives a truly memorable performance; Ed Harris equals her in the role of husband Charlie, and together they create a synergy that has tremendous power. The supporting cast is also quite good, with Ann Wedgeworth a standout in the role of Cline's mother Hilda.

And then there is that soundtrack. Even if you've heard all these songs a thousand times, they're still worth hearing again. Patsy Cline was truly an amazing artist. But the film does something odd with them: the bulk of the story is set during the 1950s, but there is not a 1950s-era Cline vocal to be heard in the entire film, everything is taken from her glory years at MCA between 1960 and 1963. And very often it seemed to me that the original scoring of Cline's songs had been replaced with new arrangements.

And that, ultimately, is rather typical of the film as a whole. Just a little change here, just a little inaccuracy there, and while they all seem slight individually, they add up to a fairly significant distortion collectively. The performances make it worth watching, and they bring it in at a solid four stars. But if you're expecting anything more than the glossy legend of Patsy Cline, you won't find it here.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

10 of 10 found the following review helpful:


Great Movie! Great Performances!!  Jan 20, 2003
I didn't know much about Patsy kline or her music before seeing this movie, but when I first saw it about 10 years ago, I was blown away. The performances of the actors, Both Jessica Lange and Ed Harris, were incredible, and although it was a typical hollywood biography (as someone else stated in their posting)it was still a great movie. I have recently purchased the DVD after seeing it on cable the other night. I highly recommend it.

6 of 7 found the following review helpful:


Worth 10 Stars  Dec 29, 1998
I was fortunate enough to obtain this video over the summer and just watched it again. Jessica Lange is perfect as Patsy Cline, Ed Harris accurately portrays her abusive husband, Charlie Dick and Ann Wentworth is sublime as Patsy's mom, Helda. Whether or not you are a fan of Patsy's music, this is an excellent film bio that keeps you interested throughout. How tragic that she was just beginning to really become a big star when she was instantly killed in a plane crash. I've a feeling had she lived, she'd still be singing and a force to be reckoned with. Highly recommended!

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:


Wonderful life story of a rising star.  Mar 24, 2007 By Barbara L. Morris "BeansMommy"
I just can't say enough about how wonderful this movie is.

Even if you are not a big Patsy Cline fan, you will still be mesmerized by this story of her rise to fame.

Back in her day, you actually had to put more footwork into selling youself to the music industry, It wasn't like it is today. You didn't just get famous with a few phone calls and favors down the line. You actually had to have raw talent, the thing so many singers are lacking today, and boy did she have it !!!

Of course, through this movie, it is Patsy's true voice with Jessica Lange lip synching to it.I just love her crystal clear voice. Especially in "Sweet Dreams", "Crazy" and " I fall to Pieces". We also get to hear "Walkin after Midnight" as well as many other favorites.

Her story is pretty intriguing, too. Of her rise to fame, her marriage, her children, and then her sad plane crash.

I really think you will love this as much as I did. And it is a movie you will watch over and over because it is that good.

If you saw, and liked "Coal Miner's Daughter" - You will absolutely LOVE Sweet Dreams !!!!

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