Directed by: Graeme Clifford
Starring: Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, Kim Stanley, Jeffrey DeMunn, Bart Burns
Frances is the story of Frances Farmer, a mostly obscure actress from the 1930s whose career was derailed just as it was beginning to shine. Farmer, as portrayed in the movie, was a woman who defied the Hollywood system and pissed off the powerbrokers, leaving her unemployable and alone. Her marriages and relationships failed due to either her self-destructive tendencies or factors not within her control. If not for bad luck, Frances Farmer would have had no luck at all. She was treated for insanity and she clearly wasn't, even if Farmer herself became convinced she was. Farmer died in 1970 at age 56 as a mostly forgotten, lobotomized actress who hosted a quiet talk show in Indianapolis, but stayed clear of the spotlight. Or perhaps the spotlight stayed clear of her.
There is a good movie to be made from this, but Frances never gathers any dramatic momentum. It becomes a slog. The movie becomes a dull pattern of Frances going to treatment, either escaping or being released, getting into trouble again, and back to treatment again. She is in and out of mental institutions mostly because the people in her life didn't know how to handle her strong will and rebellious behavior. Frances may have been a pain in the ass, but that doesn't rise to the level of mental illness.
Jessica Lange was Oscar-nominated for Best Actress for this role. She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Tootsie the same year. She has a lot of heavy baggage to lift in Frances and she is up to the task. Lange is truly a superior actress. We begin to realize that Farmer would have been more at home making movies in the 70's, 80's, or beyond. Her polarizing personality was not a good fit for the studio system of the 1930' where studio moguls ruled with an iron fist. Frances begins with Farmer as a teenager, creating a maelstrom of controversy over an essay contest where she preaches atheism. One of the audience members damns her to hell. A few years later, Farmer returns to her hometown where her movie is premiering and is welcomed with open arms by the same woman who cursed her. Farmer calls her out on it. It's a satisfying payoff.
Farmer has a habit of hooking up with the wrong guys, including a first husband pretty boy looking to further his career and ultra left wing playwright Clifford Odets (DeMunn), who betrays her at a key moment. These relationships are introduced but are over before the movie can delve into them. The only guy in her life she can seemingly get along with is Harry York (Shepard), who becomes her occasional fuck buddy and materializes whenever something truly bad happens. The whole York character is a distraction. It's as if he instinctively knows when to show up in Frances' life and disappear just as quickly. Is he on call? Is he a psychic? Is he a guardian angel? More like a plot device representing a voice of reason in Frances' world of turmoil. This York fellow has "fictional or composite character" written all over it. He is like a Corsican brother to Frances who can somehow sense her despair and pain from wherever he is.
Kim Stanley, also nominated for an Oscar for this film, is a strange case also. At first, she is a supportive mother who turns into a monster forever condemning her daughter to institutions. What caused her 180 degree turn? When did she turn into such a villain? The movie never explains. Scenes explaining her may have been left on the editing room floor. But mostly she seems threatened by her daughter's rebellion.
At one point, Farmer is lobotomized and she becomes a quieter, gentler soul until her death. The epilogue says, "Harry York was not there when Frances died. Frances died as she had lived...alone." Talk about shameless. Even though Frances was misunderstood and tragic, this wouldn't make her any easier to tolerate. Maybe York wasn't a psychic after all. Or maybe he was just sleeping on the job.
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