Don't listen to the negative reviews

Admirable film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

In 1931 Seattle, sixteen year old Frances Farmer (Jessica Lange) wins a national essay competition with an anti-God speech. It attracts the attention of political activist Harry York (Sam Shepard). She turns to acting. She gains success but chafes at the studio system. She leaves Hollywood for Broadway but that is no better. She returns to Hollywood to make B-movies. She falls into alcoholism. Her disturbed behavior gets her arrested. The court puts her under the control of her mother (Kim Stanley). She is forced into mental hospitalization where she's abused. There is a lot of over-dramatic fictionalization. It detracts from realism but it also allows Lange to do some amazing acting. She's given a really wild juicy role and eats it right up.

This biopic of Frances Farmer traces her life from outspoken teen to Hollywood starlet, followed by long periods of mental illness and barbaric treatment in institutions.Jessica Lange is magnificent as Frances; her performance is riveting and heartbreaking. Sam Shepard co-stars as her lover and Kim Stanley is excellent as her mother.It is never clearly established whether Frances was really mentally ill or just a very high-strung and hard-to-handle alcoholic. The conditions she faced in the asylum were brutal and these scenes are very unpleasant.The whole film is a treat on one hand, as the acting is flawless. The story, however, is unceasingly grim, depressing and exhausting and I won't watch it again.

I have to say that "Frances" was far from being an enjoyable film to watch, but that certainly doesn't mean that it wasn't fascinating, as well."Frances" is a harrowing bio-film that chronicles the tragic life of 1930s movie star Frances Farmer who brazenly snubbed the Hollywood power-structure and wound up being involuntarily committed to an insane asylum where she was subjected to horrific treatment, including repeated rapes. (Farmer was eventually lobotomized, at the age of 35, thanks to the legal power of her crazed mother)Even though "Frances" is an exceptionally well-crafted film, with a superb performance by Jessica Lange as the title character, this is a cold and extremely depressing movie where we never learn to understand the reasons behind Farmer's apparent self-destructive tendencies.Released in 1982, "Frances" is a chilling motion picture that clearly shows us a truly dark and, yet, very real side of Hollywood.If you are at all interested in learning more about Frances Farmer's life, there's a book that's worth checking called "Shadowland", which was written by William Arnold.

A towering performance is depicted by Jessica Lange in her Oscar nominated performance for best actress in 1982. It could only take a Meryl Streep of "Sophie's Choice" to beat her out.Lange is absolutely shattering and mesmerizing as the actress who had everything and gave it all away courtesy of mental illness.There are some parallels here to the great "Ill Cry Tomorrow" of 1955. Both Lillian Roth and Jessica Lange had domineering mothers who ruined their respective lives. Both women never were suited nor wanted the life of the Hollywood jet-set.Lange does an outstanding job as a non-conformist whose tragic life can never be forgotten.The picture also depicts a very sad state of mental health in this country during the 1930s and 1940s. The institutions themselves were nothing more than factories turning out unsatisfactory human products.Kim Stanley merited her supporting nomination as Farmer's over-possessive mother. Ironically, Lange beat her out for the supporting award that same year for "Tootsie."Sam Shepherd is equally effective as the love of her life during all her trials and tribulations. Non-conformist Clifford Odets really comes off as a traitor to non-conformity.