Sickeningly sweet. Yeah, that's the first phrase that comes to mind when I think about this film. And, while you might immediately assume I am a heartless soul for not particularly liking this film, I do occasionally like tear-jerkers and sentimental films. However, to me this film went way over the edge to the territory of "sappy".
The scope of the film was not bad--showing the evolution and life of this character over time. And technically it was a very pretty film--the cinematographer did a wonderful job of filming the star and making her seem, at times, radiant. But, it was so heavy-handed and lacked subtlety when it came to her child. In some ways, for this very same reason, I am not a huge fan of another Stanwyck film, STELLA DALLAS--though it's MUCH better than SO BIG!. Sorry to be the dissenting voice, but the film just didn't do it for me.
The scope of the film was not bad--showing the evolution and life of this character over time. And technically it was a very pretty film--the cinematographer did a wonderful job of filming the star and making her seem, at times, radiant. But, it was so heavy-handed and lacked subtlety when it came to her child. In some ways, for this very same reason, I am not a huge fan of another Stanwyck film, STELLA DALLAS--though it's MUCH better than SO BIG!. Sorry to be the dissenting voice, but the film just didn't do it for me.