Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

richardhg This is not a review from the head, but from the heart and the gut. The literary genre to which 'Valley of the Dolls', Susann's first book, belonged had been first plowed by Grace Metalious with 'Peyton Place'. Metalious, reviled by the clergy for her steamy exposé of small-town America, nevertheless showed America's huge appetite for literary soft porn, and set the stage for the shock of 'Valley of the Dolls'.So this movie is a fantasy of how the book got written, and got successful, maybe, but if you can stop being a historian, and look at it as a fun romp, then you will really enjoy it. You need to be a fan of Bette Midler and Nathan Lane, but the number of delightful appearances of other well-known faces, all with great acting credentials, makes the fantasy work.What got me right from the outset was Hal David/Burt Bacharach's title song, 'On my way', sung by Dionne Warwick. This team also wrote/performed the title song, for the movie, 'Valley of the Dolls'. Hats off for continuity! And I am a sucker for David/Bacharach songs and Dionne Warwick's renderings. By the way, Amazon customers rate the soundtrack a solid five stars!I have the movie on DVD, and have shown it to women I know. They simply love it. Today, I watched it again. I had forgotten how excellent the music score is, and was again laughing at the humor, and the talented cast. The reason I got it out is because I am taking it up-country in a couple of days. One of the girls wants to borrow it to enjoy with her friends. I have hundreds of DVD's, and this is the only one she called and asked me to bring.

tex-42 Isn't She Great is a terrible movie inhabited by good actors who should know better.Supposedly a biography of Jacqueline Susann, the movie tells us very little about the woman or what drove her. We see her meeting her husband, Irving Mansfield, and absolutely no reason is given as to why they have a relationship. Jacqueline is presented as a struggling actress prior to writing Valley of the Dolls, but both she and her husband live in a luxury high rise, eat expensive meals and appear to spend thousands on themselves without any hint of where their money comes from. We are given some hint that Susann worked very hard to market Valley of the Dolls, while also caring for an autistic son and dealing with breast cancer, but the whole thing is treated in such a campy fashion that it loses its emotional impact. And I can't even begin to describe the horrible scenes of Susann screaming at a tree that she and her husband believe is God.In short, this movie has no reason to exist. Read one of Susann's books instead.

jillmuscat Middle-aged women of the world unite -- and watch this movie! The real-life story of Jackie Susann's meteoric and incredibly unlikely rise to fame is much more compelling than any of the sexploitation novels she wrote.Well into her 40s, Susann had three dreadful strikes against her -- her only child was autistic and institutionalized, her acting career had flopped and then she got cancer. She had ground out a novel about the sex-and-drugs peccadilloes of showbiz types, which was considered junk by any and all established literary standards. But Jackie had a shrewd, intuitive sense of what turned ordinary people on, a flamboyant flair for promoting herself plus relentless energy and ambition. She achieved about a decade of glorious success as top best-selling author until she succumbed to a recurrence of cancer in her 50s.If you like this story line, you'll probably like the movie. It's handled in a high-camp manner, with very broad performances by Bette Midler and the rest. Midler and Lane, who plays her kindly and rather pathetic hanger-on of a husband, are wonderfully funny playing a couple with absolutely no class at all. If you were a kid in the 1960s, as I was, you'll probably enjoy Bette wafting around in outrageous outfits and dos.My only criticism is that this very comic style makes the movie play like an extended, patched-together sequence of comedy sketches, rather than a movie. Also, to enjoy the movie, I think it helps if you're a New Yorker. In NYC, eccentricity has traditionally been not just tolerated but encouraged. Many people from other more staid parts of the country come to New York for this reason -- Susann herself was a New York transplant from Philadelphia. Also, NYC attracts lots of wildly ambitious people vying to make it in the worlds of showbiz, the arts, publishing, finance, etc. So,as goofy as Midler's portrait is, it seemed endearingly familiar to me.

SatJoyceLeslie I really do not understand y everyone i meet says this movie was horrible. I thought it was hilarious. It was not the best movie I ever saw but it was definitely not the worst. It had some incredibly funny lines and the cast, especially Bette Midler was fantastic. The movie is not set in modern day life which is probably y so many people think that it is so out of the ordinary. And it is based on the true life of the writer of Vally of the Dolls. The actually events in the movie might seem unrealistic to some people but that is what actually happened. They did have a retarded son who they practically never saw which is y in the movie u Practically never see him. I thought the movie was great and people need to give it a chance. It is not a golden globe movie but it is definitely a feel good movie that can surly make you laugh out loud.