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TwoLegsGood says:

Just haven’t had time to watch the MILDRED PIERCE remake but Winslet seems entirely miscast to me in the trailers and outtakes I’ve seen. Also somehow the production design and costumes seem sloppy — perhaps they erred on the side of depression era, holes-in-the-shoes “realism” (but all film is artifice, even a “realistic” style must be constructed, so Haynes loses that battle right there.) Also they shot this in upstate New York as I recall, instead of Glendale, California where it’s set — and where James M Cain set most of his pulps. There is a difference in the light quality (I know I’m being a stickler) between sunny CA and dreary upstate NY.

Speaking of the original novel, I personally believe Cain ripped off IMITATION OF LIFE for his storyline and I was bored to tears by his original (except for the parts about 1930′s California that were interesting to me) that Haynes apparently over-relies upon here. Haynes shot FAR FROM HEAVEN in the roughly the same local but this series has none of his prior film’s stylistic panache. Pretty sure it’s the same p. designer, too. (I shouldn’t go on, haven’t even seen it yet!)

The producer of the 1945 MILDRED, Jerry Wald, was right in my opinion to rip off Billy Wilder’s successful Cain adaptation the year before for DOUBLE INDEMNITY by adding a murder plot to the Joan Crawford version. Trying to think of how Haynes could have infused Cain’s pulp soap opera storyline with anything vital besides the obsession with Veda; the noir murder plot makes absolute sense to me. Don’t forget this mom/daughter storyline was well-traversed territory in Hollywood at that time. Stanwyck had been nominated for STELLA DALLAS a few years before so I’m sure Joan Crawford knew she had a winner of a script, combining the best of both of those Stanwyck films in MILDRED PIERCE and it paid off w/ an Oscar.

But back to Winslet. She’s essentially too sweet for this role, IMHO, a sweetness that infused her performance in THE READER which served that plot perfectly. In contrast, Crawford had, well, balls, and I’m quoting Clark Gable who would have known. Crawford knew Mildred, and she knew poverty, she knew what it was like to be overlooked by favoritism for another sibling. Crawford’s mom was a laundress with a loose reputation — and who favored Crawford’s brother.

Reputedly Winslet said she stopped herself from watching the original so she would not imitate Joan. I love Winslet but I’ll bet it will be a two fold problem, a lackluster storyline and Winslet’s own sweetness that spoils a remake. It will be fun to see Mare W. in the Eve Arden part… Joan without Eve in that role would just go right over the top. Haynes is an exciting director who takes fantastic risks with story and plot so I can’t get mad at him for attempting an experiment like MILDRED PIERCE.