The Star

Bette Davis allowed for every up-and-down in her personal life to play out in some roundabout way in her film career. The through line of All About Eve through What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is only complete when we considered her Oscar nominated work in The Star. A third-rate Sunset Boulevard with lackluster writing way below Davis’ talent, which is watchable but never great. All About Eve showed us an aging Bette Davis who portrayed a woman who loved her craft and was a master of it while prettier and younger up-and-comers nipped at her heels for the spotlight first and love of the craft second. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? offered up Bette Davis and Joan Crawford portraying their rivalry in heightened terms, and Davis as the kind of former-celebrity who can’t live without the spotlight and never really gave it up mentally. The Star shows us the middle portion. She is a washed-up, completely broke actress who will revive her career through sheer force-of-will. (She also takes wickedly funny stabs at Joan Crawford during her screen-test where she plays a spinster as young and sexy, an actress utterly refusing to admit, accept or even act her age or the appropriate age for the part.) Davis’ performance continually threatens to blow apart the whole film. A pity it’s all so cliché and the ending is such a groaner. It sees Davis’ character learn that what she really needs is the nuclear family to keep her together, and the love and protection of a good man. Funny that Davis’ life was antithetical to that. She worked until she died, and screw the men that didn't want her to and got in her way. The Star rightly got her an Oscar nomination, but it never matches her immense talent.