''Mildred Pierce'' is an American

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

miniseries created by

Todd Haynes Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...

for

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. Adapted from James M. Cain's 1941 novel of the same name, It is about the titular heroine (

Kate Winslet Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Primarily known for her roles as headstrong and complicated women in independent films, particularly period dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Ac ...

), a divorcée during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

struggling to establish a restaurant business while yearning for the respect of her narcissistic elder daughter (

Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She began acting in the 1990s, a ...

). The miniseries also features

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. List of awards and nominations received by Guy Pearce, His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy Film Aw ...

and

Melissa Leo Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and two Critics' Choice A ...

. It is the second adaptation of the novel, after the 1945 film noir produced by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

and starring

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, 190? was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion-picture cont ...

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has frequently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. He has also scored films by other directors such as Bill Condon, Todd Haynes ...

wrote the original score for the miniseries. ''Mildred Pierce'' aired on

from March 27 to April 10, 2011, consisting of five episodes. It received a limited audience but gained positive reviews, especially for the performances. At the

63rd Primetime Emmy Awards The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in prime time television programming from June 1, 2010, until May 31, 2011, were held on Sunday, September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the ...

, the series was nominated for 9 awards, winning 2: Outstanding Lead Actress for Winslet and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Pearce.

Synopsis

''Mildred Pierce'' depicts an overprotective, self-sacrificing mother during the

who finds herself separated from her husband, opening a restaurant of her own and falling in love with a man, all the while trying to earn her spoiled, narcissistic elder daughter's love and respect.

Cast

as Mildred Pierce *

as Monty Beragon *

as Veda Pierce (

Dilber Yunus Dilber Yunus (; zh, 迪里拜尔·尤努斯, Pinyin: Dílǐbàiěr Yóunǔsī; born October 2, 1958) is a Uyghur lyric soprano with coloratura technique. She has been called the "Philomela of China," in reference to the Athenian King Pandion I's ...

and

Sumi Jo Sumi Jo, OSI (; ; born 22 November 1962) is a South Korean lyric coloratura soprano known for her Grammy Award-winning interpretations of the bel canto repertoire. Life and career Early life and education Jo was born Jo Su-gyeong in Ch ...

as her singing "voice") *

Miriam Shor Miriam Ruth Shor (born July 25, 1971) is an American actress. She gained prominence for her performance in the Off-Broadway rock musical ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' (1998–2000) and in the 2001 film adaptation of the same name. She later sta ...

as Anna *

as Lucy Gessler *

Morgan Turner Morgan Jeanette Turner (born ) is an American actor best known for playing Martha Kaply in the Jumanji (franchise), ''Jumanji'' franchise. Personal life Turner attended Methacton High School in Fairview Village, Pennsylvania. Turner is Non-binary ...

as Young Veda Pierce *

James LeGros James Le Gros () (born April 27, 1962) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in '' Living in Oblivion''. Career Le Gros starred in Gus Van Sant's film '' Drugstore Cowboy ...

as Wally Burgan *

Brían F. O'Byrne Brían Francis O'Byrne (born 16 May 1967) is an Irish actor who works and lives in the United States. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his role in the miniseries '' Mildred Pierce'' (2011) and won a BAFTA TV Award for his role in ...

as Bert Pierce *

Mare Winningham Mary Megan Winningham, known professionally as Mare Winningham ( ; born May 16, 1959), is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe ...

as Ida Corwin *

Hope Davis Hope Davis (born March 23, 1964) is an American actress. Her performances on stage and screen have earned various awards. She made her film debut in Joel Schumacher's '' Flatliners'' in 1990. She then starred in the critically acclaimed films ...

as Mrs. Forrester *

Quinn McColgan Quinn McColgan (born January 31, 2002) is an American actress from Delaware, who has appeared in five feature films, four TV shows, one TV movie and a short. Her breakthrough role was in the TV mini-series ''Mildred Pierce'' as Ray Pierce (the ...

as Moire "Ray" Pierce * Waltrudis Buck as Mrs. Temple

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (; born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series '' Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy Award nominations and two G ...

appears as a nurse in two of the episodes.

Filming

Parts of the miniseries were filmed in three

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

locations:

Peekskill Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, north of New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across f ...

, Point Lookout and Merrick.

Reception

''Mildred Pierce'' received generally favorable reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

it has an approval rating of 81% based on reviews from 58 critics, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Loyal to its source material to a fault, ''Mildred Pierce'' compensates for its familiarity with elaborate production values and a knockout lead performance." At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the miniseries has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 69, based on 28 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". In a

WBEZ WBEZ (91.5 FM) – branded ''WBEZ 91.5'' – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, and primarily serving the tri-state region of the Chicago metropolitan area. It is owned by Chicago Public Media and is f ...

podcast on the best theatrical films of 2011, critic

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

used the series as an example of television work that was on par with the year's best movies, calling it Haynes' best work to date.

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive and liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, includ ...

called it a "quiet, heartbreaking masterpiece", while ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reviewer, Alessandra Stanley, commented that while the miniseries was "loyally, unwaveringly true to James M. Cain's 1941 novel", it did not "make the most of the mythic clash of mother, lover and ungrateful child", and was "not nearly as satisfying as the 1945 film noir". Novelist

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

, reviewing ''Mildred Pierce'' for ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

'' and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', praised the acting of Winslet, Pearce and Wood, and admired the show's attention to detail and structure, but complained that the five-hour adaptation was "too damn long". He finishes with, "Winslet’s Mildred is a genuine star turn. How Joan Crawford would have loathed her." The series was shown out of competition at the

68th Venice International Film Festival The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August and 10 September 2011, at Venice Lido in Italy. American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actre ...

in 2011.Entertainment news
''Herald Sun''

Ratings

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* * {{HBONetwork Shows 2010s American drama television miniseries 2011 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings Great Depression television series HBO television dramas Primetime Emmy Award–winning television series Television series set in the 1930s Television shows based on American novels Television shows filmed in New York (state) Glendale, California Television shows set in Los Angeles County, California Adaptations of works by James M. Cain