Isn't She Great (2000)

25% of critics liked it
(61 reviews)
41% of users liked it
(2,541 ratings)

Jacqueline Susann spent a long career on the edges of show business as an actress and model, but it never really paid off until she quit acting to write her first novel. Valley of the Dolls was a proudly sleazy potboiler that sold 26 million copies and had readers wondering which characters matched… More Jacqueline Susann spent a long career on the edges of show business as an actress and model, but it never really paid off until she quit acting to write her first novel. Valley of the Dolls was a proudly sleazy potboiler that sold 26 million copies and had readers wondering which characters matched up to which real-life show-biz figures. Susann wrote several other successful novels, but fame and fortune didn't make her life any less tumultuous; she had well-publicized problems with drugs and alcohol and a series of free-wheeling affairs, although she stayed with her husband Irving Mansfield until her death in 1974 at the age of 56. Isn't She Great is a screen biography that focuses on Susann's roller-coaster literary career, with Bette Midler as Susann and Nathan Lane as Mansfield; David Hyde Pierce, Stockard Channing, John Cleese, and Sarah Jessica Parker round out the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Andrew Bergman
Written By: Paul Rudnick
Genres: Drama, Comedy

In Theaters: Jan 28, 2000 Wide
On DVD: Jul 18, 2000
Studio: Universal Studios Home Video

Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy, Variety
The most notable aspect of this trashy (but unenjoyable) biopic of Jacquleine Susann, Valley of the Doll's best-selling author, is its running time (93 minutes); Bette Midler and Nathan Lane give two of their worst and broadest performances.
Susan Stark, Detroit News
A sluggish, joyless attempt at comedy.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
The movie is a stinker, but it's not an enjoyable stinker.
Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The filmmakers don't know what to make of their overblown subject.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Isn't She Great is an oxymoron.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Here is a movie that needed great trash, great sex and great gossip, and at all the crucial moments Susann is talking to a tree.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
Midler's character is empty, boring, selfish.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Every joke and every scene collapses and blows away before it's finished.
James Sanford, James Sanford on Film
gives its heroine all the rough edges of a throw pillow... Susann couldn't write sentiment convincingly and neither can Rudnick.
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
Isn't She Great is so bland and sentimental, it makes trash seem boring.
Steve Rhodes, Internet Reviews
Probably a bad idea from the beginning, and nothing in this movie convinces us otherwise.

Read all 11 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Sunil J

Interesting for the pop culture history but otherwise not so great.
Robert F

Not the screaming camp-fest I expected. Most of the time I was feeling really bad for Jaquie. The best scene was when she cracked it at God.