Elaine Stritch at Liberty

Grade: D-

{Not to be confused with the Broadway show of the same name, taped for DVD release, which was extraordinary}

I adore Elaine Stritch. Her “Ladies Who Lunch” is a landmark, her “Broadway Baby” definitive. Her one-woman bio show, “At Liberty,” was wonderful at The Public, oddly even more triumphant on a bigger stage when she took it to Broadway. She fills any theater she’s in, and she deserves to be in a big, big theater.

I love the Pennebakers. Their documentary on the recording of the original cast album of “Company” is quintessential for theater queens everywhere , “The War Room” is perhaps the best insider documentary ever made of the campaign trail, “Moon Over Broadway” a hysterically vicious look at self-impressed divas and classy pros on the road to the great white way in an awesomely mediocre vehicle of a show.

What’s not to love about HBO original productions? “Sex in the City.” “Six Feet Under.” “The Sopranos.” “Angels in America.” Need I say more?

Then why does this documentary suck as big time as this one does?

Mayhap because it’s not a documentary at all, but merely portions of Ms. Stritch’s one woman show taped during its final leg in London, intercut with little more than what appears on most DVD featurettes. It appears as though the filmmakers spent a day with her in New York, a day with her in London, added some old photographs to the mix, and thought they had a movie. They don’t. The filmmakers even have the gall to include footage from one of their own prior documentaries in an attempt to fill out the vacuous goose egg they have arrived at here. Not only doesn’t the minimal new footage add anything to the proceedings, much of it also feels forced at best and disingenuous at worst. Any of us who follow the theater remember the drama surrounding Ms. Stritch’s Tony Award of 2002. We know how long she waited for this moment in the spotlight, were moved by how much the award meant to her, and were appalled and aghast when the music played her off before she could finish her admittedly long-winded acceptance speech. The newspapers were filled with backstage melodrama, how she tearily told reporters backstage that the experience was ruined for her, how she no longer wanted the award, how devastating it all was -- this is the larger than life stuff of Stritch legend. In the documentary, we see her win the award, we see her take the stage, we see the start of her touching acceptance speech…and we cut back to a clip of her in performance. Do the people who made this film even know who this woman is or what she does for a living?

On stage, Stritch’s talent explodes – she is a star, and her charisma, charm, guts and pathos flood over the footlights and envelopes the audience. The taped DVD of her one woman show doesn’t quite capture the magic, especially since she seems a wee bit tired and not utterly at her best. Still, for anyone interested in spending an evening with this galvanizing woman – and who in god’s name wouldn’t be – rent the DVD of the entire show and forego this chopped up, utterly pointless rehash.

HBO and the Pennebakers blew it big time on this one. Stritch’s life story deserves so very much more.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0431034/