Searching For Debra Winger

Arquette - clearly on the receiving end of this treatment - grabbed a video camera in 2001 and decided to ask fellow actresses of her generation for their thoughts of what it's like being a woman in Hollywood. How do you balance the responsibilities of family versus a career? What do you do when the offers start to dry up, when acting is all you've been doing for two decades or more? And when the crappy script gets thrown your way, do you take it because it's your only opportunity in the pipeline, knowing full well that you're accepting an idiotic part in a piece of exploitative junk?

The fulcrum of her thesis is Debra Winger, the once in-demand actress (and still quite sexy) who, between 1980 and 1984, starred in a series of box-office smashes and critical darlings that made her one of the most renown and recognized actresses of her time. Films like Urban Cowboy, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Terms of Endearment, and the wonderful 1993 Shadowlands were huge financial successes and/or Academy Award-nominated fare (this particular reviewer thought she was absolutely fantastic in 1992's overlooked and underrated Leap of Faith, a film that practically nobody saw and everyone should...) Right around the mid-1990s - just around the time Better Than Ezra was hot - Winger pretty much dropped off the map entirely. One of the most talented and appealing actresses of the last few decades was suddenly nowhere to be found.

The result is Searching For Debra Winger, a 100-minute documentary in which Arquette interviews two dozens actresses about the experience of being an aging woman in an industry entirely fixated upon looks and image. The "interviews" are more like round table discussions, in which several actresses sit around the dinner table and informally offer up their thoughts on the Hollywood experience. Included in this film are such diverse talents as Salma Hayek, Vanessa Redgrave, Diane Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, Theresa Russell, Terri Garr, Samantha Mathis, Ally Sheedy, Kelly Preston, Robin Wright Penn, Meg Ryan, Melanie Griffith, Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, Jane Fonda, Laura Dern, and Sharon Stone. Eventually the titular Debra Winger makes an appearance halfway through the film.

My thoughts on Searching For Debra Winger are, for the most part, mildly positive. Arquette has assembled some of the most memorable actresses from the last twenty years, the type that makes you sit up and wonder why in hell some of these great talents aren't getting more work and exposure. Their thoughts and shared experiences about being a woman in Hollywood, while not exactly devastatingly revelatory, controversial, or insightful, still provide for some generally interesting perspectives. Several women come off better than others: Diane Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Alfre Woodard, and of course Ms. Winger offer up the most compelling content, while Sharon Stone, Ally Sheedy, and Meg Ryan appear, in comparison, somewhat glib and lightweight.

The shift occurs halfway through the film. Searching For Debra Winger is a very good hour-long HBO documentary trapped in 100 minutes of raw footage. Arquette's focus turns personal and unfocused in the last half of the film, and it loses steam rather quickly. The most compelling content occurs up to and including her segment with Debra Winger, after which it becomes somewhat meandering and in dire need of some judicious editing. It's a shame that the second half of the film doesn't measure up with its compelling opening half, because when the film works, it works beautifully. Overall, I enjoyed much of Searching For Debra Winger , but it opens briskly and strongly and limps to the finish line with seemingly nowhere to go.

The DVD

Video:

Searching for Debra Winger is presented in its original widescreen theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and has not been anamorphically enhanced. Shot on videotape, the quality of the transfer is reasonably pleasant with some inherent flaws. The videotaped image is somewhat soft and picture lacks strong, vibrant colors, due to the limited resolution of the source material. Contrasts are weak but generally natural-looking. The transfer is clean and well presented, free of compression noise, pixelation, and edge-enhancement. I would say that it's a good transfer of limited source material.

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and presents a satisfactory reproduction of the soundtrack. Due to the nature of this documentary, you aren't going to find a lot of aggressive, immersive material. There are some discrete effects, surround activity, and active LFE utilization that come alive during the film's alt-rock score and to highlight and enhance background/ambient noise, but for the most part this is a front stage, center channel production. Dialog levels are clear and generally bright; since the soundtrack was recorded live, the dialog doesn't demonstrate pristine clarity. However, given the documentary nature of the film, this is to be expected.

The packaging indicated that an audio commentary featuring director Rosanna Arquette was to be included. However, no such commentary was included on this preview disc.