Postcards from the Edge

Actress Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) is a recovering drug addict trying to pick up the pieces of her acting career and get on with her life after kicking a cocaine-Percodan habit; after Vale overdosed while on a date, her mother admitted her to a rehab center from the emergency room. When she is ready to return to work, her agent advises her the studio's insurance policy will cover her only if she lives with a "responsible" individual such as her mother Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine). Suzanne is very reluctant to return to the woman from whom she struggled to escape for years after growing up in her shadow. The situation is not helped by the fact that Doris is very loud, competitive, manipulative, self-absorbed and given to offering her daughter unsolicited advice with insinuating value judgments while treating her like a child.