Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is probably one of the most telling titles for a film in recent memory. Having been the "face" of plastic surgery, and being both an inspiration and an annoyance for millions of people, truly make Joan Rivers a piece of work.

Giving filmmakers Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg full access to her life for one year, Joan begins the film questioning where she fits into the entertainment landscape. Her schedule is near empty, having lost gigs to the likes of Kathy Griffin; she simply doesn't have the draw she used to. At 75, she's lived a full life, and Stern and Sundberg give us a history on what she's done to maintain the success she's achieved.

With footage from her guest appearances on shows like Johnny Carson and various archival pictures, we see the rise of a woman who wanted to be a serious actress, but her side job doing comedy became her calling card. Soon, she was one of the most desired comedians in the industry, paving the way for all female comedians that followed.

Today, it's a different story. Rivers has an elaborate home full of memories, even keeping a wall of files that house every joke she's ever written. But in addition, she sustains a life of opulence, showing no shame for wanting to live a life of comfort and extravagance.

The problem with the film, then, is how we perceive Ms. Rivers herself: if she's that hard off, she could sell one of her fancy lamps and probably have enough money to live on for a year. In that sense, we don't feel bad for her. Therefore, we become annoyed with her constant bitching about how hard her life is because she "doesn't matter" anymore. She claims to want to perform until she's dead, but given that she's 75 years old, perhaps she should give herself a break.

A Piece of Work ends up being compulsively watchable, but it's also a missed opportunity. For example, while Joan is candid about her plastic surgery, we never get into her psyche to discover why she continues to do it. When we see famous comedians roasting her on national television, and each one of them takes a crack at her plastic surgery, we wonder how it really is affecting her. Clearly there is a self-esteem issue, so how then does she survive the onslaught of barbs from her peers?

In addition, during a show, a heckler becomes irate at her joke where Helen Keller was the punch line. "My son is deaf!" he exclaimes. Joan proceeds to go off on him, explaining (with the use of a number of expletives) that she is there to do comedy, and we need to laugh at things in order to survive.

After the show, she is seen heading back to her car, stating that the man was really upset and she understood it. "He's had a hard time..." Unfortunately, this brings us another missed opportunity: how does she defend screaming obscenities at a heckler, and then admitting she understands why he was upset? Does she have remorse? Does she still defend her reaction? We never find out.

Then again, Joan Rivers is a piece of work. Maybe we are here to observe and report, not to understand.

- - -

Screening at the 2011 Seattle International Film Festival
http://www.siff.net/