{alltv} HBO, Winslet take 'Mildred Pierce' mini to the max

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Every part of pop culture does not want to be high art. Take Mildred Pierce, the James Cain novel best known to most Americans through Michael Curtiz's 1945 big-screen adaption, which won an Oscar for Joan Crawford.

In typical '40s Hollywood fashion, the movie cut and condensed Cain's book, throwing out some parts and throwing in a film-noir dictated murder.

It's not true to its source. It's not art. But thanks to Curtiz and Crawford, it's a ripping good time — and it's such a perfectly constructed bit of popular entertainment, it transcends the pulp nature of its story.

Enter HBO, Kate Winslet and co-writer and director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), uniting for a new Mildred (Sunday at 9 ET/PT; * * out of four) that sticks far more closely to the book. Extending for five hours over three weekly segments, this luxuriously produced miniseries is so gorgeous, even in its re-creation of the Depression, that it practically shimmers.

It's also slow to the point where "languid" doesn't even begin to do it justice. Insomniacs should snap up the DVD release the instant it's available.

You almost have to pity Winslet, who crumbles under the double burden of conquering memories of Crawford and carrying an overlong, obsessively detailed movie. (Do we really need to see precisely how Mildred makes her pies?) She's a technically proficient actor, and all the individual scenes make sense, from the long periods when Mildred is long-suffering to those moments when her resentments boil over.

It's a lovely performance, but it's all brains and no guts — and no glory.

Like it or not, Mildred Pierce is a star turn, as witness the HBO publicity campaign that trumpets Winslet is, not "as," Mildred Pierce. And when it comes to being a star, well, Winslet is no Crawford.

The story, with its strains of class warfare and maternal delusion, remains the same. Dumped by her husband in the middle of the Depression, Mildred struggles to support her children, including the alarmingly pretentious Veda (Morgan Turner as a little girl, giving way to Evan Rachel Wood for the last two hours).

She starts her own business, opens her own restaurant, and gets involved with a handsome gigolo (Guy Pearce). But no matter what she does or gives, nothing is ever good enough for Veda, whose growth into a world-class opera star only fans her disdain for her mother.

You can see what might have attracted the filmmakers to the material. Despite its Depression setting, Mildred's tale reverberates through time, from her battle to overcome economic hardship to her foolish grasping for social status and material wealth that threatens to destroy everything she fought so hard to build.

Yet by also asking us to take this sometimes operatic story far more seriously than the original did, it also raises an unsolvable problem. Despite the best efforts of Turner and Wood (who is wonderful), Veda is an impossible character: ludicrously snobbish as a child, ridiculously shrewish as an adult. (It's like she dropped in on the family from some planet of female Little Lord Fauntleroys.) Yes, parents sometimes have a blind spot for their children, but Mildred's inability to see through Veda makes her not just sightless, but a sap.

Even so, Mildred is not without its pleasures. There's sex and nudity, and strong supporting performances from Melissa Leo, Brian F. O'Byrne and Mare Winningham. And it's not like it's pushing the original aside: The old Mildred is still there, playing on cable and available on DVD, whenever you choose.

So save yourself a few hours and choose it.