The Collegian

Issue date: 5/10/02 Section: No Limits

About five years ago I remember staying up a little later than I used to, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to watch the tube for a while. An old episode of Saturday Night Live was on, so I sat down and started watching.
Dan Aykroyd was fixing a refrigerator with his butt hanging out of his jeans and off to the side was Bill Murray and some skinny girl with big glasses, cracking up. I remember loving how, when the girl with glasses would giggle, her whole body would move. I later learned that the girl making me laugh was Gilda Radner and that's how I became a Gilda fan.
Last week ABC aired Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, a bio-pic based on Radner's autobiography "It's Always Something," which she finished recording three weeks before her death in 1989 (She was only 42).
The film takes you on a short journey through her childhood as a chubby girl who liked to perform for her dad, to her years as one of the "Not Ready for Primetime Players" on SNL, and finally her hard-fought battle with ovarian cancer.
Gilda Radner: It's Always Something was written by Janet Brownell and directed by Duane Clark. Brownell and Clark are no stranger to television since most of their work has been on made-for-tv movies and shows like The Practice and Dark Angel. Television movies are much different from film, and you can usually tell them apart by style and quality performances.
It's Always Something has a decent look; it uses black and white flashbacks and handheld shots to keep it from looking plain. But there isn't anything innovative about it from a technical standpoint, as is the case for most television productions.
The real magic here is in the performances. Jami Gertz is astonishing. It's unbelievable how much she looks and sounds like Gilda at times. Gertz isn't over the top and she doesn't force it just to get a reaction, she's just Gilda. The rest of the cast is great and what they lack in looking like the person they are playing they make up in sounding like them (the guy who plays Bill Murray was pretty dead on).
It's a shame that the story of an amazing woman like Glida had to settle for a made-for-television flick, but Gertz's performance does her justice. The brilliance of Gilda Radner was her ability to maintain a child-like innocence and still be funny as hell. Gilda Radner: It's Always Something is a little short, but it's also a nice tribute so, "Nevermind."

Gilda Radner: It's Always Something
Director: Duane Clark
Staring: Jami Gertz, Tom Rooney
Rating: TV-14
Grade: ****

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