Todd Haynes and "Mildred Pierce" cast member Evan Rachel Wood take part in a panel discussion during the HBO Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif. in January.Chris Pizzello/The Associated Press
Todd Haynes does not accept that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The iconoclastic film auteur has spent the last two years mounting the epic HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (HBO Canada, Sunday at 9 p.m.), a remake starring Oscar-winner Kate Winslet as the titular heroine - and devotees of the 1945 movie starring Joan Crawford will be hard-pressed to recognize the character.
"The big challenge was putting a fresh spin on Mildred while staying true to the original story and setting," Haynes said at the recent TV critics tour in Los Angeles. "Obviously, she's an iconic character and the first movie was right for its time, but there's nothing creative about retelling the same story with new actors. Our version feels exciting and contemporary."
The original Mildred Pierce was a five-alarm tearjerker that earned Crawford the only Oscar of her career for her portrayal of a selfless mother saddled with a selfish daughter. The HBO version runs roughly three times the length at 5½ hours (airing in five chapters on successive Sunday nights), and is far more faithful to James M. Cain's original novel, first published in 1941.
"The book shocked me, frankly," said Haynes, best known for his intense fifties-era drama Far From Heaven and the offbeat Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. "At its core is the relationship between Mildred and her daughter, but there's another story about class in America and the yearning of the middle class toward aspirations of mobility and ascension. That's rich material for any filmmaker."
As per Cain's novel, the miniseries opens in the dusty suburb of Glendale, Calif., in 1931, during the early days of the Depression. Displaying remarkable courage for the time, housewife Mildred boots her philandering husband Bert (Brian F. O'Byrne), leaving herself with two young daughters to raise on her own.
Winslet's Mildred - in a letter-perfect American accent - dotes on younger daughter Ray (Quinn McColgan) but appears slightly more fixated on her sister Veda, played as a child by Morgan Turner in the first hour and as a young adult by Evan Rachel Wood.
"What fascinated me most when I read the script was this unbelievably intense relationship between Mildred and Veda," Winslet said in Los Angeles. "It does teeter on the brink of obsession, but every mother-daughter relationship is complex for its own different set of reasons. This one was something else, because Mildred didn't know whether to love her or kill her."
Mildred's tenacity allows her to survive - and even thrive - during the dustbowl era. She starts out by selling homemade pies and pastries to the restaurant where she works as a waitress. And with the advice of her ex-husband's business partner Wally (James LeGros), she opens up her own restaurant, followed by two more.
"Mildred is driven because she wants her children to have a better life," Haynes said.
In Mildred's view, a better life means providing her eldest daughter with a sound education and exposing her to the arts - both inroads, she believes, to high society. As it happens, Veda takes to the etiquette classes and opera lessons a little too successfully. By her early teens she's a skilled social climber, constantly at odds with her mother.
"Playing Veda almost killed me," Wood said at the critics tour. "Because the story takes place during the Depression, there's such a focus on class and money. I think it just gets to her in this way that she obsesses over getting out and being in the upper class and not being like her mother."
While Veda sets her sights on breaking into society at all costs, her mother has far more in common with her earthy best friend and neighbour Lucy, played by recent Oscar-winner Melissa Leo, and her fellow waitress Ida (Mare Winningham). By the film's second hour, Mildred and Veda are a mother and daughter already moving in opposite directions.
"Mildred and Veda are very real people experiencing very real emotions," Winslet said. "The most important thing for us was to simply be as pure and as honest as possible."
The story shifts markedly in the second chapter when Mildred finds unexpected romance with the wealthy, rakish playboy Monty Beragon, played by Guy Pearce.
"The heat between the two is immediate," Pearce said. "Monty has had pretty much everything he's ever wanted in life. Then he meets this woman who is very attractive and able and she doesn't have the pretensions and brittleness that other people in his class might have."
The new couple's happiness is naturally short-lived. After a breezy holiday in Santa Barbara, Monty and Mildred return home to a tragedy. From there, the story veers into lurid murder-mystery territory.
Winslet, who appears in literally every scene, commands attention as the embattled heroine, and - for all her differences from Crawford - will undoubtedly earn an Emmy nomination for her performance.
"I feel we've stayed true to the Mildred that was in the book," said Haynes. "The original film was so codified and stylized that you missed the real human nuances and human conditions that made it feel incredibly modern and relevant. I think we did accomplish that."