Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story (2001)

In fairness, I will admit that I gag every time I see the overly cute one-note Shirley Temple on screen. the comment by Daryl Zanuck that they needed to give her something to do rather than grin and wink was right on. He could have added swinging her arms from side to side as if she was running a marathon. I found Shirley Temple to be a very limited child actress with some talent for tap dancing, but her entire acting ability seemed to be saying "Oh my goodness!" and frowning. I realise that she was simply doing as directed and the studio was not going to change her while she was making money, so she was not entirely to blame.The film suffered from casting an 11-year old girl with none of Shirley Temple's cuteness and cheerful face, but who looked like a young Bette Midler and sported oversized adult teeth. Her mugging and grimacing was painful to watch, and the baby doll dresses barely covering her panties were more Lolita than Shirley. Unfortunately, this was exactly what the studio did by fudging her age and dressing her as a toddler until they could not keep up the pretense any longer. Just watch her in Heidi or The Bluebird as a young teenager tries to act as if she was 7 and you will understand. To her credit, the real Shirley Temple got out of the business and lived a productive life as a housewife, mother, politician and later US Ambassador.Ashley was old enough at the time of filming to have played Shirley Temple at almost 15. Just restyling her hair, dressing her in a ball gown, wearing high heels and casting a short actor as her date would have been sufficient. Casting a different actress was jarring. One extremely disturbing scene was the birthday party thrown at the studio by the head of Fox, Darryl Zanuck, where Shirley is presented with a toy car. Having seen the Godfather where a similar scene evolved into a scene indicating that the child star had later been sexual molested, with the complicity of her mother (which was cut out of the theatrical release) I felt there was an implication of sex abuse in addition to the exploitation of child stars.By far the better parts of the film were the cameos of famous Hollywood moguls, insiders, agents and directors who shamelessly wheeled and dealed to exploit the maximum profit from their commodity, and like ruthless hedge fund managers and corporate acquisition specialists today, did not hesitate to drop her when the public tired of her and they were losing money. I would have preferred to see a lot more of the Zanuck, Schulberg, Schenk, and Mayer child star trading. A very small cameo which stood out for me was the brief John Ford appearance. Overall, the film was redeemed by supporting cast and the brilliant dancing of Mr. Battle as Bojangles Robinson.

Totally dreadful movie. The worst part is Connie Britton's portrayal of Gertrude Temple. She sleepwalks through this movie as if she is in a trance. Her "soothing calmness" becomes terribly grating after awhile to the point where I quit half way through the film. Ashley Rose does a tepid portrayal of Shirley Temple. The only interesting "drama" in this picture was how Fox studios was struggling to pay the bank, otherwise, Shirley's success is portrayed as being effortless . This just makes it all very boring, even nauseating.Combine that nausea with the trance like monotone of Britton's and you get something that becomes unbearable.

Child Star was professionally done. The movie had so many memorable song and dance routines amazingly done by Ashley Rose Orr and Hinton Battle. The connection between Shirley and her mother (played by Connie Britton of Spin City) and Shirley and Bojangles felt real and loving. It is a family movie that can be enjoyed by young and old. My family loved the movie. Ashley is very talented. I look forward to seeing her in more movies. She makes the movie fun and she really Sparkles!

I am fourteen and I wasn't born in the US. I knew that Shirley Temple was THE actress in the thirties, but not much more. Then I saw the ad for this film and decided to watch it. It was good. Except for one thing: Ashley Rose Orr doesn't have Shirley's talent, charm, or sweetness. She acted like a kid trying to be Shirley. But I had never seen a true Shirley Temple movie. I rented Poor Little Rich Girl. Forget Child Star! I'm watching the real thing. I am also proud to say that I now own six Shirley Temple (The Little Colonel, A Little Princess, and four of the short movies she did at the age of three, including Dora's Dunkin Doughnuts) movies myself and know about her life as a child actress. To me, she is THE child actress. She deserved a lot more than an honorary Oscar. But she was a kid. And grown actors don't like pint sized talent! My Grade : Shirley's real movies: A++Child Star The Shirley Temple Story: D-