Bright Lights is a memorial to the tenacity of Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
Evaluating Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds would have been a much different task just a couple weeks ago. In late December, the titular mother and daughter died a day apart from one another, and it’s impossible to watch Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom’s film without those circumstances weighing on every frame. This chronicle of their relationship brims with as much tragic irony as it does joy. Take, for instance, when Fisher says, “My mother really wants me to be an extension of her wishes, an extension of her.” That comment both speaks to the intensity of their closeness and is irremovable from the context of their deaths, with Reynolds’ so quickly following Fisher’s. The documentary now functions as an unintentional memorial to the tenacity of these women and the fraught and powerful love they had for one another.
But even without the sadness that now floods Bright Lights, it would still be a classic of its kind. It recalls the equally entertaining late-in-life portraits of wonderful, vicious broads like Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work and Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me; they all serve as reminders that we have to hold onto our icons tight and listen to their stories before they leave us. Many of the tales featured in Bright Lights will, naturally, be familiar even if you’re a passing a fan of Fisher and/or Reynolds. You might already know the story of how Reynolds and Eddie Fisher were America’s Sweethearts before he dumped her for her friend, Elizabeth Taylor. You’re also likely aware that Fisher struggled with drugs and her mental health. Extensive archival footage takes the viewer into the manicured, long ago past, while Fisher and Reynolds open the doors to their homes and minds.