Something about Kate Winslet’s face, all that food preparation and the sedate pace of HBO’s mini-series made you almost forget: this is meant to be film noir. It all comes bubbling to the fore in the fifth (and final part) and we’re reminded that author James M Cain also penned Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. After last week’s anaemic instalment, we are firmly back in the world of seedy deals, murky motivations and the creeping darkness of the human soul. Yup, it’s not all cupcakes and chicken lunches at Mildred’s.
 

As if she wasn’t forewarned enough, Mildred is told again at the outset that daughter Veda is "snake, is bitch" by her thickly Italian accented music impresario. By now Veda has left home and her singing career, as a coloratura soprano, is really taking off. She is still estranged from Mildred but that is about to change.

Meanwhile, a chance encounter sees Mildred stumble over her old beau Monte Barragan (Guy Pierce) and shortly after giving her a real estate tour of Pasadena, she quickly finds find herself on the receiving end of an oral pleasuring. By now we get the fact that director Todd Haynes is presenting the sex as frank and natural. What’s lacking is chemistry. Despite several rude couplings (‘it’s not television, its HBO’) the two of them have never really sparked, giving you the impression something is not quite right there; who is using who?

Either way Mildred’s satisfaction leads to a marriage proposal and she agrees to buy Monte’s Pasadena mansion, leading to financial strains and ultimately, a properly twisted ending.

As we’ve said all along, it all hinges around Darth Veda but unlike earlier in the story, the final round gives Veda’s action a real sting. Monte is instrumental in bringing Veda back into the maternal bosom to celebrate their wedding. After which Mildred gets all dewy-eyed again about her daughter; losing focus on her own business to follow and help support Veda’s now burgeoning operatic career. Big mistake.

The two strands that tie all this together, money and love, prove Mildred’s undoing. Her Laguna beach business starts to do badly and she gets threatened by her investors, who ask her why she has supported Veda’s development all this time and now doesn’t get any payback when the 20 year old’s career is bringing in the big bucks? It is a good question.

Before you can say ‘double cross’ the bombshell is dropped. Mildred returns home to the mansion to find Monte in bed with………… young Veda. We knew Monte was flaky and we also knew Veda adored him from when she was very young. The level of cruelty and the explanation Monte gives doesn’t seem to ring quite true. Nevertheless Evan Rachel Wood is given a nude scene; she gets out of bed and moves to the dresser, in full terrible defiance of her mother. It’s not surprising then that Mildred explodes with anger and ends up throttling her daughter nearly to death.

In a way this sequence of events seems to sum up the heart of Mildred Pierce – especially the casting of Kate Winslet. She doesn’t have a cruel face. In a way, she doesn’t have a face for film noir; she is not a double crosser or a femme fatale. So through all of this, you see Winslet’s care and maternal love for the daughter shine through and her decency too. And this is torn to pieces by the duplicitous Veda and her lover.

It’s payback then for Mildred – and for the audience – when she finally breaks her maternal devotion and agrees with first-husband Bert to say of Veda: "To hell with her".

There has been plenty to enjoy in this mini-series: from Carter Burwell's music to a supporting cast that includes Oscar winner Melissa Leo as Mildred’s friend Lucy and Brian O’Byrne as the, ultimately, decent Bert. Plus nice snippets of 1930s dialogue: "Let’s get stinko!".

What is lacking is due to the stately pace of the five part mini-series. It really feels like a twisty, turny 140 minute movie stretched out over five hours. For that reason, you lose some of the zip and sassiness of a true film noir thriller. Of course you still get Kate Winslet’s stately performance and a classy show all round, if not quite a classic.