Remarkable, inspirational, beautiful, stylish, glamorous, determined, driven, resourceful, complicated, obsessed and self-centered. All are words that describe 93 year old actress, personality and force of nature, Mimi Wedell, who is the star of “Hats Off” the new Canobie Films Production documentary from filmmaker Jyll Johnstone.
“Hats Off” is a fascinating story about working New York City actress, Mimi Weddell, who only differs from the thousands of other hopeful and ambitious actresses in New York City in that she only began pursuing her acting career fulltime at age 65 after the death of her beloved husband, Dick. “Hats Off” spends 10 years gathering footage of Ms. Weddell, now in her early 90’s, and following the determined Mimi through her daily life of cattle calls, auditions, photo shoots and following a punishing physical regime which would exhaust most people a third her age.
Mimi’s drive to succeed and be a working actress have not been without results, as she has landed many featured character roles in TV and film including Sex and the City, Law and Order, Across the Universe, Hitch and The Purple Rose of Cairo. Mimi has also been a popular and glamorous model in many print ads for companies such as Luis Vuitton, Burberry, Juicy Couture and Nike.
Mimi has “risen above” a lot in her life, including having to become the family breadwinner when her husband lost his job, his resulting breakdown and finally his death years later. Mimi also has had to rise above her own propensity (and her husband’s) to live beyond her means. Mimi matter-of-factly talks about not ever having money, as if it were just part of her lot in life. She seems incapable of comprehending that expenditures like the weekly Elizabeth Arden visits, sending her kids to a posh prep school, insisting on a lavish coming out party for her daughter and buying designer clothes and hats, etc. just might account for the fact that she and her husband never had any money.
But as with any person who is as driven and determined to achieve there is often a downside in their personal relationships. For Mimi, it is the complex relationship she has with her children. While they clearly admire her every bit as much as we come to, Mimi is very judgmental of children and can’t see her influence on them. They are exasperated and frustrated by her disapproval of them and what she sees as their less exciting and more ordinary lifestyles than her own.
She describes her children as being “earthbound”, meaning they do not reach for the stars as she does. She is not able to see, as we as outside observer do, that her children are actually very much like her, in that they stubbornly pursue their own more traditional career interests no matter what anyone else say. In that way, they are very much like their mother.
“Hats Off” is a wonderfully entertaining and engrossing documentary of an extraordinary person taking control of her life and pursuing her dreams. But it suffers from what all documentaries do that so closely follow one specific person – when we are following someone’s real life in real time, the possibility of a story without an end is highly probable.
While “Hats Off” is absorbing and engrossing for the first three quarters of the film, it begins to suffer and drag a bit in the 3rd act. It feels forced when Mimi suddenly makes a “lifelong dream” trip to Florence (which she hasn’t even mentioned up to this point). Because of this, the trip seems to come out of nowhere and seems occur for no other reason than to give the filmmakers a more interesting climax and resolution to Mimi’s story. But up until that point, “Hat’s Off” is an appealing and intimate portrait of a one of a kind woman.
As I watched “Hats Off”, I began to fall in love with Mimi – a witty, fun and scrappy “old lady”, happily chatting about her life (with Marlene Dietrich-like cigarette holder always in one hand) telling entertaining anecdotes about her life, career, children, and her life philosophy “rise above it.” Mimi is a charming and beguiling woman who loves being the center of attention and loves to entertain. Watching “Hat’s Off” is like spending the afternoon in a coffee shop chatting with her about her extraordinary life. Her daily routine and her drive to achieve made me feel like a slacker who needs to get off my lazy duff and start chasing after my dreams the way that Mimi has. Because for crying out loud, if there is one thing Mimi proved, is that it is (literally) never too late!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mimi inspires a whole generation of over 60 women to pursue their unfulfilled dreams.
ThinkyMay 7th, 2008 - 18:27:41
This sounds absolutely fascinating. New York is full of characters, and Mimi is clearly one of them -- but it's the family relationship aspect described in your review that really has piqued my curiosity. I'll be watching for this.
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