Fierce about Pierce

I don't always agree with everything Liz Smith says, But I sure enjoyed her review of the unnecessary remake of "Mildred Pierce".  She writes, 

"Well, I finally saw the last three episodes of 'Mildred Pierce' and all I can say is — three cheers for Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth (who played the vicious daughter Veda) and director Michael Curtiz, who guided their film to screen history and nabbed an Oscar for Joan.
The new version was close to excruciating as it wound down. Talk about a literal translation! And Miss Winslet appeared to be under anesthesia. Crawford was restrained as Mildred, but what she could do with her eyes and the slightest inflection of her voice. Kate — a brilliant actress, usually — appeared here to have no color, no fire. She was just an impossibly dreary masochist, sacrificing everything for her ungrateful serpent’s tooth of a child — and speaking in a flat, maddening monotone.
As for Evan Rachel Wood, who played Veda — sorry, kid, for low-down meanness, but Ann Blyth was the champ. But enough. That’s just my opinion."