Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business

For starters, I learned much about the Queen of Kiche; also, I learned that she was worthy of a documentary, certainly. Her beginnings in Brazil, her birth in Portugual, this section of the documentary was well done. Clearly this was the strongest section, including how she linked her fame to superfame in the U.S.. She was a Brazilian superstar long before she went to the U.S. Once in the U.S., up she went within weeks, into Celebrity Heaven. But from there, the documentary does become somewhat hazy, creating more questions than it answers. I do agree with one ImDB reviewer: They, like me, wonder how much of a struggle >did< she make, i.e. to break away from the "living cartoon" caricature she'd become by 1944/45? I mean, that was an "out there" demeaning image, and extremely limiting for a singer/dancer. This issue does not come into focus. I found the wistful, spacy narration of the director/producer somewhat pretentious, but at times it worked for me. Yes, I too agree (with another reviewer) that her marriage to the meatheaded producer just rather popped up and hung there. But, I got the impression, that time limitations lock-stepped them into going light on that. She was a serious, family oriented Roman Catholic, and that rules out divorce--and that point is covered. When Ms. Miranda died (1955) divorce wasn't even allowed in major Catholic countries! Dumping Meathead just would have been, to her and family, not an option. Finally, she made choices--she had choices. Some of these are not explained well enough. But, all in all, I don't consider this a weak effort, but a good one. Worth viewing.