This Sunday the HBO original miniseries Mildred Pierce begins its five episode arc on HBO Canada (see hbocanada.com for a schedule). It stars Kate Winslet as the titular Pierce, a mother who sacrifices her own happiness and tirelessly works to provide her daughter Veda (played with lupine malice by Evan Rachel Wood) with all of the upper middle class frivolity she comes to demand. An adaptation of the James M. Cain novel (rather than a retelling of the Joan Crawford 1945 film adaptation which is much more film noir) it looks like a beautifully filmed take on a complex mother-and-daughter relationship.

Beyond the gorgeous costumes, the film is getting strong reviews from critics. From Emily Nussbaum of nymag.com:

...I did love Mildred Pierce, mostly, for much of its nearly six hours. Haynes has done a painstaking adaptation of the original Cain novel, the story of a middle-class mother betrayed by her viper of a social-climbing daughter. This is not an adaptation of the 1945 movie, with its camp-noir elements and police interrogation (the movie’s violent plot was imposed by the studio). Instead, Haynes has moved the story back into the thirties, giving Mildred’s class anxieties clearer political resonance. He’s also stuck to the book’s chronological structure—which covers nine years (1931 to 1940), not four—and returned the story to its roots as a social-realist weepie, tracing the mutually vampiric bond between the self-sacrificing Mildred and Veda, the object and product of her obsessive love.

...whatever Mildred Pierce’s weaknesses, there’s no denying its sensual dazzle. The script is full of period pleasures: “varlet,” “mush,” “stinko.” You sigh over every dress. Even a close-up of restaurant workers chopping chickens feels like a waltz....

Watch the trailer below, and let us know if you're going to tune in?