What’s it rated? TV-MA
When? 2025
Where’s it showing? HBO Max
Mariska Hargitay is best known as Detective Olivia Benson on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit series, but she’s also the youngest child of 1950s and early-’60s pinup and starlet Jayne Mansfield, who tragically died in a car accident in 1967 when Hargitay was 3. Using family archives and historical materials, as well as interviews with her siblings, other family members, and those who knew Mansfield, Hargitay directs a fascinating portrait of the woman known as Hollywood’s “smartest dumb blonde.”
There are revelations galore, and I won’t ruin the surprises, but at its heart, My Mom Jayne is a child’s attempt to understand the mother who passed before she got to know her. Mansfield had a complicated legacy. She leaned into her looks and voluptuous figure to make a living in Hollywood, and Hargitay has clearly struggled with public versus private sides of her mother, who was a polyglot and talented musician known mostly for her body.
I came away with a newfound respect for Mansfield and her talents and accomplishments. It’s often a painful journey for Hargitay, but also a cathartic one. What begins as a biography grows into a fascinating mystery, with Hargitay at its heart. Must-watch! (105 min.) Δ
This article appears in Jul 17-27, 2025.