September 14, 2026
By Janis Cole
The title tells only part of the story that Mariska Hargitay covers in her deeply moving debut feature documentary about family history, family secrets and family love. While the title shines a spotlight on Jayne Mansfield and portrays her admirably, the crux of the story rests squarely with Hargitay.
Hargitay felt a need to make the film for two main reasons; to get to know the mother she couldn’t remember after Mansfield was killed in a car crash when Hargitay was a preschooler, and to unburden a closely guarded family secret about her biology that she’d been carrying around for half her life. The strength of her film is the well-constructed narrative, which relies on getting to know her mother first, before unearthing her ancestral roots that ultimately rewrites her family history.
The first half of the film focuses on the making of a 1950s Hollywood icon. Hargitay not only had little memory of Mansfield, she was embarrassed by her mom’s highly sexualized screen persona. It upended her to the point of pushing any connection to her mom away, with a fierce determination to be nothing like her. However, fans never let her forget. She was sent cards and letters about her mother that she kept in a large binder, and which forms part of the ephemeral in her film.
The plethora of archival, home movies, photos and publicity videos from the 50s and 60s is a filmmakers dream, and Hargitay’s three older siblings; Jayne Marie, Mickey Jr. and Zoltan generously fill in details about Mansfield’s home life away from the cameras. Jayne Marie remembers fun-filled years as the only child, before second husband Mickey Hargitay — the most stable and career supportive of her three husbands, came into their lives. Mansfield’s pursuit of a Hollywood movie career had not yet reached the recognizable blonde bombshell saturation that would follow. There have been plenty of sensational books, columns and bios on Mansfield who died at 34, which makes Hargitay’s well crafted discoveries of her mom’s human complexities all the more compelling.
The film wastes no time deconstructing age-old Hollywood myths about Mansfield, to reveal hidden dimensions of her life without ever losing sight of her shortcomings. Hargitay learns about her mother’s wish to be a serious actress and her difficulty to reach that goal when 1950s and early 60s Hollywood executives packaged her sexy image, not her acting talent. To earn a living she bought in, and excelled, becoming the most photographed Hollywood actress at one point. Success came at a personal cost however to the woman who played classical violin and piano, even performing violin on the Ed Sullivan Show. She was fluent in five languages, balanced motherhood duties with a demanding career and chased her ambitions without apology. Mansfield was smart, talented and leading the way for women to succeed on their own terms before it became more common in the late 60s — with the unfortunate drawback of having been firmly planted in the Marilyn Monroe-esque screen-siren ‘box’, that despite her efforts was impossible to shake.
As years passed and her dream to play serious dramatic roles faded she went through depression, substance use, affairs, marriage breakups and intimate partner abuse. When the sex symbol movie roles dried up she reinvented herself as a nightclub entertainer. It was when leaving a nightclub in the early morning hours on her way to the next engagement, riding in a borrowed car with a young driver that she was killed. Hargitay was 3, and her two brothers, 6 and 8. They all survived the crash and went on to have a stable and loving upbringing with their father and his second wife, Ellen Hargitay. It’s here the narrative seamlessly pivots to Hargitay’s lineage, and the film becomes increasingly captivating as revelations of her family history fall into place.
Mansfield had four children with three husbands and became pregnant with Hargitay during a short, intense affair, which became a fiercely concealed secret in favour of Mickey Hargitay publicly taking on the paternal role. Hargitay masterfully uncovers the long-held secrets of her family’s past that she’d guarded for thirty years out of loyalty to the father who raised her. How she unravels these pieces while keeping Mansfield’s dignity intact makes this part of the film particularly memorable. She visits her biological father Nelson Sardelli and two half sisters in what feels like a comfortable beginning to know them better over time.
The film gives audiences insight to Mansfield’s fulfilled, and unfulfilled dreams. It succeeds in presenting a complex woman and family history revelation in a well structured, compassionate narrative that is engaging from start to finish.
By stepping into the director’s chair Hargitay gives Mansfield the full portrait and dignity she was denied in life. She is no longer embarrassed by her mother’s image and instead embraces her memory with compassion and respect. Unburdened of secrets she is living a poetic irony; fulfilling the serious actress dream her mom could never realize, and then some.
The past two years have seen a creative shakeup to Hargitay’s featured role of 27 seasons as Detective/Captain Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU. After Co-producing and directing the documentary she performed a starring, solo role in Every Brilliant Thing, her first time doing a Broadway play, and tonight she takes on another first, hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards. All this along with learning she has more in common with her mom than she ever could have imagined.
2025, 105 minutes, HBO. Winner of Outstanding Documentary and Outstanding Documentary Direction, Primetime Emmy Awards. Director/Co-Producer: Mariska Hargitay. Producers, Cast and Crew: IMDB. Editor: J.D. Marlow. Available on Crave where I saw it, HBO and Apple TV.
My Mom Jayne, official trailer.
If you enjoy My Mom Jayne I highly recommend a Canadian film with similar themes and a vastly different story approach, Stories We Tell made by Sarah Polley. I saw it fourteen years ago and thought it was brilliant.
A few words about Sarah Polley’s filming style and narrative layers in Stories We Tell.
Stories We Tell, Canadian, NFB, official trailer.