Lange looked uncannily like Farmer, and had talent to match. I've only seen one of Farmer's films (years ago), but I thought Lange gave her performance of a lifetime in the film biography. Some details are probably not factual; doubts have been raised in recent years, for example, as to whether Farmer actually received a lobotomy during her years in Washington State's mental health system-- but the film biography is not supposed to be a documentary, and I thought it succeeded quite well on its own merits.

I've seen reviews that accused Jessica Lange of being too intense in this role but I suspect that Frances Farmer herslef was probably quite intense.