David Thomson

“The Rose … is not a great film. It offended some people because it was not competely Janis Joplin, because the music was not always "authentic," and because the atmosphere at the concerts was "wrong." No matter. Bette Midler--who was nominated for best actress Oscar in what was really her debut--was remarkable: without ever being conventionally beautiful as movies measure that myth, she was pretty, appealing, sexy, needy, disturbing, and repellent. There was a commitment to the performance and the singing that legitimately carried the film. To be so good so far out on a limb is a way of indicating how "uncastable" a player may be. Ms. Midler ran into very difficult times from which she has only emerged as a comic, camp gorgon--often very funny, and usually defiantly likeable. But ther is a hurt in her cocky grin, as if to say we have let the rose wither. . . .

David Thomson
A Biographical Dictionary of Film
Third Edition, p. 508