Remaking a classic film is always a bit risky, not to mention pointless. Remember Gus Van Sant’s 1998 version of “Psycho”? Didn’t think so. And approaching an Oscar winning-performance by someone as indelible as Joan Crawford is simply beyond daring.

The good news about HBO’s new five-part miniseries “Mildred Pierce” (8 p.m., HBO) is that it allows Kate Winslet a chance for an exhausting, masterful portrayal that makes you forget all about Crawford. She’s in practically every scene, a feat that all but rivals Vivien Leigh’s equally dominant role in the nearly four-hour “Gone with Wind.”

For all of her screen time, Winslet never hits a false note. Her Mildred is a force of nature, a Depression-era divorcee who becomes a business empress and restaurant chain owner with sheer smarts, determination, hard work and vision. She’s Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey all rolled up into one during an era when most women couldn’t even open up a checking account that wasn’t in their husband’s name.

All the same, she’s ultimately done in by her voracious physical appetites and her devotion to the wrong playboy (Guy Pearce, whose palpable heat in scenes with Winslet is worth the price of admission) and her devotion to her selfish daughter, Vida (Evan Rachel Wood), one of the most hateful and ungrateful female characters ever created on the page or portrayed on screen.

Directed by Todd Haynes (“Far from Heaven”), “Mildred Pierce” is awash with period effects, costumes and lush art direction. In great movies, such details serve the purpose of artful storytelling. Unfortunately, in this “Mildred Pierce” you have a lot of time to appreciate all that 1930s furniture, wallpaper and underwear because the miniseries moves at a glacial pace. It’s too l-o-n-g and it’s too s-l-o-w and when it does get moving, it proceeds in ways that can seem jarring.

“Mildred” offers many good performances between belabored scenes of drapery. Melissa Leo brings a 1930s sass to Mildred’s one true friend and confidant. And Mare Winningham does the same as a waitress who always seems to have Mildred’s back. Until she doesn’t. But the film really belongs to Winslet and to Wood and Pearce as her daughter and lover and betrayers.

The real mistake was to adapt “Pierce” as a miniseries, a genre given to epic novels of vast scope, spanning decades and generations. James M. Cain’s “Mildred Piece” was a great read, an influential book and shocking for its time. But it’s not “War & Peace,” or even “The Winds of War.” It’s perfectly suited to a two-hour movie. Fans of Haynes’ belabored and indulgent approach may feel they can’t get enough. But art sometimes demands that less is more.

Tonight’s other highlights

• Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): corporate tax havens; a haven for children maimed by war; legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley.

• “Nature” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings) showcases pelicans in the Australian outback.

• A Martha Stewart comedy special? Now I’ve seen everything. Stewart hosts “Men Who Make us Laugh” (7 p.m., Hallmark) showcasing Conan O’Brien and Seth Meyers.

• Natalia’s kidnapper makes a rash confession on “CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS).