November 14, 2002

WOMEN WE LOVE – HOLIDAY 2002 EDITION

I love writing in the royal “We.”  This is direct steal from Esquire, though this version is not publicist friendly.  It just occurred to We one day that there are some great performances by some great actresses that deserve a little extra attention this season.

There are, of course, a lot of actress we love that aren’t on this list.  In some cases, they just don’t have movies out this season.  In other cases, they don’t have a particularly outstanding role.  And sometimes, they just didn’t fit into the arbitrarily numbered list of ten.  For instance, Toni Collette is great in About A Boy (summer disqualification) and does a wonderful spot in The Hours, all glammed out in 50s gear (too small a role d.q.).  And likely Oscar nominee Diane Lane is a Goddess for all seasons… just not this one.

These ten performers leapt off the screen and into our collective heart.  In alphabetical order:

Claire Danes – The Bright Spot. Ms. Danes’ self-imposed career hiatus to study at Yale has proven to be a great choice for her acting so far.  Not only has she been in great demand, but her youthful on-screen tendency to look pained and always on the verge of tears has been replaced by a saucy, aggressive, womanly tone.   Cross her on screen and Claire Danes might kick your ass.

Next year, she’ll fill the screen space that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s muscles do not, in T3: The Rise of the Machines.  And this summer, we got a dose of Danes as Sookie in Igby Goes Down.  Her romantic drama opposite Joaquin Phoenix, directed by The Celebration director Thomas Vinterberg, It’s All About Love, could turn up any time.

But this holiday season, we’ll have to put up with just a little Claire.  She plays Meryl Streep’s daughter in The Hours.  And, as is her new style, she grabs all the light when she walks into a scene.  (Truth be told, the part isn’t much bigger than Toni Collette’s… but Danes won the slot with her turn in “Igby.”  We reserve the right to break our own rules.)

Hope Davis – The Secret Storm. Perhaps transition is a theme in this feature.  Ms. Davis has had a long, healthy career as an indie actress.  But this year, she has back-to-back turns that take her, as To Sir With Love might have it, from crayons to perfume. 

Davis turned up as a woman with sexy secrets of her own in The Secret Lives of Dentists, a Toronto premiere that was should put Alan Rudolph right back up there on the list of top actors’ directors in the game. 

Her turn in About Schmidt, as Warren Schmidt’s (Jack Nicholson’s) daughter is likely to be one of the under-appreciated wonders of this holiday season.  Davis brings a weight to the role as a woman who is probably making a mistake, but who is strong enough to fight for her right to make it.  Nicholson is likely to take home the Best Actor Oscar for his role and Kathy Bates will get attention for both giving a great performance and for taking her clothes off on camera here.  But Davis helps keep the whole thing on path. 

Viola Davis – The Great One.  Viola Davis has a Tony Award.  She exploded into my consciousness with her turn on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent last season.  And now she is in three, count `em, three, major awards-seeking films this holiday.  She is in support in all three films, but she makes a big impression in all three.

In Solaris, Davis plays Gordon, the voice of rationality in a situation that reaches beyond human imagination.  Gordon is the driving, demanding, strong one on board the space ship… you know, the woman.  She is also the only one who can maintain perspective.  She manages to do this in just a few brief scenes. 

In Far from Heaven, Davis plays the housekeeper, Sybil.  It’s a role that could easily be demeaning.  But David and writer/director Todd Haynes make the most out of a very small role.

Finally, Davis plays a pivotal role in Antwone Fisher.  She only appears in the film for about two minutes.  She says almost nothing.  But her turn is so powerful that a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world.  In an era of chatty performances, Davis’ near pantomime is one of the best bits of acting you’ll see this year.

If she weren’t black, Davis would be having features written about her as “the next Kathy Bates.”  She has that kind of on-screen power.  And, as Bates has proven as well, great roles find actresses who can have that kind of impact on screen.  Expect Davis to take home her first Oscar before this decade ends.

Judy Greer – The Thinking Man’s Babe.  Ms. Greer jumped into the movie scene as the frump turned vixen in the otherwise unmemorable Jawbreaker in 1999.  She paid her own way to Sundance to be a part of the film’s promotion.  And she hasn’t stopped working since.

Starting with a turn in David O. Russell’s Three Kings, Greer has quickly become the girl most likely to be hired by the really smart directors to be the lanky object of lust for their male lead.  Russell, Mike Nichols and this season, Spike Jones, have all fallen under her spell.  And all have hired her to go topless.  That might seem like an odd form of praise, but Greer’s angular features and lithe body are not the norm for Hollywood sex objects.

But Greer is more than just another sex object.  Whether playing neurotic, shy, sweet or mischievous, she makes every scene she shows up in fly.  In Adaptation, she plays a waitress who plays three completely different emotional ranges and convinces us that all three are inside of her.  And perhaps that is the unique skill of Ms. Greer.  She is Eve Arden in an era in which Eve Arden actually gets the guy.

Nicole Kidman – The Real Actress – Satine, Kidman’s character in Moulin Rouge, couldn’t feel too far from home for Ms. Kidman.  Men see her as an object and she really wants to be a serious actress.  A stellar turn in To Die For wasn’t fully appreciated, as it turned somewhat on her sensuality.  The Others was a genre film.  And Eyes Wide Shut didn’t deliver what audiences expected.  But as Virginia Woolf in The Hours, Kidman does a movie with the legendary Meryl Streep and legend-building Julianne Moore and she delivers the most powerful of the three lead performances.  That’s no small feat.

Cynics will point to Kidman’s cosmetic change in the film, her eye color softened and her nose made imperfect.  But it is Kidman’s performance… the depth and range of her performance… that is a revelation.  Kidman doesn’t rely on her looks or any of her other acting habits in this role.  She breathes differently.  And she is sensational.

Next, she’ll appear in the first of three films with Dogme director Lars von Trier.  She headlines the next Robert Benton movie.  And she was Anthony Minghella’s choice to spend time with on Cold Mountain. 

Kidman still has to prove her box office worth, but her acting talent is no longer an issue open for discussion.  She may be one of the most beautiful, but she is also one of the best.

Julianne Moore – Silk.  For a while, it was unclear whether Ms. Moore would ever be appreciated for more than going pantless in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts.  Movies like Roommates, Nine Months and Assassins made it clear that Hollywood was calling… but with what?  Moore turns up in a “big” movie now and again.  But the list of her performances… just her great performances… is now too long to ignore. 

This season, she is in two roles that could end up with Academy Award nominations.  In The Hours, Moore plays an unhappy housewife in the overly happy 1950s.  And in Far From Heaven, she plays… ooops.  But the amazing thing is how different these two performances are. 

In The Hours, Moore is a pregnant mother who is right on the edge of an emotional breakdown.  She is small and fragile. Baking a cake is an ordeal.  Getting through the day is an ordeal. 

In Far From Heaven, her character is restrained by suffocating social boundaries, but she is charming and lively and bold as she enters into a surprising period in her life.  Moore plays the hostess with the most-est.  And when things change, she changes.  Or at least, she is willing to try a new direction. 

There is also a third Julianne Moore… the one who turns up on the talk shows and brings a real, earthy, non-actress charm to the table.  Most actors maintain the façade.  But not Moore.  She seems to tell it like it is.  And what could be a more charming trait in a movie star?

Samantha Morton – The Salt Of The Earth. The Academy got the joke right away.  Sweet & Lowdown was Morton’s first real exposure in America and she got her first Oscar nomination for her role as a mute woman who loves Sean Penn’s character in spite of himself.  The U.S. indie world fell in love with Morton as well after her turn in Jesus’ Son. 

This year has found the ever unrecognizable Morton continuing to widen her range.  In Minority Report, she played a “pre-cog” named Agatha.  We get to experience her first real exit from the manufactured womb that they have created in order to take advantage of her skills.  In Jim Sheridan’s In America, Morton plays a regular gal and an extraordinary mother and wife.  She and her family have just arrived in America – NYC specifically – and start rebuilding their lives.  The film premiered at Toronto and will arrive in American theaters this March.

Her role in Lynne Ramsey’s Morvern Callar is her first true lead to be seen in this country.  She plays a confused young woman in search of something.  But for Morvern, the search is the thing.  She is happy, infuriating, pathetic, giddy, sexy, angry and more.  She is a complete character.  And always feeling, feeling, feeling her way through every new adventure.

Miranda Richardson – The Chameleon.  Trying to convince people that the same actress played the seductive IRA terrorist in The Crying Game and the deeply pained mother and wife in Damage was not easy.  She won the NY Film Critics Circle Award that year for both performances and her role in Enchanted April to boot.  She lost the Oscar – her nomination was for Damage – to Marisa Tomei in one of the greatest years for supporting performances by an actress ever.  (We miss you, Judy Davis.)  Richardson was just 34 years old.

Ten years later, Richardson hasn’t aged a day.  In a parade of great actresses, Richardson shines as Virginia Woolf’s sister, more than holding her own with the high-flying Nicole Kidman.  And in David Cronenberg’s latest,  Spider, Richardson appears in three roles, care of Spider’s (Ralph Fiennes’) splintered psyche. 

Richardson is one of the greats and one of the least appreciated.  She’s always played older than she is.  And she’s always given as good as she ever got.  Priceless.

Maggie Smith – The Grand Dame – At 68 years of age, Dame Maggie has never been sharper or more fun to watch work.  Last year, she stole the show from a mansion full of great Brit actors in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park and was key to that film getting a Best Picture nomination.  She is one of the main characters in the Harry Potter series, a far happier school marm than Miss Jean Brodie ever was.   

With all the flying cars and dying Dumbledores, it is far too easy to forget the amazing Mr. Smith.  She’s been Denched for the last few years, but I’m still looking forward to that one great role.  There has to be one.  Someone has to be able to write out there!  Maybe a “Grumpy Old Women” series or something with Julie Taymor.  I don’t know.  But don’t forget Dame Maggie.  Not for a minute.

Meryl Streep – Accent-dental Perfection.  For a while, it seemed like Meryl Streep couldn’t do a movie without being from some odd country.  When a dingo wasn’t stealing her baby, she was making a terrible choice or hanging out of Africa.  Then, 12 years ago, it all changed.  Postcards From The Edge, Defending Your Life and Death Becomes Her were not only in straight American English, but Streep was tickling our funny bones.  Big hits with The River Wild and The Bridges of Madison County followed.  And then, she became the mother of teens in movies… and things got quiet.

Streep is back and she is as glorious as ever.  She has two choice roles.  She is the near-lead in The Hours.  (The film is split somewhat evenly between the three lead actresses.) She plays Clarissa, a modern day Mrs. Dalloway, who is trying to give a party on which fate is not shining.  Streep plays an unstoppable energy that when slowed becomes as energetic about her life’s deep pain.

In Adaptation, she plays the real-life writer, Susan Orlean.  But she gets to play Orlean as seen through the prism of Charlie Kaufman’s psyche.  She is tight and cautious and wary.  And then, she is loose and sexy and hysterically funny in the way every man wants a woman by his side to be funny.  At 53, Streep is sexier than ever.  She may have added a few wrinkles, but he lifelong lines are as sleek as they were in Julia, 25 years ago. 

E ME:  Who would be on your list and why?