Actresses who got somethin special going on

[Gerald Cooperberg]

It seems like the world is finally catching on to Laura Linney-- a lot of reviews of The Nanny Diaries make reference to her presence "elevating" a mediocre film. I've thought that about her for years-- her performances in The Squid & the Whale, The Truman Show, and You Can Count On Me were indelible. In the review of the new film at the AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/content/cinema/the_nanny_diaries), Scott Tobias says "No actress does brittle quite like [Linney], who specializes in playing composed, professional women who are just a hammer's tap away from shattering into a million pieces." I'm really dying to see her in Jindabyne whenever that makes it to DVD (also featuring the volatile Gabriel Byrne and based on a Raymond Carver short story, gotta be worth a viewing) and even have a little bit of an impluse to go see The Hottest State, even though that's gotten pretty awful reviews.

Cate Blanchett has really been batting a thousand lately, too, it seems. The Aviator, The Good German, Notes on a Scandal, The Life Aquatic... and that's just the last couple of years. Can she class up the iffy proposition that is the fourth Indiana Jones movie? It's hard to imagine that she wont, given her recent track record.

What other actresses are working today that you respect for their talent and their command of their craft?

-Coop

[jim goulding]

Saw Laura Linney years ago on an episode of Law and Order where she took that thing you're describing embarrassingly over the top. But she got it under control. Was "You Can Count On Me" a flick about a brother & sister in upstate New York? That was a little gem! Loved that scene with the priest. That was the director himself, I've read, and the script was awesome in that scene. He wrote it too, I believe. LL was a horse of a different color in "Breach".

Hmmm, how about Helen Mirren's diversity? "Oh Lucky Man" (loved that sucker), "The Cook, The Thief, and the Lover", and "The Long Good Friday", a British gangster flick with Bob Hoskins and a cameo by a young Peter Brosnan as an IRA hitman. That's a good one! Or, Tilda Swinton who, I understand, is coming out with a flick with George Clooney. Can't put my finger on it but she has somethin going on. She was most recently seen as the white witch in "Nardia" with the long name.
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Chloe Sevigny has been it a bunch of flicks, some pretty sleezy, but she can act. I like Jennifer Jason Leigh, too. She smoulders on screen, or maybe it's just in my head.

Give us some more ideas. Maybe, I'll get a few, too.



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