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Thursday, August 27, 2009
Don't Walk Away, Renee
Renee Zellweger

Over at Thompson on Hollywood, blogmeister Anne Thompson has some advice for Renee Zellweger, whose career has sailed slowly into the doldrums so often encountered by actresses of a certain age.

I know some readers are allergic to Zellweger, whose chipmunk charm is not universally beloved. (Consider Jezebel's Women Who Women Love to Hate.) But I've very much liked her since I saw her in The Whole Wide World (1996), in an astonishing turn as Novalyne Price, the real-life 1930s Texas scribe who gets involved with Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian. Shortly after came Jerry Maguire, where she brought pith and marrow to Cameron Crowe's Manic Pixie Dream Girl (cf: Kate Hudson in Almost Famous and Bridget Fonda in Singles). While I haven't liked RZ in everything, sure liked her dramatic depth as the daughter in One True Thing, her comic frivolity as  Bridget Jones, her send-up of Doris Day in Down With Love, her brittle Roxie Hart in Chicago and that Ma Kettle character she played in the otherwise tepid Cold Mountain.

As everyone knows, 40 is a dangerous age for actresses -- including Meryl Streep, who muddled through She-Devil and Music of the Heart before re-emerging -- much to her surprise -- as both Actress and Movie Star in Adaptation, The Devil Wears Prada, Doubt, Mamma Mia! and Julie & Julia. Similarly, Diane Keaton foundered after 40 until she found Nancy Meyer -- who created Baby Boom, Father of the Bride and Something's Gotta Give for her All it takes is one good role -- think of Susan Sarandon's Annie Savoy in Bull Durham (she was 42) -- to transform an aging babe into a bankable goddess. Sandra Bullock is having a very good year with The Proposal and buzz is promising on her next film, All About Steve. Diane Lane has found a niche in starting-over films Under the Tuscan Sun and Nights in Rodanthe. Would that Angela Bassett, Michelle Pfeiffer Meg Ryan and Zellweger find the right material.

Are you a Zellweger lover or hater? Favorite role? Career advice?

Posted by Carrie Rickey @ 12:41 PM  Permalink | 11 comments
Comments   
Posted 01:07 PM, 08/27/2009
edwardcopeland
I've mostly liked Zellweger. I think she won for Cold Mountain because she was the only thing in the movie that could keep you awake. I think Bridget Jones may be her best. The one actress who seems to quietly keep doing her best, though she doesn't set the box office on fire, is Emma Thompson. Of the others you mentioned, Pfeiffer sort of sabotaged her own career by turning down good part after good part and taking bad ones instead. Saying no to Thelma & Louise and The Silence and the Lambs but then making dreck like I Am Sam? I hope Holly Hunter can come back now that her TV series has been canceled.
Posted 01:11 PM, 08/27/2009
John Brumfield
I agree about "The Whole Wide World" and it is my favorite Renee flick. Vincent D'Onofrio was her co-star and equal in this very touching movie. Too bad it's not more well-known.
Posted 01:22 PM, 08/27/2009
jonc
I liked her in Nurse Betty. One reason why Bullock is faring well over 40 (and even over 30) is that she produces her own films. Zellweger and other actress of a certain age should follow suit.
Posted 01:24 PM, 08/27/2009
CPven
I mostly don't like Zellweger, mainly because I cannot get past her facial features, particularly her eyes. Isn't that an awful thing to admit?! I did like her in Jerry Maguire: it was well written and she was an excellent foil for Tom Cruise. I loved Bridget Jones but I still saw Renee Zellweger, not Bridget Jones. Ms. Zellweger never seems to be able to sublimate herself. As for being 40, would one ever know were it not for the publicity mill? She's thin and perfectly toned and she wears stunning clothes, which is a great deal more than one can say for three-quarters of the 20 somethings.
Posted 01:26 PM, 08/27/2009
garyk
Although I think Renee does well when she's playing cute in films like MISS POTTER, she was badly miscast in APPALOOSA. I remember being wowed by her in LOVE AND A .45, though. Career advice: She's got to work out her cuteness which has served her well in the past, and start doing better as a femme fatale.
Posted 01:26 PM, 08/27/2009
garyk
Although I think Renee does well when she's playing cute in films like MISS POTTER, she was badly miscast in APPALOOSA. I remember being wowed by her in LOVE AND A .45, though. Career advice: She's got to work out her cuteness which has served her well in the past, and start doing better as a femme fatale.
Posted 01:47 PM, 08/27/2009
carrierickey
Well, GaryK, the role she played in Appaloosa was that of a femme fatale. I thought she was terrific and Stanwycky in that part of the dame in lady's clothing.
Posted 02:19 PM, 08/27/2009
wwolfe
I thought she was terrific in "Down with Love," which seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of movie. She was good in "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Jerry Maguire." I haven't seen too many of her other movies, now that I think about it. I think a big part of her problem is not simply that she's pushing 40, but that she's still seen as an ingenue. Getting older in Hollywood is tough for any actress, but it's just about impossible for one whose public persona remains - fairly or not - that of the ingenue. Given her facial features - she's someone who is almost invariably described as "cute" - I'm not sure she can get past this problem.
Posted 05:09 PM, 08/27/2009
MojoMama
Just saw Appaloosa the other night on HBO & thought she was good, not as obviously devious on the surface as she turned out to be. I think, as much as her "cute" looks, her girlish voice (except in Cold Mountain) might be holding her back from the more mature roles.
Posted 05:16 PM, 08/27/2009
carrierickey
Yes, MojoMama, Zellweger has one of those baby-doll voices -- like Melanie Griffith and Joey Lauren Adams -- that suggests the opposite of maturity. When she played Bridget Jones, the voice was richer and deeper and more adult.
Posted 07:16 PM, 08/27/2009
Pash
Carrie- Count me in as a fan of Renee in "Appaloosa," but I tend to like everything about that film. Anyway, for where I sit, that was one of the better recent female roles and Renee really tore into it. I also liked her in the sloppily released and hastily dismissed "New in Town," which is much closer in spirit to a Doris Day-Rock Hudson movie than the shrill "Down with Love." -J
11 comments
About Carrie Rickey

Carrie Rickey has been The Philadelphia Inquirer’s film critic for 21 years. She has reviewed films as diverse as Water and The Waterboy, profiled celebrities from Lillian Gish to Will Smith, and reported on technological breakthroughs from the video revolution to the rise of movies on demand. Her reviews are syndicated nationwide and she is a regular contributor to Entertainment Weekly. Rickey’s essays appear in numerous anthologies, including The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, The American Century, and the Library of America’s American Movie Critics.

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All blog items posted before May 23, 2008, can be accessed at http://blogs.phillynews.com/inquirer/flickgrrl/.

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