I am sure that at some point during her
long-overdue
Reese-connaissance this year, Ms. Witherspoon will tell all on why her
career
took such a downward turn after she won a best-actress Oscar as country
legend
June Carter Cash in 2005’s “Walk the Line.” Maybe to Oprah. Maybe to “60
Minutes.” Probably not Barbara Walters, unless they speak on the phone.
Maybe closer to the time when awards season nominations
begin later this year.
I
suspect that this Southern gal with the
personality of an entire cheerleading
squad, who won our hearts in “Legally Blonde” and scared us half to death
in “Election,” fell into the trap that other trophy owners often do.
They try to
seize the day and capitalize on a chance for a larger payday or grab big
roles
in the wrong type of movies and for the wrong reasons.
Choosing with your business acumen and not with your heart
can be a dicey business. But, to be fair, actresses have a much harder time
than men when it comes to translating the most prestigious showbiz honor in the
world into a long-term opportunity. Just
ask Nicole Kidman or Halle Berry.
But until Witherspoon does open up about such issues beyond
starting her own production company to find pursue better projects for herself,
at least we have three new movies coming out to remind us about her unique
place in the Hollywood firmament that only she can fill.
One of those, “Inherent Vice” directed by Paul Thomas
Anderson, will premiere at the New York Film Festival next month.
But TIFF was lucky enough to snag the other two–”The Good
Lie” and “Wild,” both fact-based journeys–and they provide an interesting contrast on just where Witherspoon is heading
these days.
First thing you need to know about “The Good Lie,” opening
Oct. 3, in which Witherspoon plays a
spirited Midwesterner who takes a trio of displaced Sudanese refugees under her
feisty wing, is that she is a supporting player in the film. Yes, those
trailers are a good lie–meaning, a fib told to achieve a higher purpose.
And that purpose here is to immerse us in the meaningless
and random violence unleashed upon the people of that still turmoil-filled land
from the perspective of those who survived it. For the first 35 minutes, you
will be riveted by four actors who grew up either immersed in or knowing about
such horrors.
The truth that the child performers (whose parents were involved in the civil
wars) and their grown-up counterparts (who are mainly survivors themselves)
provide on screen as they journey 800 or so miles to a refugee camp in Kenya
where they await for asylum in the United States for 13 or so years can’t be
taught in an acting class.
Director
Philippe Falardeau (whose 2011 Oscar-winning “Monsieur Lahzar” vividly
portrayed children dealing with death) wisely keeps
actual scenes of graphic bloodshed off-screen, and relies on the
emotions
and incredible bond formed by his cast to help the audience imagine the
terrifying situations themselves.
By the time the core makeshift family of four refugees take
their first plane ride and land in United States, it is difficult to not
believe these humans who have overcome so much in their young lives will be
able to deal with any obstacle or incident of culture shock that comes their
way, with or without Witherspoon’s persistent employment worker. That includes
facilitating the transfer of the female member of the group who was forced to
go to Boston instead of Kansas City with her brothers.
As for Witherspoon, she has some funny moments doing tequila
shots with a church group volunteer and cutting the line at a customs office,
but she can’t compete with three happy Lost Boys of Sudan hearing the joke,
“Why did the chicken cross the road?” for the very first time.
“Wild,” however, belongs entirely to Witherspoon (who is
also a producer). That is, save for a glorious uplifting turn by Laura Dern as
her mother, a survivor of an abusive spouse whose sudden death from a virulent
cancer sends her character on a destructive path of drug abuse and promiscuity.
Yes, Dern is 47 and Witherspoon is 38. Get over it. You will be
glad that the not-so-elder actress is along for the ride in the flashbacks in the woman vs. nature and herself drama, opening Dec. 5..
In the present day, Witherspoon’s Cheryl Strayed is about
to confront her inner demons after living in a years-long hell of her own making
while hiking 1,100 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. There is plenty of cute
stuff about her character’s ineptitude as a trekker–including the visual joke
that her backpack is nearly twice her size. But the petite actress looks more
like she is ready for gym class than about to encounter rattlesnakes, challenging
terrain, physical ailments (including a wretched infected toenail) and even
potential rapists.
As for the sequences that reveal her rampant drug use,
unfaithfulness to her very sweet spouse and quickie encounters with strangers
(including her first instances of onscreen nudity), let’s just say I had a hard
time buying Witherspoon as a heroin addict no matter how greasy her hair or how
dead her eyes.
While I am sure she will be in contention for the usual
awards for this role, and it is her best movie lead in ages, I left the theater
underwhelmed. When you consider the ride taken by Matthew McConaughey’s
character in “Wild ” director Jean-Marc Vallee’s “Dallas Buyers Club” last year,
this trip pales by comparison. Witherspoon’s character might be doing it for
herself. That’s fine. But McConaughey’s Ron Woodroof did it for himself and
countless other HIV-infected sufferers.
Another problem? I saw “The Good Lie” first. Hiking through
the Sudan with gunners in helicopters shooting at you willy nilly? Now that is
a challenge.
