Halle Berry did it in 2002. Charlize Theron followed suit in 2005. And now it seems Helen Mirren will be using the power that comes with an Oscar for evil rather than good.
There are numerous quality films still to open this holiday season, but you won’t see last year’s Best Actress winner Helen Mirren in “Atonement,” or “Youth Without Youth” (the latest work from Francis Ford Coppola), or even in Tim Burton’s manic musical “Sweeney Todd.” You’ll find her in “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”
It was just one year ago that Mirren not only won best actress, but also the Screen Actors Guild award and a Golden Globe for “The Queen” as well as an Emmy, another Golden Globe and yet another Screen Actors Guild for her television work on PBS and HBO.
So what in the heck is one of the most talented women in Hollywood doing in a generic action movie sequel starring the faltering Nicolas Cage?
Call it the Oscar curse.
After becoming the first black woman to win best actress for her turn in “Monster’s Ball,” Berry followed up by playing empty sexpot Bond girl Jinx in “Die Another Day” ““ not to mention “Catwoman.” Theron captured the gold after “Monster” but followed it with the little-noticed “North Country” and the highly hyped bomb “Aeon Flux,” based on the MTV animated show with no plot that seemed to serve no purpose other than getting Theron in black spandex for two hours.
One of my absolute favorite actresses, Kate Winslet, has been nominated five times but still has no Oscar atop her mantle. Maybe it’s precisely because she hasn’t won yet that she’s been motivated to continue picking such plum roles ranging from the outspoken Clementine in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” to the restrained suburban Sarah in “Little Children.” It could also be that Winslet simply has a great eye for scripts, as opposed to less insightful Hollywood players such as recent best actress winner Nicole Kidman, who has starred in bomb after bomb after winning for “The Hours” in 2003 (“Stepford Wives,” “Bewitched” and “Invasion” just to name a few).
For someone like Mirren especially, a film like “National Treasure” might serve as a welcome respite from the heavy-hitting period dramas and character profiles she’s known for ““ a chance for her to stretch her wings in her own unique way. However, after Berry and Theron made the switch from serious fare to big explosions, their eventual return to the former went almost virtually unnoticed by critics and fans alike.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say you don’t remember “In the Valley of Elah” and “Things we Lost in the Fire,” Theron and Berry’s recent releases this past fall, respectively. Both were expected to make some waves with critics, but after receiving lackluster attention from audiences and subsequently slipping out of theaters in the blink of an eye, neither seems to be in critics’ memories as the best bet for nomination, no matter how great the film or how mind-blowing the performances.
Maybe these dismissions from the various critic’s associations are a form of punishment for two actresses who crawled their ways from bland commercial fare (Berry’s “The Flintstones” and Theron’s “Sweet November”) to complex, interesting characters in their respective award-winning films, only to turn their backs on the latter altogether. Maybe it’s just a general law of gravity that, just as all things that go up must come down, once your name gets called on Oscar night, the worst is yet to come.
But then again, what about two-time winner and 14-time nominee actress Meryl Streep? Is she an example of a past generation of actresses? For while Mirren may be close to Streep in age, Streep has been in the limelight and in the critics’ favor for four decades, while Mirren’s first Oscar nomination only came in 1995. Or is Streep simply an exception to the current rule?
While Mirren may be having her fun now, who knows what’s going to happen the next time she comes around hoping to be taken seriously.
But then again, with all the awards taking up space in Mirren’s home, talent is something to never underestimate. And in the land of boob jobs and stunt doubles, even if it involves a movie about kidnapping the president of the United States, a dame like Mirren may be just what such an indifferent popcorn flick needs to take it to the next level.
If you think Charlize Theron’s best work was “Aeon Flux,” e-mail a three to five page paper on the topic to Stanhope at kstanhope@media.ucla.edu.