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Video Review |
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Video Review |
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Last Updated 01/06/03
Email: robitai@our-town.com
Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger doesn’t seem to be a likely name for a movie star, but it is. If you haven’t paid much attention to this actress, whose girl-next-door looks belie her talent, it’s time to take notice. She’s not as glamorous as Julia Roberts, but she’s versatile in ways that Julia may never master.
In “Bridgette Jones’s Diary” (2001), she plays a British woman driven by unrelenting angst and a series of bad relationships. Critics lined up to applaud Zellweger’s ability to become British, describing her accent as “flawless.” The role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
I’m somewhat taken by this particular linguistic ability of Zellweger’s, especially since she grew up in Katy, Texas, a small town just outside Houston. After graduating from the University of Texas, Zellweger bypassed Hollywood to make a couple of movies in Houston. Although that sounds like a curiously strange career movie, events fell into place that ultimately gave her some credentials and a ticket to Los Angeles. Her first Hollywood feature “Whole Wide World” (1996) garnered the attention of Cameron Crowe who was casting for the female lead opposite Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire” (1996). Over the next few years, Zellweger’s talent landed her starring roles in a series of feature films.
“One True Thing” (1998), based on Anna Quindlen’s novel, chronicles the problems of Ellen Gulden, a New York executive who quits her job and leaves her boyfriend to take care of her dying mother (Meryl Streep). Zellweger demonstrates her ability to rise about an overly calculated, sentimental plot to give her character a sense of independence and vitality.
Taking on a far more complex role as Sonia Horowitz in “A Price above Rubies” (1998), Zellweger’s depicts the wife of an Orthodox Hasidic Jew living in Brooklyn (and adapts another flawless accent.) Problems arise when her need for independence conflicts with her husband Sender’s (Christopher Eccleston) notion of wifely behavior. Working for her brother-in-law Mendel (Glenn Fitzgerald) as a jewelry buyer, Sonia must confront his sexual advances, maintain her self-dignity, and declare her freedom. Sonia risks everything to fulfill her need for freedom, and the price is high. Aided by the ghost of her childhood friend Yossi (Shelton Dane) and a mysterious woman who is “older than God” (Kathleen Chalfant), Sonia finds her destiny.
“Nurse Betty” (2000), my Zellweger favorite, needs more attention that I have room to give it. Zellweger won a Golden Globe for her performance in this off-beat comedy thriller where she plays a delusional waitress who confuses reality with a soap-opera.
So Zellweger has enough movies in the vault and awards on the shelf to have her own film festival. I wonder if they’ve ever had one in Katy, Texas? I’d buy a ticket.
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