Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
Robert Eggers’ third film releases this weekend to wide audiences, bringing Alexander Skarsgaard in the lead role. While his filmography isn’t that impressive as yet, his co-stars are quite wonderful. For this week, I thought I’d take a look at the films of Nicole Kidman. She’s such an interesting actress, but she’s seldom seen in a lead role in a wide release in recent years, so this seems like an opportune time to give her her due.
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Recent Best Directing winner Jane Campion was on her third film when the Academy finally took notice. The Piano received eight Oscar nominations, winning three, one of which was for Campion’s screenplay. Her follow-up was this adaptation of the classic Henry James novel of the same name. It was one of only two films that she didn’t write the screenplay for. The film stars Kidman as a beautiful young woman who comes into a great fortune and is manipulated into marrying an abusive man (John Malkovich) by his former lover (Barbara Hershey). As the events of the film unwind, her situation becomes dire, resorting to lies and subterfuge in order to escape her house and visit her dying cousin (Martin Donovan).
While the film wasn’t as well received as her prior effort, Campion’s film is a haunting exploration of fidelity, abuse, and societal strictures on propriety. It’s not as blazingly feminist as The Piano, but is suitably drawn to bring attention to the plight of women in long-ago eras. For their parts, Kidman, Malkovich, and especially Hershey, are terrific. Hershey and the film’s costumes were the only aspects nominated for Oscars, and it would be her last encounter with the Academy for 13 years when Bright Star was nominated for Costume Design.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Stanley Kubrick was one of the most influential directors in cinema history. Once he freed himself from the Hollywood studio system, he was able to create some of the most enduring pictures from Dr. Strangelove to 2001: A Space Odyssey to A Clockwork Orange. This film came after a twelve-year gap and ultimately came to theaters after the filmmaker’s death at age 70. For his final film, he brought in Kidman and then-husband Tom Cruise to play a married couple. As she reveals that she had an affair, Cruise becomes angry and disillusioned, escaping their small apartment and wandering the streets of New York City, beautifully rendered on a sound stage in London.
As Cruise stumbles from one potential extra-marital opportunity to another, his sense of fidelity keeps him from seeking revenge on his wife by way of an affair. Kidman doesn’t have a lot of scenes in this film, but she moves effortlessly between them, her drug-fueled admission of guilt a highlight in the film. Kubrick’s last film is one of his best and his astute decision to include the Hollywood power couple as their real life marriage was about to collapse seems inspired in hind sight. The visuals are among his most fascinating and although it was unfairly manipulated by the studio after his death, it is now able to be seen in its original, and brilliant, intended format.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
After her marriage to Cruise had crumbled, Kidman was working at the top of her craft in a series of terrific performances, two of which released in the same year. The one that garnered the most attention, and her first Oscar nomination, Moulin Rouge! was from Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann in his follow up to the sensational modernist adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet five years earlier. For his third directorial effort, he decided to take his passionate sense of style and apply it to the musical genre, taking existing music and re-orchestrating it to fit within the confines of his lavish Paris-set extravaganza.
The film opens with a dramatic interpretation of Nat King Cole’s “Nature Boy” and follows the emergence of a writer (Ewan McGregor) who becomes a part of the Bohemian movement alongside the likes of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo). After an unhinged version of “The Sound of Music,” the film kicks into overdrive presenting dozens of modern songs adapted to an 18th century French setting. Kidman plays Satine, a courtesan and star attraction at the famous Parisian cabaret. Jim Broadbent co-stars as the proprietor of the Moulin Rouge and Richard Roxburgh plays a horny duke hoping to make Satine his wife. There was nothing like it and it all went off without a hitch seamlessly blending bawdy humor, high romance, and soapy drama in a dazzling, gorgeously executed spectacle.
No original review available.
The Others (2001)
For Kidman’s second great performance of 2001, we look to a film that takes inspiration from some of history’s greatest haunted house thrillers. Films like The Innocents and The Haunting were clear inspirations for Alejandro Amenábar in his screenplay and directing of The Others. Kidman plays the mother of two young children suffering from photosensitivity, a condition that causes pain when exposed to direct sunlight, a condition that could lead to their deaths if overexposed. As she moves into an old house, she works to ensure that every room is curtained and sequestered for her kids to safely play in.
Strange occurrences in the house, such as doors unlocking themselves, and draperies suddenly opening cause Kidman’s Grace to become overly paranoid about the situation and she hires a housekeeper (Fionnula Flanagan) and her husband with ties to the house to help take care of it and protect her and her children. With one of the great twist endings of the period, The Others is atmospheric, moody, and chilling. It’s a taut psychological thriller and would be the perfect film for anyone interested in the genre.
No original review available.
The Golden Compass (2007)
The first feature in a planned trilogy of films based on Philip Pullman’s popular Northern Lights novels, The Golden Compass brings his fantasy tale to vivid life. It’s the story of a young girl (Dakota Blue Richards) whose uncle (Daniel Craig) is a world explorer searching for a mysterious, elusive cosmic particle called Dust. Opposed by the church, Craig is being hunted for his heretical musings, which forces him to flee. After she’s taken in by the seemingly genial Mrs. Coulter (Kidman), she soon discovers that Kidman’s motives are aligned with the church’s and the valuable golden compass that she has been secretly entrusted with could lead the church to her uncle who is intent on eradicating the church’s influence over the world.
This retro-futuristic story is fascinating on its surface and the books are an incredibly involving read. Although the film isn’t perfect, it was just as compelling and the effects were wonderful, leading to the film’s only Oscar nomination and subsequent win for Best Visual Effects. For their part, the cast is superb including Richards in what should have been a star-making lead performance, Craig, Kidman, Tom Courtenay, Eva Green, and others. The film wasn’t nearly as popular with audiences as it should have been and other critics were mixed in their reactions. It was an engaging time at the cinema that brought me to the books, which are engrossing. That it didn’t get a sequel is disappointing, but for what it was, it was entertaining.
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