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.
This week, Ant-Man and the Wasp brings with it two acting legends as Paul Rudd’s character’ parents. Michael Douglas isn’t an actor I’ve seen enough from, but Michelle Pfeiffer has plenty of credits, so I’ll stick with some of my favorite films of hers. Some might not be great films, but I’m looking at five favorites, not five classics.
Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Pfeiffer has proven herself adept at every genre, but in Stephen Frears’ incendiary Dangerous Liaisons, she had her toughest role yet, playing opposite Glenn Close and John Malkovich. Two actors whose large-than-life personas consumer any film they are in provides a challenge for any actor who doesn’t have that level of dominance. Caught between the two acting titans, Pfeiffer more than holds her own in this wickedly great period drama.
The film is about a prominent woman (Close) who plots revenge against an ex-lover by using her ex’s young new fiancée (Uma Thurman) as a pawn in her schemes. Malkovich gets involved and tries to seduce the ex-convent girl and defile her in order to disgrace her husband. Close promises to sleep with Malkovich should he succeed in a task of seducing the wife (Pfeiffer) of a member of Parliament. The whole affair is deliciously sinful and anyone who enjoys a good, twisting period drama will more than enjoy this film.
Batman Returns (1992)
While Tim Burton’s follow up to his blockbuster adaptation of Batman was thought to be a step down from that original film, Batman Returns was still an entertaining and exciting comic book adventure. Moving on from the delightful Jack Nicholson as Batman’s biggest enemy, the Joker, we get two new villains, the duplicitous politician Max Schrek (Christopher Walken) and the sewer dwelling, moustache-twirling villain Penguin (Danny DeVito). Through in Pfeiffer as Batman femme fatale love interest Catwoman and you have a wonderful ensemble of actors doing solid work in a film that predates the Marvel Cinematic Universe by more than a decade. Michael Keaton dons the cowl for a second go around.
Schrek and Penguin are conspiring to win the mayoral election for Schrek, but Penguin doesn’t have all of his marbles and has far more nefarious plans in mind. Pfeiffer plays the sultry feline vixen with grace and sensuality, making her one of the best characterizations in the Batman universe to date. Everyone acquits themselves well with the material and Burton more than proved that he was the right fit for that era’s vision of Batman and Gotham City. The series wouldn’t fare as well in subsequent Burton-less offerings and the franchise came to an end a few years later after four total films. Still, forgetting about the pair of Joel Schumacher wastes, Burton’s two films are delightful and far more engaging than some of the Batman adventures that have come after.
No original review available.
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Returning to period dramas under the guiding hand of director Martin Scorsese, Pfeiffer plays opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s acclaimed Edwardian romantic drama. While the themes and social cues of the Edwardian era form a foundation for the events of the film, it is set in New York City in the 1870s where Day-Lewis weds a respectable young woman (Winona Ryder). When Day-Lewis represents an heiress Countess (Pfeiffer), a relationship blooms between them threatening both their social standing and their legal entanglements.
Scorsese came to prominence with his work on Taxi Driver and Raging Bull where male machismo was put to the test against societal pressures, but when he stretched his creative muscles, he often created some lovely films. After the critical success of GoodFellas and the box office success of Cape Fear, Scorsese tried his hand at period drama. The Age of Innocence is a sumptuous, detailed drama that asserts his dominance as a filmmaker and assures audiences he can do more than violence-centric cinematic efforts. Pfeiffer, Day-Lewis and Ryder are all terrific as are supporting players Miriam Margolyes, Geraldine Chaplin, Michael Gough, Richard E. Grant, and others.
No original review available.
Up Close & Personal (1996)
The overall weakest of the five films on my list this week is this romantic drama from director Jon Avnet. Written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne and adapted from a novel by Alanna Nash, the film follows Sally Atwater (Pfeiffer) as she embarks on a career as a reporter. She plays against Robert Redford as an elder statesmen in the industry who takes her under his wing and helps her develop her skills as a serious journalist and building up her career as his is slowly winding down.
The plot is relatively familiar and it’s obvious from the outset that the pair will end up together romantically. The passion is a major selling point for the film as the pair play incredibly well off of one another and Pfeiffer puts to use all of the lessons she’s learn from her career to turn in one of her most credible, if not stellar, performances. For fans of 1990s romantic dramas, this film ticks off all the right checkboxes and anyone looking for love interests with genuine chemistry, the film will certainly give them something enjoyable to watch even if it’s not a philosophically deep subject matter.
Hairspray (2007)
Pfeiffer was at home playing heroes, but did incredibly well in villainous role. That’s the best way to describe her performance as a racist and sizeist television station manager trying to keep focus on her daughter (Brittany Snow). However, against the changing times in the early 1960s, her attempts to keep a the local teen dance show The Corny Collins Show from integrating put her on the wrong side of progress. An adaptation of the stage musical Hairspray, which was in turn an adaptation of the John Waters’ non-musical film, is about Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), an overweight teenager who wants nothing more than to dance on Corny’s show and gets her chance alongside a diversifying cast of characters.
It’s a delightful musical extravaganza with a starmaking turn by Blonsky that also gave great roles to Amanda Bynes, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, James Marsden, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelly, and Allison Janney. The one sour note for me was John Travolta cast in drag as Tracy’s mother Edna. While Harvey Fierstein would have been brilliant in the role, they insisted on casting Travolta and while he isn’t bad in the role, it’s lacking a certain cheesy gaucheness that the character really needed to succeed. Regardless, it’s a melodic and engaging drama about accepting people for who they are on the inside, not who they appear to be on the outside. It’s a wonderful message film that all young folks should see, but which is equally important for adults to watch and understand that they aren’t supposed to identify with the Velmas and the Prudys of the world.
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