Stream Contemporary Blondes
Nicole Kidman
The Portrait of a Lady 1996 Based on the Henry James novel. Directed by Jane Campion. As if suppression of women wasn’t sufficiently central in this fraught scenario of misalliance, Campion opens the period film with images of a contemporary commune, women looking right at the camera. After that, we follow young, headstrong, incredibly naïve Isabel Archer (Nicole Kidman) as she endeavors to experience life extravagantly funded by consumptive cousin Ralph (Martin Donovan) through his father, her uncle (John Giulgud).
Isabel rejects suitors out of hand as limiting her chance for adventure. Englishman Lord Warburton (Richard E. Grant) goes quietly while Caspar Goodwood (Viggo Mortensen), who has followed her from the states, never gives up. The young woman is snared as a cash cow by Machiavellian siblings Madame Serena Merle (Barbara Hershey) and Gilbert Osmond (John Malcovich) losing every bit of backbone she had in the process. She eventually gets out from under by the skin of her teeth. Kidman is terrific. You want to throttle the character. Free with Amazon Prime.
The Interpreter 2005 A political thriller directed by Sidney Pollack. Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) is an interpreter based in New York City. Raised in Africa, she’s asked to interpret the prosecution of a Zimbabwe citizen accused of political murders. When Silvia goes back to the office after hours to retrieve personal items, she overhears the plot of an assassination attempt. She runs, but is seen. The next day, Silvia recognizes words in a meeting she’s interpreting from phrases she overheard the night before and reports the incident to U.N. security.
Secret Service agents Tobin Keller (Sean Penn) and Dot Woods (Catherine Keener) are assigned. Keller learns that Silvia might have a personal motive to see the target killed, but is also getting involved with her. There are chases, murders, and twists. ‘The first film to be shot inside The United Nations. After being turned down, Sidney Pollack personally approached the Secretary General promising something dignified and honest. Despite holes in the plot, it’s engrossing. Rent on Amazon Prime.
The Stepford Wives 2018 Based on the Ira Levin novel. Directed by Frank Oz. Wickedly wry. Successful reality TV producer Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) has a breakdown after one of her guests goes rogue and she’s fired. At husband Walter’s (Matthew Broderick) suggestion the couple and their two children move to the pristine, gated community of Stepford, Connecticut where all the housewives are docile, domestic, primped, ever-ready-for-sex automatons.
The heroine makes friends with two expatriate New Yorkers who also don’t fit in, writer “Bobbie” Markowitz (Bette Midler) and flamboyantly gay Roger Bannister (Roger Bart). Her new friends know something is off and investigate. If you haven’t seen it, what’s “off” is worth the price of admission as are dialogue and visuals. With Christopher Walken, Glenn Close, Faith Hill, Jon Lovitz, David Marshall Grant. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Boy Erased 2018 Based on a memoir by Garrard Conley. Directed by Joel Edgerton. All the more painful knowing the story is true. Arkansas Hairdresser Nancy Eamons (Nicole Kidman) and husband Marshall (Russell Crowe), a successful car dealer and Baptist preacher, learn their son Jared (Lucas Hedges) is attracted to men when a college peer who raped him outs the young man.
In response to his father’s beliefs, Jared reluctantly agrees to be sent away to Love in Action Gay Conversion Therapy. To say methods are questionable is to minimize what goes on. Some of the young men just pretend, others suffer horribly. Jared takes a stand, then finds a way to secretly telephone his mother. She’s horrified to hear what’s been going on, her husband is not. Good ensemble work with Kidman and Hedges especially fine. Rent on Amazon Prime.
The Hours 2002 can be found in Stream Films ABOUT Notable Authors VI
Hemingway and Gelhorn 2012 can be found in Stream Films ABOUT Notable Authors VIII
The series Big Little Lies can be rented on Amazon Prime.
Naomi Watts
Le Divorce 2003 Based on the novel by Diane Johnson. Romantic comedy/drama for Francophiles. Directed by James Ivory. American poet Roxy Walker (Naomi Watts) seems to have the perfect Parisian life with handsome French husband, Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud) and daughter Gennie. When she gets pregnant again, however, he leaves her for his mistress, Magda.
Roy’s sister Isabel (Kate Hudson) arrives for an extended visit to find family life in disarray. She secures a job with savvy, expatriate author Olivia Pace (Glenn Close) and plunges gleefully into a Hermès and lingerie-abetted affair with Roxy’s middle-aged, womanizing brother-in-law, Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte). Ah, Paris. Meanwhile, Roxy deals with selling a family heirloom, a painting of Saint Ursula possibly by George de la Tour. The artwork is argued over by The J. Paul Getty Museum, her husband (antici- pating a community property settlement) and her brother.
The Walkers come from the states to support their girls and discuss the artwork. Roxy’s judgmental, cliche-French in-laws, lead by matriarch Suzanne (Leslie Caron), interfere. Magda’s husband Tellman (Matthew Modine) sets out to murder Charles-Henri. Roxy is courted by her divorce lawyer Bertram (Jean-Marc Barr). A collision of values in extremely attractive packaging. Rent on Amazon Prime.
The Painted Veil 2006 Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Directed by John Curran. Earnest bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton) marries London socialite Kitty Garstin (Naomi Watts) – he’s dazzled, she wants to get away from her mother. The couple is poorly suited. In Shanghai, Kitty begins an affair with married vice-Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). Walter threatens divorce unless his wife accompanies him to a small village in a remote area of China where he’ll treat victims of a cholera epidemic. Charles turns his back on Kitty.
She and Walter travel to a remote, mountainous region. Living conditions are poor, social life non-existent, their communication threadbare. Aimless, Kitty volunteers at an orphanage where she’s surprised to observe her husband’s patience and compassion with the children. He, in turn, sees a different side of the spoiled woman he mnarried. They come together in a new way. Kitty finds herself pregnant unsure of which man is the baby’s father. Walter says it doesn’t matter. The disease rages. One of them dies, but the story is not quite over.
This is the third adaptation of the book, following 1934 and 1957 versions. It tries to skew feminist without completely rerouting trajectory. Chinese backers were unhappy with the depiction of the Chinese uprising and treatment of cholera victims. Norton and Curran refused censorship, with the director threatening to remove his name. Only 38 seconds were cut. Rent on Amazon Prime.
The Impossible 2012 A compelling disaster film based on the experience of Maria Belon and her family in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Directed by J.A. Bayona. Spanish made, English language. Doctor Maria Bennett (Naomi Watts), her husband Henry (Ewan McGregor), and their three sons are spending Christmas in Khao Lak, Thailand when a tsunami hits. The family is harrowingly separated. A realistic and specific fish eye perspective offering empathetic characterization. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Adore 2013 Based on the Doris Lessing novel, The Grandmothers. An Australian/French drama directed by Ann Fontaine. Roz (Robin Wright) and Lil (Naomi Watts) grew up best friends on the sea of New South Wales. Roz’s son Tom (James Frecheville) and Lil’s son Ian (Xavier Samuel) also grew up best friends. The boys are now 18. When Roz’s husband gets a job in Sydney, she refuses to go. All four characters are startlingly attractive. Each boy begins an affair with his friend’s mother.
Roz and Lil resolve to end things as much because they know they’re unlikely to remain first choices as for their sons’ sakes. Tom and Ian move on to other women, both eventually marrying and fathering children. Their families are close. At some point, affairs secretly resume. The film’s ending is somewhat incredible, but oddly believable. Eminently watchable trash. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Nicole Kidman photo – Bigstock
