Catherine is rumpled and unkempt, so Paltrow isn't getting by here on elegance, real or imagined. This time it's her plain assumption that she's a great actress that's so offensive. I always found Meryl Streep's work boringly immaculate, but she at least brought evident technique to bear in all those overly controlled "accent" performances. (The one thing you can say for the most deliberate of craftsmanlike actors—Streep, say, or Dustin Hoffman, or John Malkovich—is that you know exactly how many square feet of skill your ticket money has bought you.) Apart from some manipulative coquetting in (the otherwise grotesque) Great Expectations (1998), I've never seen what it is Paltrow brings to the party. The hurting expression over the mournful overbite is entirely too familiar by now, and Catherine's morose slugabed defensiveness just makes Paltrow more of a drag.
Paltrow played the role on stage in London but there's no theatrical stylization or snap to what she does. Mary Louise Parker created the role on Broadway, and I can imagine her sneaking something less readily digestible into this blandly "rousing" stuff; I also thought it might have been fun to see Hope Davis play both sisters, like in one of those old evil-twin movies—A Stolen Life (1946) with two Bette Davises, or The Dark Mirror (1946) with two Olivia de Havillands. It couldn't be less fun than having Paltrow in the lead. Even if Paltrow gave Catherine the flat, whiny voice she uses here on purpose, that artistic choice would hardly go in the asset column. Comparing Paltrow's drone to the syncopated, ringing effects Davis gets with her voice, I realized that if you didn't know and had to guess which of Gwyneth Paltrow or Hope Davis was Blythe Danner's daughter, the smart money would be on Hope Davis.
You can find this review and a lot besides at The Kitchen Cabinet.
Alan Dale is the author of What We Do Best: American Movie Comedies of the 1990s and Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies.
ed: jh
![A Stolen Life (1946) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21TZ2KTD98L._SL120_.jpg)
![Dark Mirror (B&W) [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418KY281KGL._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Interesting post, Alan - I didn't see the parallels with The Lady Vanishes until you pointed them out.
Gwyneth is just so Gwyneth
2 - Alan Dale
Hey Aaman,
Thanks for the comment. I think it was the breath on the window that made me realize about The Lady Vanishes. Gave me a point of focus for my carping, anyway.
What's up with Paltrow? This could start a brushfire here on Blogcritics, I suppose, but does anybody like her? I don't know anyone who can stand her and the critics who praise her don't sound like they actually like her but rather like they think they should. She's so classy, and all that. Every time I hear or read something she's said, I can feel my arteries harden. If she were fun to watch I wouldn't care.
3 - Jamal Sledge
Hey Alan,
First, I'd have to say great review, as always. Only if more critics could be as educational and witty as you in their reviews. I agree with Aaman that I didn't see the parallels with "The Lady Vanishes" until you pointed them out as well!
And thank God I'm not the only person who isn't a big fan of Paltrow! It’s really quite disturbing to see critics fawning over her while ignoring how much of a crushing bore she is. And what's more shocking is that so many critics fail to point out that she's nothing but a mechanical actress with no soul. But can you believe she's going to play Marlene Dietrich in an upcoming biopic? Poor Dietrich; she's probably rolling over in her gave as we speak. I always felt if anyone could play Dietrich (or Garbo, for that matter) it should be Uma Thurman.
Anyway, I wanted to know if you've seen Wong Kar-Wai's "2046" yet? I'd love to hear your opinion on that film. I've read nothing but rave reviews and yet I can't understand why. I felt it was masturbatory in style and it just couldn't support the thesis Wong was working with. Maybe I'm wrong. Talk to you soon.
4 - Jamal Sledge
Hey Alan,
First, I'd have to say great review, as always. Only if more critics could be as educational and witty as you in their reviews. I agree with Aaman that I didn't see the parallels with "The Lady Vanishes" until you pointed them out as well!
And thank God I'm not the only person who isn't a big fan of Paltrow! It’s really quite disturbing to see critics fawning over her while ignoring how much of a crushing bore she is. And what's more shocking is that so many critics fail to point out that she's nothing but a mechanical actress with no soul. But can you believe she's going to play Marlene Dietrich in an upcoming biopic? Poor Dietrich; she's probably rolling over in her gave as we speak. I always felt if anyone could play Dietrich (or Garbo, for that matter) it should be Uma Thurman.
Anyway, I wanted to know if you've seen Wong Kar-Wai's "2046" yet? I'd love to hear your opinion on that film. I've read nothing but rave reviews and yet I can't understand why. I felt it was masturbatory in style and it just couldn't support the thesis Wong was working with. Maybe I'm wrong. Talk to you soon.
5 - Alan Dale
Thanks, Jamal, for the compliments.
It really would be infinitely better to have Uma Thurman as Dietrich--esp. in her Henry & June mode. Paltrow is all wrong, but the one ray of hope I got from reading all those horrible interviews is that she said she was producing the movie but not necessarily starring in it.
I did see 2046 and "masturbatory" is a great term for it, except that it makes it sound like it would be fun, which I can't say it was. I'm not a Wong Kar-Wai fan. Gorgeous lulling visual style and no narrative traction. I can't remember the stories or characters or even the stars (or titles). I can't even remember which ones I've seen all the way through and which ones I've walked out on.