Having been a film critic for more than a quarter of a century now (my God) and a film junkie for more than 40 years, I have never gotten over the joy of surprise when an actor or actress comes out of left field with a performance of such brilliance it eliminates every single bad performance or bad film they have ever been associated with.
As a critic and a journalist, I tend to call it as I see it, sometimes to a fault. I remember a stunned Al Pacino looking at me flabbergasted when I asked why the devil an all powerful evil being would have to shout so much as he did in “The Devil’s Advocate.” He eyed me up and down for a few uncomfortable seconds before answering, beginning with, “So your one of the honest guys.”
And there have been those delicious moments when I have been forced to eat my words. And you you know what? I love it. I love seeing an actor I had written off or dissed deliver a breathtaking portrayal to the point that I can scarcely believe what I’ve seen.
It happened this year for me with Kristen Scott Thomas in “I’ve Loved You So Long,” a stunning piece of acting from a thesp I had previously loathed. I remember being at press screening for “The English Patient” in the fall of 1996, after barely enduring the film. Thomas was ice cold, leaving me to wonder who could love this woman, and worse, why would they? Nothing else she has done since impressed me much until now, and frankly, her performance left me in awe.
There have been others, of course. Sally Field had been written off as “The Flying Nun” and Burt Reynolds’s latest squeeze in those goofy “Smokey and the Bandit” films in the late 1970s. She gave a remarkable performance on TV in “Sybil” as a woman with multiple personalities, but nothing prepared me for her superb performance in Martin Ritt’s beautiful little film “Norma Rae,” about a woman recognizing her potential amid textile union politics. Field was astounding, winning every major acting award there was, including the Oscar. The performance remains one of the finest ever captured on film.
