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December 14, 2009
Where the hell has Julianne Moore been?
Over the weekend I watched last week's episode of 30 Rock, and there was guest star Julianne Moore, playing the cutest girl in East Sandchester High School's Class of '76, Nancy Donovan. She was so funny and gorgeous, and even if her Boston accent was a little uneven (her "I wanna sit on it and play a boh-uhd game!" was totally weird and great) I was delighted to see her again.
Because, really, when was the last time you saw Julianne Moore in anything? Here's her IMDb page. For me, it was when she played the Joan Baez-esque person in I'm Not There, and that was two years ago. Before that, she had a couple of scenes in Children of Men in 2006.
The heyday of Julianne Moore seems to be over. Between Boogie Nights in 1997 and The Hours in 2002, she was in tons of stuff: Magnolia, The End of the Affair, Hannibal, Far From Heaven--some great movies, some not so great, but all were important in their own way and did pretty well.
Since then, things haven't looked so hot for Julianne. She's gotten into some pretty terrible desperate mom movies with The Forgotten (spoiler!: aliens took her kid) and Freedomland (spoiler!: she accidentally killed her kid) and other questionable stuff like The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio and Nicolas Cage's schlocky psychic Next. Then there was Blindness, which I don't think anyone saw, and now she's in Tom Ford's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man, which looks OK, I guess.
It's high time for Julianne Moore to have a starring role in a big, great movie. Paul Thomas Anderson could use her again, but he doesn't seem to be working on anything. She's got something coming up with Lisa Cholodenko (who did Laurel Canyon) called The Kids Are All Right that could be OK, and some Barry Levinson adaptation of a Larry McMurtry novel about a gutsy pioneer woman called Boone's Lick, which despite the title is probably not a porny comedy.
At least one of these had better be at least as good as her re-enactment of "Hey, Beantown!" with Alec Baldwin.
categories:
Celebrities, Movies, TV
posted by amy at 3:37 PM | #
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Comments
You're right--she did do some theater. She was in The Vertical Hour for 4 months in 2006-07.
http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=442813
Still, 4 months on Broadway doesn't explain all the shitty movies she's been doing lately. I thought Blindness might be OK, but after seeing that damn trailer for the 48th time it was dead to me.
Here's Ballad of G.I. Joe, which I hadn't seen:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/076041c13b/the-ballad-of-g-i-joe
"He's a big fan of Three Dog Night"
Posted by: amy at December 15, 2009 12:37 PM
I really liked the book of Blindness, but much of what makes it work is how it hovers between realism and allegory, and film can't really do that. But I can certainly see her reading the book and thinking "This could be really terrific."
And like I said, Savage Grace must have been irresistible---"You play Barbara Daly Baekeland, in a movie by the director of Swoon." It might not have worked (I haven't seen it), but it's a great idea; I remember reading the book years ago, and thinking "God, this would be a great part for Julianne Moore!"
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastarrd at December 15, 2009 1:46 PM
Having watched 30 Rock, she seems to have spent the last year... gaining weight. Sorry, sorry...
But she remains completely awesome. Her accent was broad, but heck, so's 30 Rock; she fit right in with Tracy and Kenneth and the rest.
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastarrd at December 16, 2009 12:12 AM
Really?! I thought she looked pretty fuh-ine in them jeans.
http://www.nbc.com/30-rock/video/episodes/?vid=1184029#vid=1184029
Jeez, Julianne, maybe you'd get some decent roles if your ass wasn't so fat.
Oh, and congrats on the Golden Globe nomination.
Posted by: amy at December 16, 2009 12:55 PM
Oh, she didn't look bad, just significantly thicker than before. Which is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to filling out a pair of jeans.
But my whole point is that she hasn't been that starved for roles, not even for decent roles. She's had very good parts in a series of well-intended movies that looked good on paper but didn't quite hit the jackpot, the sort of thing no actor can really control.
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastarrd at December 16, 2009 7:29 PM
And let us never forget her pretty amusing cameo in The Ballad of G.I. Joe.Then there was Savage Grace---not well directed, apparently, but a perfect role for her. Blindness also had a lot of potential---based on an excellent, bestselling novel, but one that's admittedly a tough sell as a film adaptation. For me, she'll always be remembered for her incredible performance in Vanya On 42nd Street. Hm---actually, has she been doing theater? Often when an actor appears to have vanished, that's what's actually happening.
Posted by: That Fuzzy Bastarrd at December 15, 2009 11:20 AM