... Or Reasons For Why Natalie Portman Should Tread Carefully
Natalie Portman will finally be honoured as Best Actress for her undoubtedly brilliant performance in Darren Aronofskys
Black Swan next month. In some ways its one of those about time awards for a performer who exploded onto the scene with an Oscar worthy role as Matilda in Luc Bessons classic hitman flick Leon, and went on to deliver great performances in Closer and V For Vendetta (despite a wobbly accent). But, then again, despite always knowing, thanks to that incredible feature debut, that Portman is an extremely talented actress shes cropped up in a smattering of duds, none more so than her monotone portrayal of Queen Amidala in the woe-some Star Wars prequels. But, here we are, 2011 and after sixteen years in the business Portman is pretty much guaranteed that little gold statue on February 27th. But she should probably be very cautious as to this successes immediate impact upon her career. Hop in the wayback machine and look at the career of
Halle Berry; an actress who was gradually on the Hollywood ascent, popping up with small roles in the likes of The Last Boy Scout and The Flintstones, before proving she really had some acting chops with Bulworth and ultimately Monsters Ball for which she picked up the Best Actress award in 2001.
What happened next was a disaster; sure Die Another Day, marketed heavily around Berry as the Bond girl, made a reasonable profit, but it was generally derided as the worst 007 movie in a long while, still there was talk of Berrys character Jinx making her own spin-off but her following career decisions probably helped scupper those plans. First up was Gothika, a schlocky piece of horror gubbins that was directed by Mathieu Kasowitz, but then worse, Catwoman.
From visual effects artist Pitof, Catwoman was a bizarre and costly effort from Warner Bros who should have learnt their lessons from Batman & Robin (and who fortunately made amends the following year with Batman Begins), it was an absolute travesty of a film, and at its figurehead was Berrys Catwoman clad in a costume that looked like a bargain basement Ann Summers S&M get up and hamming up terribly; managing to out-do her own performance as Storm in X-Men for awful line delivery, such as;
White Russian, no ice, no vodka... hold the Kahlua.
Haha! She means milk! Hilarious. Berry won the Golden Raspeberry for this role and had the sense of humour to actually collect the thing herself and after a few wobbles (contractual obligations on X-Men 3 and that awful Bruce Willis thriller Perfect Stranger) she has made an effort to regain her dramatic chops with Things We Lost in the Fire and Frankie & Alice, but maybe its too little to late for Berry whose upcoming projects dont exactly look like winners.
Elsewhere there was the case of
Charlize Theron who picked up the Best Actress Oscar in 2003 for
Monster, sure her career wasnt exactly littered with modern classics (The Astronauts Wife, Mighty Joe), but shes always proved a capable and strong actress and the role of serial killer Aileen Wuornos was just the ticket she was waiting for to push her up to the Hollywood A-List. She capitalised on this success by making Aeon Flux, adapted from the bonkers animation series this turned out to be a shambolic Matrix-lite affair with delusions of grandeur and while it didnt exactly destroy Therons career she has remained out of the limelight (bar perfume adverts) since with supporting roles in Will Smith vehicle Hancock and under-rated classic The Road her most notable achievements since. Being attached to gritty fairytale
Snow White and the Huntsman (as the evil queen) doesnt bode well either.
Similarly
Reese Witherspoon has floundered in dreck like Four Christmases and uber-flop How Do You Know since picking up her award for playing June Carter in Walk The Line. Likewise
Nicole Kidmans career has trundled off of the rails since picking up the award for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Theres been the terrible The Stepford Wives remake, the dull, dreary Bewitched movie, the butchered sci-fi thriller The Invasion and big fat flops like The Golden Compass and Australia. Though shes up for a nod with Rabbit Hole its a film thats been largely fogged out by the press attention heaped upon The Social Network, The Kings Speech, et al. Sure there are recent winners who have managed to keep making generally pretty decent films, but as Hugh Jackman sang at the 2008 Academy Awards; The Reader, I still havent seen The Reader. And Im sure nobody has, even after
Kate Winslet got the award for it; in fact Winslets award seemed like one of those We better give her one before its too late nods that the Academy are frequently guilty of.
So, what does this mean for Natalie Portman? Yes, shes great in Black Swan but shes also in the risible Ashton Kutcher comedy No Strings Attached thats currently filling dead air at the top of the American box office, though Your Highness looks like an enjoyable romp (and co-stars fellow Oscar nominee James Franco) it might just baffle mainstream audiences with its strange, daffy mix of swearing and fantasy hey-nonny-nonsense. Then, looming like a great storm cloud, is Kenneth Branaghs comic book adaptation Thor which, if all goes wrong, could well prove to be Portmans Catwoman/Aeon Flux. Shes also attached to the adaptation of Cloud Atlas, which has an intriguing cast (and Halle Berry) but comes from the Wachowskis who havent exactly had a great time of it since The Matrix sequels. Time will tell for Natalie Portman, I hope she wins this year for a great performance, but she should probably tread down their red carpet with a note of caution.