Stars are made by the time they spent on top of the box office. But there are some who make their niche taking not so beaten paths. Naomi Watts is one such example of star quality dwindling. She has not really delivered a hit so to speak but she has pushed some of the logics of the genre with many of her films. Her last being The International and it was interesting a subliminal chemistry existing between two characters who don’t get physical. She also did the David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises and brought in the right look to her character.
Now she is faced this year with the release of four of her films. Each of them unique genre films and done by some really independent directors. Woody Allen has cast her for his film You will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. This will be the year where Woody Allen might get it right or people will just forget him. It is the first time he is trying to move away from the Hollywood studios. They have really clouded Woody’s judgment in the last couple of years. The film is shot in London and stars some really upcoming stars.
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It seems to be a film in the same old of his earlier films with a little romance, a teaspoon of sex, a dollop of treachery and a few laughs for seasoning. There will be a gamut of emotions but will Woody get the tune right this time. We will have to wait and watch.
Naomi Watts will be interesting to watch in the scheme of things. After her amazing turn in David O Russell’s I Heart Huckabees. She will be co staring with Josh Brolin who plays a writer who enters an extra marital affair. The films title is attributed to the presense of a Tall Dark Man who reveals something to Naomi Watts character. This is one of the balancing acts Woody Allen is famous for in his movies like scoop and The Curse of the Jade Scorpion both turned out to be a little too farcical. We hope this film will bring in the control.
The film also stars host of other celebrities like Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Frieda Pinto, Lucy Punch and Anna Friel. The film will be premiered at the Cannes this year. But we hope to expect the unexpected with this one. But looking through some of the images of the film it looks like this might border on the non sense.
But this is not new to the Naomi Watts star quality. She has been pushed around in the last couple of years through a lot of traumatic roles. One of the most memorable ones which many people will be familiar with is The Ring remake and most recently Funny Games remake by Michael Haneke. It is difficult to look away from her body of work by taking into account these lesser years.
Woody Allen aside she also has the film directed by Rodrigo Garcia called Mother and Child. After watching the trailer below you will seem to see the beaten path it goes through. Rodrigo, who has done very few films and is known most for his time on the show Six Feet Under. It is nice to see him going through the idea of several short stories building up to something bigger. But this non linear route of telling the story is very studio friendly.
It tells the story of several women going through various stages of Motherhood and they are connected through relationships. Samuel Jackson seems to not stick out like a sore thumb in this film. The film will also feature many of the issues of adoption on the surface. It gets into the turmoil of being a mother for so long and not knowing what you have done with your life. The story centers around three women: A 50 year old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption 35 years ago and an African woman looking adopting a child of her own. The trailer is still very sketchy. It would nice to see some magic realism in all these situations creating something special to see on the big screen.
The characterization of the film will be key to the story. It seems to stemming from many of the real life experiences Naomi has also faced. She is a very emotionally strung woman who needs left on her own with no one really cueing her on what to do. The rest of the cast of this expected subliminal film will also need to be watched. It features Kerry Washington, Anette Bening and Jimmy Smits. They all ably support each other through the film.
So Naomi Watts will focus on the loss people feel when they part from each other in various ways in Mother and Child. It will be surely something to look forward from this beautiful actress.
From here she will go to her 21 gramsco star Sean Penn for Fair Game. This will be based on actual facts from the Valerie Plame. So Naomi is really turning up the heat after last year she was sort of stricken with the birth of her new child. So she will put herself totally into the work. Fair Game will be another point of view from the film that came out last year Nothing but the Truth. That film was not much to talk about. It was done well but it concentrated too much on the history of these people and forgot to think about the lives they have put into perspective. So Fair Game should be personal unless Doug Liman wants to go thriller route like the last couple of horrible movies he has made.
Naomi also has Dream House where she will be seen alongside James Bond as a neighbor. There loads of funny things happening around this house which has been haunted for a while and a new couple comes there to stay. So she will be the neighbor Daniel Craig will have an affair with. Once again it will be the film maker who has been out of touch lately with his last film Brothers not really hitting the marquee.
Many of the filmmakers in these last couple of years have really not imparted great works because of the manipulations they have faced at the hands of Hollywood. But this in turn affects some of the great performances of some actors. But Naomi Watts doesn’t to me deterred by it. She is still relentlessly going places not many people want to go. She will still be seen in a independent film called Drawing getting back to her routes like in Ellie Parker.
