Why are beautiful actresses only taken seriously when they play downtrodden suburban women?
Julia Roberts has given the same performance in every film she’s ever made, but won serious respect only as the toiling, brassy Erin Brokovich. Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren won Oscars for “going ugly” as alcoholics and prostitutes, but the rest of their work is largely dismissed. It’s as though the most daring thing a beautiful actress can do is not wear her lipstick. However dubious, the strategy works – Sally Field, Farrah Fawcett and Jodie Foster, to name a few, all shot to new levels of fame when they played poor, struggling women in crisis situations. Red carpet regular Halle Berry grabs her chance here, playing the hell out of Leticia Musgrove, a penniless but spunky young woman who can’t take a trick. By succeeding in this role – which she does, sensationally – Berry has upped the stakes of her career considerably, winning rave reviews for her performance, and securing an Oscar nomination. The film starts the day Leticia’s husband is to be executed for a triple murder. He’s
