What I think about Meryl Streep

[charliesmum]

Just got back from seeing The Devil Wears Prada. Very enjoyable movie. Funny, pretty clothes, happy ending etc.

Back in the olden days, Meryl Streep tended to be in movies where people cried alot and had bad things happen to them. Even when she was in a movie that didn't require her to put on an accent or have to choose what child will live, her characters always seemed so miserable. Like this one movie I can't think of the name of where she plays a character who falls in love with this guy on a train, or something. Sounds nice, but they are both married, and so they mope around the whole time and in the end she misses the train or something and they don't end up together.

Anyway...my point is, as much as I can understand why she got so many Oscars and Oscar nominations, she always bugged me because she took it all so darned seriously. Like she didn't think she'd be a 'real' actress if she didn't play someone who was dying of a rare disease or something.

And even when she started to try more comedy, she made some odd choices. I mean, that Rosanne Barr thing, She Devil? What the heck was that?

This was nice. She was, as always, fantastic in the role, and it was a very fun, funny movie where points were made, but nothing too serious, and people were entertained without leaving the theatre fighting the urge to slit one's wrist.

See, Meryl? That wasn't so hard, was it?

PS. I've made a couple more changes to my layout, and I'm very proud of it. Have a look. :)

Comments

[dorei.livejournal.com]

she was amusing in A Series of Unfortunate Events, too. I'm surprised y'all didn't see that one with Charlie.

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like the purple much better than the green you had earlier. it goes with the grey much better.

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

Did you see her in Adaptation? It's a CRAZY movie, and she did it so well!

You're right, though. That's a great assessment of her acting. I'm really excited about her playing Miranda Priestly, because she's probably the only person out there who can do it. I'm just not excited about the prospect of Andrea getting a Princess Diaries makeover...not fitting with the character, but if Pajiba is anything to go by, it will be in there.

Glad you liked it. It's an enjoyable book, too. Quick read. Quick, but fun.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the book, but I remember you talking about it, and how Andie wasn't going to be like the Andie in the book. You were probably right there, because overall she was sweet.

The makeover thing wasn't too bad; she wasn't as psuydo-horrible looking as she was in Princess Diaries, but it was slightly silly.

Plus in the beginning she said she was a 'size 6', which made me snort with laughter. And it bugged me slightly that she said later in the movie she was a four, and was all proud. Like a six six is something to be ashamed of. But it fit the whole arc of the story, so whatever.

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they really gave her a hard time for being a size 6, but after working there for a few months, she ran out of time to eat thanks to Miranda, and lost about 20lbs. Everyone was really proud of her, because they all voluntarily had eating disorders. But she was above all that. Hers wasn't by choice like theirs were...she had a real strange attitude.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

Hey, looks like you've read the book. I skimmed it a long time ago and I don't remember two specific points that I'm curious about:

1. Does Miranda ever give Andie a big speech about how she thinks she's above the rest of them because she wears ugly clothes and she thinks she's making a deliberate independent choice to wear the stuff she wears, but in fact the ugly blue shirt she's wearing is a trickled-down knockoff on a style and color that she and the other fashionistas in the room designed and popularized several years before? And so Andie's a part of this whole world she thinks she's above? It was a pretty neat speech, and I don't remember it from the book.

2. Does Andie choose to take Emily's spot in the Paris trip?

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

Miranda gives Andrea a talk about how she thinks that Andy thinks that she's way above everyone else because she's college educated, and that it's obvious that she doesn't hold fashion to be very important, but it's mostly about her letting Andy know that she's not fooling anyone-they all know that she thinks she's way above them. It's nothing like the smackdown Andy gets in the film, but then, I guess Andy is sort of a nice, happy person in the film.

As for the trip...I don't know what happens in the movie, but in the book, Emily gets mono, and Andy is forced to go. Miranda insists that one of her usual assistants be available to her in Paris, and that means Andy. Emily was pretty goshdarn crushed about it-she'd been looking forward to it all year. Andy had, too. It meant that both Miranda and Emily would be gone for a long time, leaving her to the solitude of the office and flat shoes.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

Huh. So the movie basically created its central conflict. Interesting.

[zambonigirl.livejournal.com]

Now I'm really worried that I won't enjoy the movie at all.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

I really liked it, personally. I certainly had some issues with the moral points it was trying to make, but the script was sharp and the acting was wonderful. I mean, Anne Hathaway was pretty good, but Meryl Streep was just amazing in that role. I'm not sure how it will feel to someone who's really familiar with the source material, but it worked for me.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Does Miranda ever give Andie a big speech about how she thinks she's above the rest of them because she wears ugly clothes and she thinks she's making a deliberate independent choice to wear the stuff she wears, but in fact the ugly blue shirt she's wearing is a trickled-down knockoff on a style and color that she and the other fashionistas in the room designed and popularized several years before? She does actually, in the beginning of the movie on Andy's first day.

It's Nigel who points out that she is acting all high and mighty though, that she 'deigns' to work there. That's when she realises she's been sort of icky about it, and gets a makeover.

Andy says she doesn't have a choice about taking Emily's place, because basically Miranda said if she didn't she'd assume Andy wasn't interested in working in any magazine, sort of threatening her future career. Emily had a cold, then she got hit by a taxi, but it is implied that Miranda just didn't think she was doing a good enough job.

[enchanting-ella.livejournal.com]

ohhh i like, i want, how did you do pretty???? teach me oh masterful one, as my geek seems unaware of how to beautify my page. (men not sure what they are good for if they cant do the cool geeky stuff)

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Go to 'customise' then go to advanced customisation, or whatever the 3rd tab is, and about 1/2 way down it should give you a drop down box for the header area, and you choose 'custom' and then in the box next to it you put in a url for a photo (which you can get from Photobucket).

For the background go to 'images' and there's a box for background picture, and you do the same thing. Put in the URL.

[slammerkinbabe.livejournal.com]

I'm in love with Meryl Streep, like, totally.

I think her taking all those super-dramatic roles early in her career was mostly about her getting her feet under her in the industry and sticking to what she'd proven she could do. I think she takes all her roles seriously, because it's her work and she's amazingly good at it. It's just that she got her first big break in that TV miniseries Holocaust, and followed it up quickly with The Deer Hunter and Kramer vs. Kramer - at that stage in her career she certainly couldn't afford to be picky, and so she sort of got typecast at the beginning. I think a lot of her roles in sort of unremarkable movies like She-Devil and Death Becomes Her were about her deliberately trying to move away from that typecasting. It seems to've worked, because now she gets cast in about as many comedies as she does dramas. (Her last three have all been comedies, I believe.)