Over the last week or so I've found three films online which received varying levels of acclaim for their leading ladies. Sadly, as with many performance pieces, none of the films are very good but that doesn't necessarily mean all three were devoid of value. Despite that sentiment, it doesn't apply to the first of the three I saw, Frances, in which I found almost nothing of any quality to recommend it.
The story is of a young girl called Frances Farmer (she of the referencing in Nirvana song titles) who after shocking local people with her leftist views goes on a trip to Russia and is discovered in New York by Hollywood. The film then chronicles her problems with alcoholism and her mental state. It's such a poor film, Lange overacts like there's no tomorrow, Kim Stanley gives a horrendously bad turn as the overbearing mother and only Sam Shepard emerges from the film with any credit whatsoever. It's a sloppy film that you can just *tell* is playing fast and loose with the truth (even with no prior knowledge of this woman's real story) as it focuses so much on the sensationalist aspects, many of which are just flat out fabricated.
So where does the value in the three films come from? Jennifer Jason Leigh in Georgia. I'd heard of this performance for years, I think it won a major critics' award in America like New York or the National *checks imdb* Ah, it was New York. Anyway, the film is nothing too special, it's about a wannabe singer (Leigh) who sings in small bands whilst her sister (the eponymous character played by Mare Winningham) is a country star playing to packed audiences in big venues. So an exploration on the relationship and jealousies whilst Leigh is off her face most of the time. She gives a very charismatic performance with utter conviction, flitting between confidence and very low moments. Winningham doesn't have a great deal to do but is nicely restrained, her oscar nomination is a bit of a stretch but it was a very weak year in the category. The film itself though doesn't compel dramatically despite JJL's performance holding it all together, but that performance is such an unqualified triumph that the film is more than worth watching.
Another film with the critics' awards and the drug theme is High Art, which got Ally Sheedy a lot of attention 10 years ago. This was Lisa Cholodenko's directorial debut and I've seen her follow-up Laurel Canyon, which I wasn't very impressed with. This film contains far better acting but barely struggles to get up to the quality of her next film. The set up is that an assitant editor at a photography magazine (Radha Mitchell) discovers her neighbour (Ally Sheedy) is a photographer who has been off the scene for a decade and persuades her to publish new material. Sheedy though is in a destructive lesbian relationship with a German actress (Patricia Clarkson) and agrees to it out of what we are to assume is fascination with Mitchell.
It's all very plodding and predictable. The relationships aren't very well drawn (particularly Mitchell's, both with her boyfriend and Sheedy, very problematic seeing as the latter is the key thing the film hinges on), there's no genuine drama and it's all rather turgid. Had this been a story with Sheedy's character being a man it would be totally unimaginative and uninspired ... even the added "interest" (oh that there were any) of the homosexual aspect of the story it remains unimaginative and uninspired and rather tedious at times due to the poor fashion the relationships are handled in. Clarkson steals the film in the showiest role, Sheedy is good with her held-back performance and Mitchell is fine, but it just relies on the lesbian aspect to provide interest in a story which doesn't really have any. One character says "I don't have a point, I'm just saying it" - that seems to be Cholodenko's approach here and it does her no favours whatsoever.