Strong Femme Roles Are Hard to Find

Sasha Stone looks into the paucity of good roles for women these days. Thank God for Meryl Streep--who not only carried The Devil Wears Prada--which even Hollywood can't completely ignore--but has the musical Mamma Mia, the drama Doubt and the Julia Child biopic coming up.

Comments

[IClavdivs]

There are good roles for women and as good as Streep was in Prada, I dare say that was a joke to consider it a role that is worth commenting on. There are good roles for women, the problem is that critics do not support them. Unless it is a gimmicky performance in a biopic, a depressive, a put upon wife or every other role that has been played to the hilt then the critics simply refuse to acknowledge it. If they do not understand a character then to them it is nothing. The likes of Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern have seen their potrayals of incredible women dismissed by critics because they don't play them the way they've seen before or are outside the box, Naomi Watts is another who seems to bring a touch of realism to her performances and yet is given a slight pat on the back. Most of the roles that are ridiculously praised are not remembered months down the line. There are some actresses creating new female characters on the screen but they get nothing for it.

What we get now are simply great performances but not many new female characterisations. Streep is giving performances but she is not out there creating new roles from the female perspective, is she?