Movie Myths From The New York Times

This weekend's New York Times Magazine brought an unintentionally amusing article about indie actress Vera Farmiga. The thesis of the article was that Hollywood no longer makes dramas with women in leading roles like the good ol' days of Meryl Streep and movies like Sophie's Choice. As a consequence, we are told, we'll never get to see that poor Vera is just as good as Meryl was in her day.

Like most retrospectives on the good ol' days, this one was written with rose-colored glasses on.

Assertion number one: unlike in the 1980's, today women are no longer cast as the stars of "mainstream studio movies." All that's available for women today are romantic comedies and "women-in-peril" films.

Whoops. What about Million Dollar Baby, a terrrific Oscar-winning 2004 flick starring Hilary Swank in the lead role. What about Monster in 2003 with Charlize Theron? Halle Berry in Monster's Ball in 2001--not mentioned either. All these movies received high critical praise and did okay--not spectacular, but okay--at the box office. (As we see below, Sophie's Choice did likewise.)

Then NYT goes on to say that Reese Witherspoon's Oscar-winning performance in Walk The Line doesn't count because, unlike Sissy Spacek in 1981's Coal Miner's Daughter, Witherspoon played second fiddle to Joacquin Phoenix. DUH! Since Walk the Line was about a male singer's life--Johnny Cash--it just figures the movie had a male lead. How do you compare that to a movie about a female singer's (Loretta Lynn) life?

Oh, but there's this: "In 2005, there was not a single female-driven drama that was a financial blockbuster." That's because North Country (with Charlize Theron), Proof, with Gwyneth Paltrow, and Memoirs of a Geisha were not in the top ten at the box office for '05.

Well, so what about those good ol' days of Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)? No sign in the top 10 for those years, either. In fact, 1982 featured such big hits as Porky's and Poltergeist--not exactly dramas with female leads either.

It is true that today Hollywood doesn't turn out many dramas with female leads. It's not true that in some bygone era Hollywood did turn out scads of dramas with female leads, which went on to become box office smashes.

The good news, however, is that today there are many more indie film companies and producers, as well as more and better vehicles--such as the Sundance Festival--for promoting them. And the indies DO put out quite a few excellent dramas every year, some with female leads.

In the end, it's not clear what this all has to do with Vera Farmiga. She's a talented actress who's played supporting roles in some nice indie films. The proposition that she is Meryl Streep in an age when they don't make movies for Meryl Streep, however, is bogus.