Career Reboot: Reese Witherspoon

I was just about to write-off Reese Witherspoon as yet another driver of plushy relationship/romantic comedy vehicles, the kind fashioned for actresses who are either building or maintaining (desperately) an A-list, leading lady star persona i.e., Roberts, Aniston, Barrymore, Heigl etc. But then I reminded myself of her filmography, how many interesting or offbeat roles she's taken and just how much I've enjoyed watching her act over roughly the past two decades ...without ever realizing it until now. Going all the back to her 1991 screen debut in The Man in the Moon, Witherspoon, then 14 years old and in raw form, was an absolute natural – one of those performances by a kid actor that bares all without ever seeming aware of the camera. In the proceeding decade she took up commercial fare like Disney's A Far Off Place (a surprisingly good and underrated kid adventure), teen thriller/melodramas Fear and Cruel Intentions, and the wholesome but artful Pleasantville. Alternately were edgier projects like S.F.W., Freeway and Best Laid Plans, before adding her subversive perkiness to American Psycho.

In terms of box-office draw Witherspoon's biggest success is the admittedly charming Legally Blonde and its less than charming sequel. Sweet Home Alabama, Just Like Heaven, Four Christmases and the recently lousy How Do You Know are all forgettable efforts in the comedy romance genre. The Importance of Being Earnest and, to a greater extent, Vanity Fair were bold attempts at resting lurid costume epics on the shoulders of Witherspoon's star power with ultimately mixed results; the latter mentioned is probably the more entertaining of the two, if nothing else. Of course, there's her Academy Award win for Walk the Line, and while her performance as June Carter Cash displays all the measure and control of a professional, the height of Witherspoon's talent is best seen in Election. I could easily go on and on about Alexander Payne's 1999 comic masterpiece but Witherspoon on her own as the morally bankrupt, bat-shit crazy, super human Tracey Flick is a hyper reality of character that needs to be seen to be believed. And it showcases Witherspoon's ability to multilayer extreme traits into a singular performance that is at once frightening, hilarious and even strangely arousing. Sure, Witherspoon is a pretty girl, but not exactly a sex bomb. Observing her directly, she’s something of an odd looking creature: boyish countenance, compact composure and chipmunk-like concentration, often projecting the near opposite of “come-hither”. She’s like a determined little elf. But she’s interesting on screen, and whatever attraction there is can be attributed to her dynamic personality.

                                  

Time, however, has a way of sneaking up and marginalizing movie stars who become complacent with steady roles instead of intriguing ones (a process that is no doubt even harder for women) and it seems that Witherspoon, still young at 34, is reaching her turning point: continue on with glib romantic comedies until they become her prison, like with so many other actresses, or venture back into the unexpected; taking chances with more eccentric material or perhaps an ensemble cast, or even putting on a superhero costume or hopping aboard a spaceship.

Anything to break the predictability of chick flicks. She has already proven her scene stealing charisma and volatile nature hidden beneath sunny, smiley exteriors – a walking minefield when the part calls for it. I’d like to see her attain the kind of loosed freedom of, say, Cate Blanchett, waxing dramatic in some hard hitting prestigious endeavor or indie art-house film, only to later show up in as an Indiana Jones villain. Reese Witherspoon has too much talent to be regulated away into rom-com oblivion.