Wednesday 3 September 2014

Watching Nicole Kidman's Face in Before I Go To Sleep



This was an utterly ludicrous film--completely implausible, bad script, tired material. The gratuitous violence against women is just so cheap and easy and what the hell was the point of that shrink? "Countertransference doesn't happen so much anymore these days." Hilarious. Nevertheless, I was entertained by watching Nicole Kidman's face. Once upon a time, we watched actresses faces for range of expression, for the nuances in a glance or smile, the mystery in a furrowed brow or pursed lips. Instead, I spent the hour and a half analyzing and considering the effects of the botox, filler, and face lifts Kidman has subjected herself to in order to stay in the game. The film, if you filter out the sound and action and just stay focused on Kidman's face, is a piece of performance art for our times. You've got to hand it to her. She looks very weird, but she's very interesting to look at, and she does appear very young (the hands, alas, remain a giveaway.) It used to be that when an actress turned 30 she had to start playing grandmothers. Kidman in this film plays a woman 7 years younger than she actually is! Now that is a feat.