Kate Beckinsale
A few months ago, Esquire named Kate Beckinsale as 'The Sexiest Woman Alive." I have no quibble with that selection, but it got me wondering about her career. Aside from Kate Hudson or Ashley Judd, is their any actress of somewhat major distinction whose filmography is pitted with so many lousy movies?Her only film that could remotely be called great is The Aviator, and she has only a small part in that as Ava Gardner. Of her starring roles, she has made one excellent small film, Cold Comfort Farm, and another indie, Snow Angels, has its heart in the right place. I admired parts of Laurel Canyon, but mostly due to Frances McDormand's performance. Her best starring role may be in Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco, which was long unavailable on DVD but now is, so I will revisit that film in a few days.
On the negative side of the ledger, we get the historically awful Van Helsing, plus Pearl Harbor, and the Underworld series. When added up, Beckinsale is woefully in arrears.
I will be studying several Beckinsale films in the next couple of weeks (but I will not lower myself to seeing any of the Underworld films). I started with the 1994 film Uncovered, in which Beckinsale, hair cut pixie-short, plays an art restorer who uncovers a mystery in an old painting that starts a murder spree. It's the kind of film that is moderately interesting, but is marred by shoddy production values (the score is particularly unpleasant). Some good actors, such as Sinead Cusack and John Wood, are horribly used. But the director, Jim McBride, is clearly enamored with Beckinsale, as she looks lovely, and has one gratuitous nude scene. Her breasts, as they say, are real, and they're spectacular.
Can't say she's ever done much for me. She's a good example of someone who, if there were objective standards for attractiveness, would probably meet them, but for whatever reason has never equaled the sum of those parts, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteI think it's perhaps she seems about as engaging, in terms of personality, as the average 2x4 at Home Depot. I haven't seen many of her movies, and I haven't even seen in her interviews or on talk shows very often, but whenever I have she's seemed remote and vacant and, well, dull (I would imagine this explains her lackluster career to a large extent as well).
And it's hard for me to get past that, even when simply looking at pictures like the one you've posted. All I really see is generically attractive brunette, and those are a dime a dozen in showbiz.