Monologue: Annette Bening. Still on the Grift.
Monday, May 21, 2012 at 10:41PM 1990 was the year in which I saw the least amount of movies in theaters. I was overseas and when I returned I devoured everything. I don't recommend missing an entire year of cinema but I also can't deny that it's fun to catch up in massive marathons. My favorite shiny new plaything that year turned out to be Annette Bening. She had appeared in two movies before her breakthrough (The Great Outdoors and Valmont, the latter of which was barely released) but I wasn't familiar with her. In 1990 she ascended. She swiped a scene wholesale from Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge (in a way we didn't see again for another 18 years when Viola Davis rationalized away her son in Doubt) and sparkled and teased as Myra Langtry in The Grifters. She deservedly won her first Oscar nomination but the bid was doomed. "You in danger, girl" Ghost was a juggernaut and Whoopi Goldberg was impossible to deny..
Myra, delighted and curious, realizes her boyfriend is "on the grift"
Director Stephen Frears, then at his creative peak hot off Dangerous Liaisons, handed Bening The Grifter's pivotal centerpiece. It's not one scene exactly nor an unbroken monologue but a shifting series of impressions and exchanges in which Myra reveals her past (in voiceover flashback) and begins to rope in her future, altering the game board on which mother and son con artists Roy and Lily Dillon play (John Cusack and Anjelica Huston, the latter giving a mammoth Oscar-worthy performance.)
After Myra witnesses her boyfriend Roy "working the tat on those sailor boys" she drops enough strange lingo to choke a lesser actress in an effort to rustle his cautious feathers and reveal himself.
Oh come on, Roy. 'The tat,' what you do for a living.❞
More including new Bening films...
Roy, you're a short con operator and a good one I think. Don't talk to me like I'm another square."
Roy still hesitates. No one yet knew, not even Warren Beatty, that resisting The Bening is an exercize in futiity. But Roy finally caves both from curiousity and Myra's (and Annette's) innate persuasive. "What's your pitch?" he asks finally against his better judgment. His (short) life will never be the same.
The long hand, big con. I was teamed ten years with the best in the business Cole Langley. It was beautiful. And getting better all the time! It's where you should be. What do you bring in -- $300 $400 a week? We use money like that for tips. And now, right now, is the perfect time -- the best time since I've been in the game.
Here the playful noir score kicks in as we move into an extended storytelling flashback which alternates between Myra in voiceover and Myra as "Mary Beth" with a faux southern accent and deeper voice. If The Grifters were a musical Myra would start singing right then illustrating her finesse as "a roper" (recruiter) for "the marks" (victims) as the big curtain-dropping show-stopping Act One closer. It's easy to picture since Bening's eyes flash and sparkle theatrically as she speaks with a sing-song girly cadence.
All over the Southwest you've got these businessmen. They were making money when everyone was making money. They think they're smart. And now they're hurting. When the price of oil fell, so did they. They've still got money. But they need more money. When the oil money was good they put up all these office buildings. Now they're half empty. They'll give you anything to move in: first two months free, redecoration, whatever you want. They help you set up the store. I'm the roper. I go out and find them and bring them in.
Once they saw that money they were hooked. And I made sure they saw it.
Then all Cole had to do was tell the story..."
Bening positions Myra as a woman who understands and exploits both her sexual power but her roping is brilliantly more than lust based. Myra also understands and exploits her contagious sense of delight. It's something Bening's star persona has often traded on. It's one reason why her fantastic turn in Valmont as the laughing sexy conniving Merquise de Merteuil is in some key ways a far more believable interpretation than Glenn Close's iconic work in the same role in Dangerous Liaisons. You always want to throw in with Bening because she's a kick to be with. Even if you know she's no good for you. Who then was ever a better fit to play a "roper"?
Myra's bouncy "Goodie!" when she sees a big stack of money -- and makes sure her mark sees it -- may be the most cheerful evocation of evil I've seen onscreen. She's about to swindle a man for all he's worth and she's bursting with pride, joy, and flirtatious good humor -- none of those chilling emotions we usually associate with crime.
People often like to pretend that Meryl Streep is the only female star who has ever broken age barriers in Hollywood and kept the public interested for multiple decades. Streep is unarguably the biggest example but she isn't the only one. Twenty-two years after The Bening's breakthrough she's still headlining motion pictures and still in demand at the age of 53 (she turns 54 next week). Consider that plethora of upcoming projects expected to arrive in just the next couple of years.
- Imogene (2012) as Kristen Wiig's gambling addict mother
- Ruby Sparks (2012) supporting role in a fantastical romantic comedy
- Untitled Sally Potter Feature (2012) a supporting role in a female-centric film
- The Look of Love (2013) lead role opposite Robin Williams and Ed Harris as a widow who falls for a man who resembles her deceased husband.
- Hemingway and Fuentes (2013) she plays the fourth wife of the famous author
- The Great (2013) lead role as a Russian royal considering the future of her country
...perhaps she'll win that Oscar yet.
Three new roles: RUBY SPARKS, IMOGENE, LOOK OF LOVE
Myra Langtry prides herself on her "long con" success but Bening's own long career is no con; she's never promised anything she hasn't delivered. She's been one of the cinema's best actresses from the very moment she traded the stage for the soundstage.
Reader Comments (24)
Paolo HAD said that ever Annette performance is like being reintroduced to her, and this is such a fine example of that. And 90s Annette is so intriguing to me because it's bookended by this and Carolyn Burnham and smack in the middle is the atypical Sydney Ellen Wade (my very first Annette) and they're all so very "Annette" while being so different (even a year later her performance in Bugsy seems like a whole new dimension).
Her grinning throughout this scene (and the film) is always what defines the performance for me. Myra is hardly a good person but the joy she takes in her "work" appeals to me.
(The giggle she gives leaving also reminds me of the just as dubious Julia giggling after destroying her "rival" at the end of BEING JULIA.)
It's been a while since The Bening deigned to grace us with a blog post missive from on high. Think it can be arranged? There must be something she wants to get off her chest!
Streep is also a box office draw who brings in money.... Not sure the same can be said of Annette
Great writeup Nat. Just in time for her birthday!
RE: #3 ... Not sure if major box office viability is a prerequisite for breaking age barriers in Hollywood, but each to his/her own.
Excellent piece Nathaniel! I adore the film and I adore The Bening, it's always a pleasure to read about her on your blog! (especially because you seem to like her just as much as I do)
I'd love to read something more specific about "Valmont" (my favorite Annette movie ever, and one of my favorite Annette's performances) sooner or later.
What about that Howard Hughes project, directed by her beau, Mr. Beatty? I know it's HIS dream project, but couldn't it be also an oscar vehicle for his wife in the supporting category?
I'm clearly not a fan, but I saw The Grifters again and I found the performance and her unavoidable overthetopness perfectly suited to the movie. It's a great movie, by the way.
Back in 1990 I was a huge fan of Anjelica's performance in this movie, but I recently saw it again and got way more impressed by how many subtle details Annette provides to her character, which is clearly less original. I love when actresses add humor to their roles, despite the genre.
PS By overseas you mean Europe?
Cal -- it is a great movie. So often it seems that movie that does well in directing and acting categories (the two biggest or most influentially branches but inexplicably misses best picture is the one that truly deserved to be there. see also: Hud, Thelma & Louise, They Shoot Horses... etcetera
Jamie -- well, yes. Streep stands alone currently in terms of box office pull. But Bening's career has several non-sure-thing hits which I'm sure isn't hurting Hollywood's continued interest.
The cheapness and vulgarity characteristic of Bening's acting style worked well here.
RE: Steve
Yeah, everything about her performance in The Kids Are Alright, especially the dinner table sequence, was cheap and vulgar (the way she used her senses to act on her instinct, the way she sat in a daze feeling totally isolated around everyone who was suppose to love her, the way she unapologetically, understatedly expressed her love for Joni Mitchell).
And, if you took her out of it, you'd have a much better film.
/sarcasm
I don't like this performance. I'm not sure the reason being is for the scripted dislike-able nature of the character. None of the performances feel completely natural. Although, the section of the film you highlight carries the strongest passage of her work in the movie. She felt most authentic when she ham's it up fooling the Texan.
I love Annette Bening. If America had taste she'd be a sought after fixture in movies, instead of a polarizing one.
I'm not crazy about this performance, or Bening in general. She's a memorable performer, but hollow, shrill, and with a nasty aftertaste (see also American Beauty and Being Julia).
I always thought that Annette Bening looks like Gloria Grahame, but I can't help but notice her resemblance to Shirley MacLaine in those screen captures. Make of that what you will.
PS I did the "overseas" thing too, only a decade earlier than you. I'm still catching up!
Love her, love this performance (just saw it recently for the first time - I was surprised at how much FUN she was having, which made it fun for me), and love her in other movies, too ("Being Julia" and "The Kids Are All RIght" are definitely up there). I think the over-the-topness in this movie is maybe what also slightly (just slightly) diminished her work in "American Beauty" for me but still...love her.
Have you all seen Open Range? She is so good in it!
@Dave
The Maclaine resemblance has me thinking Warren's so vain he wants to keep it in the family!
I am VERY excited for Imogene and The Look of Love - pairing her with both Kristin Wiig and Ed Harris is inspired.
Her loss of the Best Actress Oscar for American Beauty still rankles, particularly since that film won every other major statue at that ceremony. I think the fact that Carolyn Burnham wasn't particularly "sympathetic" did her in - however, Carolyn was a very typical suburban woman of the time, and she was so terrific in that film.
Glad to read about The Grifters because I loved that movie and loved Bening in it. I did like Bening at the beginning of her career up until she made American Beauty which I loathed and her in it. I've always hated that performance and was extra glad when Swank won, not just because she was so brilliant but because she beat Bening. It's taken me a long time to warm up to her again but I have liked her work lately. I still don't think she's one of the all-time greats or has ever been robbed of an Oscar or that it would be a travesty if she never won one. I have long been bemused by Nat's love of her.
Suzanne: What also did her in is that, I think, most Academy members like to wait at least ten years between films that take the entirety of the Big Five. Lead Actor was weaker than Lead Actress that year (the only "serious snub" that year (if we use only live action, english language films as the baseline for seriousness) in Actress was Reese Witherspoon, while Lead Actor missed an entire field (Broadbent in Topsy-Turvy, the leads from Fight Club, Broderick in Election and Office Space's lead, Ron Livingston)), so Spacey had to take his category and it had been only eight years since The Silence of the Lambs.
Suzanne, that loss isn't such a tragedy for me. In fact, I agree with it. The real mistake was 5 years later, when she lost to Swank AGAIN, even though she deserved to win. I think people confused rooting for Swank's character with rooting for the actress, who delivered a competent but generic performance.
Swank's second win is sickening. Anyone but Swank would have made a worthy winner. Best Actress is a bitch!
Thanks for the write-up Nat, it's been years since I've seen this film - I don't remember very much about it, but I do remember Bening's (nude) intro quite vividly.
"It's one reason why her fantastic turn in Valmont as the laughing sexy conniving Merquise de Merteuil is in some key ways a far more believable interpretation than Glenn Close's iconic work in the same role in Dangerous Liaisons."
Agreed, and I'll second Stefano's vote on a write up of that. As much as a I love Dangerous Liasons, I had a much easier time believing that bening and colin firth were lovers than I did in Close and Malkovitch - they were both so wonderfully sexy. Bening's take on the character was entirely different than Close's, and it makes for fascinating comparisons - whereas Close 's version was a "dragon lady", Bening was a serpent, lithe, sexy, slippery and dangerous.