"I'm gonna make a cake. That's what I'm gonna do"
Monday, January 21, 2013 at 2:30PM If you feel like Julianne Moore got short shrift in our 10th anniversary celebration of The Hours, check out this excellent piece on the actresses "insularity" by sometime TFE contributor David Upton at Victim of the Time.
Laura is possibly the most striking example of this [insularity] – much more self-aware than Far From Heaven’s Cathy Whitaker, and much softer and timid than Savage Grace’s Barbara Baekeland, Laura can often barely maintain the performance, often slipping sentences that reveal her true despair into otherwise guarded conversations.
Moore’s voice is probably the most vivid part of her performance in The Hours; a soft, mousy whisper, wavering with indecision and reticence. When she puts on a front of confidence, it momentarily strengthens, a striking declaration of her uncharacteristic decisiveness – “I’m gonna make a cake. That’s what I’m gonna do.”
Reader Comments (4)
Good piece David! I thought she was going to be everyone's favorite. I guess that is what makes discussing movies so interesting. I believe the fact she abandons her child is the key. Conscious or unconsciously a lot of people can't pass on that.
Poop
Oh my God, great piece!
I want to read your dissertation "Julianne Moore: Queer Identification and Disconnection".
Thanks all (pigs like poop, so I'm taking that as a compliment)! I'd definitely agree with you, Peggy - the social structure of the family is so entrenched and seen as so necessary to creating functional members of that society that it really is one of the biggest taboos. Personally, I sympathise with her isolated plight, but I can understand why people wouldn't.