Nicole Kidman Tribute: Bewitched (2005)

by Christopher James

Yes, I've come back here to defend another much-maligned Nicole Kidman comedy. I swear I love her dramatic roles too, but there's always something strange, special and unnerving about Kidman's comedy work, like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs and smile. 

Bewitched is Nora Ephron’s Ishtar - a big budget box office failure whose greatest crime is throwing too much against the wall. I’d always rather have a movie that tried to do too much outside of the norm, rather than something deeply middling. Bewitched is most interesting in the ways it swings and misses because Ephron and Kidman both give it their all, striking out gloriously. It’s as if the studio got one note (hire Will Ferrell) and decided to never check on the movie again. Their obviousness is our pleasure...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: The Stepford Wives (2004)

by Christopher James

You never forget your first. My first Kidman - The Stepford Wives.

Is the movie good? I will always have a soft spot for it, but it does not fully work. There are glimpses of a great movie, thanks in large part to genuine laugh-out-loud joke lines in Paul Rudnick’s script. Not many people would recommend this as a first Kidman viewing, but it perfectly illustrates one of the qualities that I think makes her one of our greatest actresses - fearless commitment to one’s character. I take that back. The introduction of Joanna Eberhart is a perfect introduction to Nicole Kidman...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Chanel N°5: The Film (2004)

by Cláudio Alves

If someone asked me to come up with the definitive image of Nicole Kidman, I'm not sure I'd gravitate toward her work in movies or TV, nor even her red-carpet appearances. Instead, my mind would instinctually drift to that shot of industrial-grade glamour that once played at every primetime ad break. It's a Moulin Rouge! reunion and, in its way, a miniature remake with a contemporary twist. It's fashion distilled into a dream, a bespoke Lagerfeld-designed wardrobe, and a fragrance we can only imagine through the screen. It's Old Hollywood resurrected for 180 seconds of hyper-artifice and soft-focus glow, so beautiful it makes your heartache. It's Chanel N°5: The Film, of course…

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Birth (2004)

by Cláudio Alves

After her Oscar win for The Hours, Nicole Kidman's career went through some interesting somersaults. 2003 saw her bow the avant-garde cruelty of Dogville at Cannes, while Hollywood bore witness to two prestige projects whose success is debatable. The Human Stain is one of those classic "This Had Oscar Buzz" case studies, while Cold Mountain is most interesting for how it didn't secure a Best Actress nomination despite AMPAS' affection. Then came 2004, when von Trier's Brechtian film finally reached the States, and Kidman faced critical lashings as a response to her risk-taking. If not for Dogville, then for a derided broad comedy we'll discuss later in the series. And, of course, for today's subject – Birth.

Jonathan Glazer's sophomore feature was a resounding bomb with audiences and critics back in 2004, and only the Golden Globes seemed willing to recognize the genius in Nicole Kidman's work. Twenty years later, its reputation has changed…

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Dogville (2003)

by Eric Blume

If you’ve never seen Dogville, Lars von Trier’s 2003 masterpiece(?) that gives our Nicole three full hours’ worth of very tricky acting, watch it.  Or at least, try to watch it.  You may find it absolutely insufferable, and turn it off even before Nicole appears, twelve minutes in.  This is the definition of a movie not meant for everyone, and perhaps even a movie for almost nobody except a small sliver of people.  But I suppose am one of those people for whom the film was made, and I think it’s fantastic.  And it’s one of my all-time favorite performances by one of cinema’s greatest actresses...

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