Thursday Threes: The Answer

Welcome back to the Threes inner circle, Joe Allen! Joe used to snag the homemade construction-paper medals on a regular basis but we haven't seen his shining, smiling name lately. Second and third places went to Steve Lurie and Ron Wesson. Congrats to all!

So what actor was in Flirting, The Chronicles of Riddick, and W.? Embrace the warmth of the Inviso-Text and find out:

It was indeed the lovely Thandie Newton, appearing this weekend in the end-of-the-world comedy 2012. The British-born Newton has never quite had the A-List career many of us think she deserves, but she usually does impressive work when she does pop up in films.Her first movie, and where I first saw--and was dazzled by--her was John Duigan's 1991 semi-autobiographical Flirting. Newton played the exchange student that Noah Taylor's protagonist falls for. Flirting (which also features a young Nicole Kidman) is such a lovely film, but Duigan has never been able to make the third part of his Noah Taylor/Danny Embling trilogy. (The first was 1987's The Year My Voice Broke.)

Based on her wonderful performance in Flirting, it seemed Newton would take the world of cinema by storm. But while she continued to get good roles, they always ended up being in films that never quite caught the public's full attention. She played Sally Hemmings to Nick Nolte's Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson in Paris, and had the title role in the much-hyped-but-little-seen Oprah production of Jonathan's Demme's Beloved. Newton was also Tom Cruise's love interest in John Woo's Mission: Impossible II (usually considered the weak film in the franchise), and co-starred in Demme's The Truth About Charlie remake. It seemed that with her featured role in the Oscar-winning Crash that Newton might once again be making her way back to the center spotlight, but alas the past few years have brought more "love interest" parts in movie misfires such as Norbit, The Pursuit of Happyness, Run Fatboy Run, and Rocknrolla.

In The Chronicles of Riddick, Newton had the Lady MacBeth role as Dame Vaako, the wife of Karl Urban's usurper. And in last fall's George Bush biopic W. she played Condoleezza Rice.

Let's hope that a somewhat central role in a super-mega blockbuster like 2012 helps put Thandie Newton back at the top of casting lists.

Comments

[Clint M]

There is no way anybody thought she did a good job as Condoleezza Rice in W. That was an incredibly over-the-top portrayal. She made Dreyfuss' Cheney look normal. Whenever I think of her now I can't help but think of her in W.

[Locke Peterseim]

Absolutely true, Clint--I didn't want to bring that up in a short bit praising her, but yes, she was THE weak spot in W.'s otherwise impressive cast. (I thought Dreyfuss's Cheney was GREAT.) I said of Newton's performance at the time: she was "looking the part, but sometimes sliding into Olive-Oyl-style yes-woman caricature"

It's too bad, because I do really like most of Newton's performances, but yep, the Rice thing was pretty bad. I'll amend my "always does impressive work" to a "usually does impressive work"