The comic book chick

Archive for August, 2011

It’s a rare sort of actor who can manage to be hilarious, poignant, and the sort of person that everyone either wants as a mentor or best friend. And yet throughout the years, Meryl Streep has managed to get accolades for her talent as well as her apparently genuinely fantastic personality. One of the few remaining women in Hollywood with poise, grace, and the sort of classic approach to acting and being well-rounded that used to be so important, Meryl Streep has managed to captivate audiences of all ages in a variety of roles that have earned her both adoration and accolades. Chances are, if you’re flipping through the channels on your HDTV at any given point, you’re going to find at least one film from the last two decades where she manages to steal the show.

And the really incredible thing about Ms. Streep is the fact that there are people who might be familiar with one aspect of her career and completely oblivious of her other choices in roles. For instance, there is her fabulous performance in “The Devil Wears Prada,” one of the best adaptations of “chick lit” to exist so far. As the thinly-veiled head of the fashion world Anna Wintour, Streep manages to terrify at the same time that she proves that she truly does deserve to be at the top of the fashion heap. It is a performance that is surprisingly more complex than another actress could have given, and it’s the sort of more simple film that you’ll end up pausing on if it happens to pop up on satellite tv, no matter who you are.

Recently, Streep gained a lot of attention for her role as the truly incredible Julia Child, in the incredibly uneven film “Jules and Julia.” It remains to be seen why on God’s green earth such an incredibly rich performance as Streep gave had to be cut away from for a self-indulgent mope fest in New York, but those who are fortunate enough to watch from the comfort of their living rooms can make the most of the film by fast-forwarding through any of the scenes that do not involve Streep.

Greece has never looked as great in HDTV as it did in “Mama Mia!” where Streep plays the free-wheeling matriarch of a family who is looking for the father of her about-to-be-married daughter before the wedding ceremony commences. While you might not expect singing Meryl Streep (to say nothing of singing Pierce Brosnan) to give such incredible performances, the entire movie is that sort of incredible feel-good adventure that manages to hook audiences young and old alike.

You’re not just going to find Meryl Streep’s film roles on satellite TV, either. She has done a little bit of work in the world of television, too, including a recent and much-praised role in the epic HBO mini-series “Angels in America,” based on the poignant and controversial play of the same name. And it makes perfect sense that an actress like Streep, who has worked on the stage as well as on the silver screen, would make the choice to get involved in the HBO project. It truly seems whether she’s braving whitewater, playing a romantic lead, or simply managing to inspire with what seems like a truly phenomenal inner spirit, that Ms. Streep can do no wrong when it comes to picking roles in films and on television.