The hard work paid off as Meryl would enter 2007's award season as a lock with her performance
in "The Devil Wears Prada". She won her career's 6th Golden Globe award in January and
received nominations for the Screen Actors Guil Award, the BAFTA Award
and her 14th nomination for
an Academy Award (the Best Actress awards of 2007 eventually all went to Helen Mirren's
per-formance in "The Queen). Still, with 57 years of age, Meryl was at the top of her game again - and there was
no sign of rest. In fact, she was already having two movies finished to be released and
would soon join two of the year's most anticipated films. But on the heels of a successful
year, 2007 be-came a box office flaw for Meryl. | |
The Devil Wears Gold: Meryl receives her 6th Golden Globe Award and a 14th Oscar
nomination for her performance of Miranda Priestly. |
The first film in line was "Dark Matter", directed by Chen Shi-zheng. In the thriller
drama, a young Chinese academic is awarded a visa to study in the USA, but his pride is
tempered by his struggle to understand the social and political dynamics of American university
life and is later, after publishing an article about his "Dark Matter" theory, hit with
insurmountable obstacles by his professor. For the young student, revenge is the only ventile
for his dismay. The film premiered in January 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival with overall
positive reviews - but right in its search for a distributor, the film's storyline was overshadowed
by a killing spree of a Chinese student at the university of Virginia. To this date, "Dark
Matter" has not been picked up by any studio to be released. In June 2007, "Evening" released theaters, a drama with a strong resemblence to "The Hours".
The story about a dying woman who reflects her life and the choices she made in the presence of her two adult daughters
was based on Susan Minot's bestselling book and adapted by Michael Cunningham. The cast -
a who is who of Hollywood's A-list drama actresses - featured Claire Danes, Toni Collette,
Glenn Close - and for the first time a pairing of two famous mothers and daughters.
Vanessa Redgrave appeared opposite her daughter Na-
tasha Richardson (who plays her daughter
in the film) and Meryl Streep's eldest daughter Mamie Gummer was seen in her first big
role as the younger version (and the bigger part) of her mother's character. The movie received
quite a buzz before its release, however 'Evening' largely panned at the box office.
| |
"Dark Matter", co-starring Liu Ye, was not theatrically re-leased after the Virginia Tech
shooting while "Evening' (pic-tured with Toni Collette) remained little-seen in theaters. |
In late 2007, movie studios floated the screens with political dramas and thrillers, a
whole series of ambitious and controversial productions just in time to launch the year
of the US elections in 2008. Meryl was featured with not one but two anticipated productions
that would critically eye two controversial topics of the American administration - the
use of extraordinary renditions and the war in Afghanistan. First, Meryl was seen as a
CIA government official who orders the rendition of a young Egyptian living in the USA
with his American wife, played by Reese Witherspoon. The multilayered thriller, directed
by Gavin Hood, centers on the wife's search for her missing husband, the work of a CIA
analyst on his first assignment, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, and the CIA official played
by Meryl who tries her best to keep it all out of the spotlight. "Rendition", although
starring Hollywood's audience darlings Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal and releasing theaters
with generally good reviews, would become yet another flop at the box office. And so did
"Lions for Lambs", which released just a few weeks later and starred the three big names
of the movie industry - Redford, Cruise, Streep. The film received media buzz from the
day it was announced, mostly because of the enourmous interest in Tom Cruise's comeback
to the screen after he became the head of United Artists. 'Lions' further marked a
reunion for
Redford and Streep, who worked together 22 years after they made "Out of Africa".
Like "Rendition", the film is a vignette of different storylines, all connected with
each other through the profound impact of the war in Afghanistan. Redford plays a professor
who attempts two determined students to do something important with
| |
The good and bad side of politics: As a ruthless CIA official in Rendition (left), as
a probing TV journalist in Lions for Lambs |
their lives (which leads them to join the battle in Afghanistan). Tom Cruise plays a Senator and Presidential
hopeful who is about to give a bombshell story to a probing TV journalist (played by Meryl
Streep). In the end, all stories are connected by the choices that are made. "Lions for
Lambs" was heavily promoted around the world by its release, yet it was panned by critics
and audiences alike.
All box office flaws aside, Meryl keeps her working schedule busy with yet another two anticipated
adaptations in the makings, the big screen version of the hit musical "Mamma Mia" and the theatrical
version on the Pulitzer Prize winning play "Doubt", opposite Philip Seymor Hoffman.
