GLENN CLOSE
ACTOR DANCES WITH THE SCRIPT UNDER THE STORM CLOUD OF HUMAN EMOTIONS
By PETER THOMAS BUSCH
Glenn Close finds roles that require a character to be highly focused on a singular task almost always to the point of being unstoppable.
The talented actor then has her screen persona struggle with the guarded optimism that all eventual outcomes shall be correctly decided in her favor.
In A Reversal of Fortune (1990), the biographical character lays in a coma while the narrative continually flashes back to what brought her to her present condition. When Sunny von Bulow is on camera, she is so pleased with herself, living the life without a care in the word as a rich American heiress and socialite, but the other scenes have her face down in the bathroom, often with her undergarments all disheveled.
Jeremy Irons portrays the accused, Claus von Bulow, who allegedly sought to kill Sunny for her $14 million fortune (a lot of money in those days) by injecting her with insulin and triggering a coma that lasted 28 years.
Ron Silver stars as American defense attorney Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz became a celebrity lawyer appearing on talk shows and as a news color commentator after successfully representing famous people in winless cases.
Irons shares screentime with Silver. Irons plays Bulow as this carefree nonchalant, not taking anything all that seriously, even the life sentence he faces if convicted.
Close had just the opposite role a few years earlier as this aggressive alpha female triggered into various life threatening ideations by what seemed on screen to be a come by chance, one-off passionate sexual encounter with a business associate.
In Fatal Attraction (1987) the screen persona leads the narrative forward while Michael Douglas plays a passive aggressive male who has made a terrible, character limiting mistake.
Close performs at her best with Douglas being mirror perfect as the narrative takes the characters through a rollercoaster of emotions. Alex is initially quite standoffish, focused on her professional demeanor in a business relationship, but when she chooses to embark on the romantic journey her emotional intensity bubbles up.
Dan and Alex have different expectations, with Dan wanting to return to his happy family in a New York suburb only to have Alex begin to follow him about and cause as much chaos and mayhem as one woman can imagine when jilted by a lover.
Close shows how the appetite for spontaneous wild sex may hint at a deeper and deeper hidden madness with Alex first exhibiting suicidal ideations and then decidedly becoming bent on homicidal impulses.
The rage manifesting externally is the outward appearance of Alex’s internal struggle to survive in the world while this emotional hailstorm occurs all around her. Ultimately, Alex cannot regain her focus, having been fatally wounded by love lost.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized this great acting art by nominating Close 8 times for an Oscar in leading and supporting roles.
In Hamlet (1990) Mel Gibson plays the haunted prince confused by his mother’s marriage to his uncle shortly after his father’s funeral. In a supporting role, Close manifests stunned disbelief in the moral objections of her character’s son.
Gertrude having started the whirlwind must nevertheless remain loyal to the present composition of the court as her son creates chaos through a spectrum of emotions.
That same focus then becomes the plaintiff’s lawyer, in a television series about an Alpha female running the litigation department at a well-respected law firm, in Damages (2007-2012 TV Series). Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan and Ted Danson costar in this episodic legal drama.
The self-assured, resilient professional commands various strings attached to various associates and helpers to bring about the desired results for her clients.
Byrne plays the law firm associate managing in her youth all the real world success and failures imaginable.
In the Wife (2017) Joan stands behind her Noble Prize winning husband ever resolutely. The focus becomes a strong character in a position of emotional support, perhaps defying gender roles in that the power imbalance has been neutralized. Joan is quite determined to continue on, having made her decision to support her husband in all his endeavors and be in the role she is in.
The screen persona has a pragmatic approach to the struggle in which the characters find themselves. This character is who the screen persona has to become, and the character is who she is in the given circumstances.
In Hillbilly Elegy (2020), you tend to cringe in awe at just how far down the spectrum the talented actor can take her screen personality to fit in the back of woods lifestyle and all. The screen persona bends from the picture perfect, in all appearances and all actions, defense attorney to the grandmother of a dysfunctional low income family whose daughter is a drug addict.
Mamaw takes in her young grandson when her drug addicted daughter lets his life fall apart unguided.
In Four Good Days (2020) Deb gives her drug addicted daughter one last opportunity, despite her better judgement to do otherwise. Close creates the face of unconditional love after abandoning the tough love disposition that had turned her daughter away at the door when she asked for help for the last time.
Mila Kunis plays the recovering drug addicted daughter, Molly, forever in one rehab situation or another as the two hang about together a lot to keep the reestablished mother-daughter bond functioning.
The characters Close creates at times become pathological by degrees. Initially convinced of a successful outcome, the acting art comes out as the screen persona begins to struggle to maintain that pragmatic positivism despite the limitations that the real world throws at her.
The harshness of life’s unfairness may be the greatest trigger for the screen persona, but the characters proceed down the narrative as best they can so as to manage the best possible outcome for themselves and their causes.
In The Paper (1994), the actor personifies everything going wrong in the newspaper business as the industry transitions to more profitability as the accountants take away control from the free speech icons.
Close has the role of the publisher playing accountant against the editor of the city desk that cares only about delivering the truth to readers. Michael Keaton plays equally fanatical as the editor constantly missing the press deadline and creating cost overruns while waiting for that last little factoid to get the headlines correct.
Robert Duvall and Marisa Tomei costar in this ensemble cast directed by Ron Howard.
In Albert Nobbs (2011) Close gets all dressed up in a butler’s uniform for this costume drama while her character has been so cleverly groomed for service with low pay and little dignity.
Albert though has other plans for personal growth and financial fortune.
Close goes through a dialectic in which her character creates and then subsequently suffers as her progress is undone by outside forces. Ultimately, the screen persona learns how to conduct life with a much more limited expectation for success in the best and in the worst of situations.