ENFORCER HAS VULNERABILITIES

COSTAR CHARACTER IN SUPPORTING ROLE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Every organization needs an enforcer of rules that maintains order.

Jennifer Connelly plays that near perfect enforcer only made vulnerable by qualities inherent in the human condition.

In A Beautiful Mind (2001) Connelly plays the academic muse and eventual wife of Nobel Prize winning economist John Nash. Russell Crowe stars as Nash.

Nash develops game theories that eventually influence economists for decades. Connelly shows how Alicia Nash maintained a strong relationship with her husband, enforcing the family structure, despite the economist’s mental health issues.

In Noah (2014) Connelly again co-stars with Crowe, this time as the spouse to the biblical character that saved the animal species for a planetary restart. Connelly again portrays a strong matriarch character that supports the family through a difficult journey.

Connelly’s characters are strong enough to provide guidance in a manner that prevents the family structure from fragmenting, but her loyalty is not without question, as she eventually challenges Noah’s spiritual fanaticism.

In Blood Diamond (2006), Connelly co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou in the story about the illegal diamond trade in Africa. Connelly plays a foreign journalist willing to use her connections to provide conditional support in exchange for information for her news story.

Hounsou also co-starred with Russell Crowe in Gladiator (2000).

Connelly currently stars in the Netflix Series, Snowpiercer (2020-2021). Snowpiercer is a science fiction fantasy story about a surviving civilization living on a high speed train after the planet enters another ice age. Sean Bean and Daveed Diggs co-star.

Connelly’s character runs the train, but during the first season, it becomes apparent that her character has made a series of difficult moral choices that are not necessarily acceptable to the rest of the train population.

Connelly’s characters show strength as a matriarch, but the matriarch’s humanity is just as vulnerable to mistakes as anyone else when difficult choices must be made.