Nicole Kidman Lambasted by Bitter Writer in 'Australia' Review
 |
| A Times Online writer rips Nicole Kidman a new one in the epic, Australia. (20th Century Fox Image) |
I think we can all agree that actress Nicole Kidman can be hit and miss. There were the tragedies like Fur, Birth and The Invasion – but there were also successes like To Die For, The Others, Moulin Rouge and The Hours. However, perhaps for Kidman, starring in Baz Luhrmann's epic was an attempt to breathe positive life into a career that has seen, most recently, more valleys than peaks. However, a Times Online columnist Melanie Reid doesn't let Kidman off that easy – holding no punches when it comes to the actress. With an obvious loathing for Kidman, Reid provides what could go down as the most scathing critique of an actor's performance ever published.
Reid writes, "Australia the movie, however, has one huge problem. It stars Nicole Kidman. Big mistake. Big, big mistake. At a stroke, the world's female cinemagoers will say as one: 'I'm not going to see it if she's in it.'
"Kidman is one of those women who turns other women off. And no, not just because she's pretty and we're jealous. It is because we perceive, and men don't, that she's one of the most overrated actors in the world, a woman who has been the kiss of death in practically every movie she has starred in.
"Kidman is exquisitely accomplished at being awful. Did anyone see Cold Mountain? The sweeping American epic (note: another epic) foundered on the rocks of her gormless mirror-gaze. She can't act. Instead, she drifts around films like a lost porcelain doll, looking frozen, brittle and vapid, staring at the camera with her oh-golly-look-how-I'm-looking-interesting blue eyes. "
Now we'll admit that Kidman's excessive addiction Botox isn't exactly helping her acting career, and that yeah – she's made a stinker or two – but for Reid to be so bold as to state that "the world's female cinemagoers" will balk when they find out Kidman is in a movie – well, the sweeping generalizations are probably not good for Reid's writing career.
-
Share
Facebook
del.icio.us
NewsVine
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Text Size
Print-
Tags
-
Bet Online At Bodog
-
Bet On It Now at Bodog
Tons of celebrity, movie & TV, and business betting. Now that's entertainment you can bet on!
Political Betting Online
Bet on who will become the next president, vice presidential running mates and more!
-
Why do you label Melanie Reid a "bitter writer" in the title of your article? If I'm a professional film critic who doesn't like a movie, and I write a review reflecting that opinion (providing plenty of reasons), does that necessarily make me "bitter"? This is an absurd title for your article. Are you "bitter" about Melanie Reid?
this reviewer hit it right on the nose, she is a awful awful actress
I am one of the world's female cinemagoers and I completely agree with the critic. I am embarassed FOR Kidman,and would never watch any movie she is in. She is beyond awful. She is totally fake, both on-screen and in her fictitious private life.
I'm not going to see & one of the reasons is Kidman. When she said "She can't act. Instead, she drifts around films like a lost porcelain doll, looking frozen, brittle and vapid, staring at the camera with her oh-golly-look-how-I'm-looking-interesting blue eyes. " She was totally right on.
Comment *It's so obivious that this reviewer is so jealous of Nicole. Nicole Kidman has a lot of class. More than this rude Melanie Reid! Nicole is as good an actor as any that are out there today.
Wow! Bitter much. Yes, Nicole Kidman is not the greatest Actress that ever lived but this woman critique is so acerbic that it comes across as plain jealous and bitter. She shouldn'e speak for all women movie-goers because i'm a woman and she doesn't speak for me.oh btw, her writing isn't exactly pulitzer caliber either…
To have the audacity to label Nicole Kidman as "over rated" and state that she cannot act shows how much you people understand her acting career. Take a look at "THE HOURS" and tell me shes an overrated actress. She is an exceptional actress, one of the best in Hollywood today. You people are uneducated. You need to actually WATCH her best films, then give you opinion. You people are ignorant. The Academy would NEVER hand a best actress oscar to an undeserving actor. Nicole Kidman is an Academy Award winning actress. Shut up. All you people are jealous that she is gorgeous.
Internalized misogyny by women reviewers may not explain the vicious and unwarranted attacks on female stars like Kidman —- the indirect direction may be coming from higher patriarchal media sources.
If, as has recently been publicized, a major studio is overtly planning to cut women out as leads for movies in the scripts being produced, then girls will be relegated to experiencing "story" via man-stream film that chronically casts fe-males in the role of sidekicks to men, men's lives writ large (never women's), men's action in the world and men defining men's idea of unnatural womanhood. If women can be (mis)led to believe that it's "cool" to disparage women stars among the other women role models chronically disparaged to a greater degree than their male counterparts (e.g., Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin), then women are led farther along the sheep-le path of becoming fe-males not in their own creativity but in man-made roles according to what men, not what women, want.
Name the global media patriarchy for what it is, and the methods of misogyny become obvious.
Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Melissa Etheridge — three who are more powerful and emotionally resonant, more intelligent and fascinating than Hugh Jackman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman or "the Boss." Note that Springsteen gets called "the Boss" in patriarchy even though he cannot carry a tune as he rocks.
I've NEVER been able to stand Nicole Kidman. There's something just so fake and creepy about her and I am a man. She's gross. I find REAL women sexy. Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts (back in the day), even watching TCM the other week, Bette Davis way back when was sexy even though she wasn't gorgeous…that was a lady that knew how to act. Nicole is more famous for her frozen face than for her acting ability.
Nicole is far from my favorate actor as a matter of fact I think she is a B grade actress for many reasons 1/ the voice she has devoloped sounds like a bad imitation of Marilyn Monroe her facial features look frozen all the time becauce of her addition to botox injections ,and there is nothing natural about her acting ,and for me designer gowns and cosmetics will not improve her acting ability. True characer actors dont have a problem with growing older
I am positive many Austaliana love Nicole and that is fine but I work in film and music .and I find Nicole has her limitations , she could never be called a great actor ,for an example compare Glenn Close or Cate blanchett to Nicole and Nicole comes up lacking I think a the next few years Nicole will be more suited for support actress if she does not spend more time looking at her faults on screen ,,,charater and being natural on screen is needed for film buffs to find actors credible ,her films dont do well.and little girls thinking she is lovely will not change the problem she now faces
The reviewer is mostly right. I am not going to see the movie just for the fact that Nicole Kidman is in it.
I'm both a woman and Australian and I can't stand her. The breathy, little girl voice is irritating as hell and she has absolutely no range. She does the exact same thing in every movie which is just what the reviewer said; float around looking pale and frozen. I actually did say "Meh, I'll wait for it on DVD" because I really don't think I could handle her for 3, unbroken hours.
I won't see this movie because of Kidman, she is atrocious as an actress and physically. Her promotion of herself using the fame of her ex husband is also childish and irresponsible. Plus the movie sucks apparently.
Through most of her film roles Nicole Kidman more or less comes off as the tall poppy with whispery voice and an ice queen propensity. If not that, she tries too hard to come across as a serious actress and unfortunately, falls short when it comes to her range of expressive capabilities. The continual typecasting of Kidman has also derided any credibility to her onscreen presence.
So many of her film roles depicted meaty characters that perhaps other actresses may have illuminated better, if even just with a more natural / relaxed / realistic approach to acting compared to the stagey 'Nicole' syndrome. I wanted so much to give credence to Kidman's acting capacity even from her early days in film, as she seemed to have a promising screen persona. Truth is, I always expected more but came away disappointed :( At times, I even felt that the casting of her was the sole reason why many films that could have been great were destroyed.
Take, for comparitive purposes, actresses like Rose Byrne, Jennifer Connelly, or even Dianne Kruger – attractive, classy, but still devoted to acting as an art, rather than acting for popularity or self-aggrandizement. The subtlety in as well as choice of their expressions, use of physical space, and voice point toward a more natural approach to acting which raises their skill levels to above par status when placed next to a piece of cardboard like Nicole. Many times I've wondered why Nicole would gawp, sigh, mock-flirt, despair, pace around, or break into a fit of giggles like a clueless schoolgirl when most anybody else would not have reacted in such a way. Kidman could learn a lot from her contemporaries, but may be too vain or self-satisfied to admit it! Even Lauren Bacall, who hails from a different, more savvy era of Hollywood altogether, was spot-on in her description of Nicole as merely a 'beginner', rather than a 'legend' (the latter, a term too loosely applied to several modern actors who haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what it means to wield command onscreen). In fact, Kidman owes her audience a great debt.
So basically, what does that leave us with? My guess is that her career was built on hype and spectacle, rather than a true nod to any notion of depth in acting. I am convinced that she herself is aware of this, and exploits it for whatever monetary gain it has to offer. Unfortunately, these days, the phenomenon of star appeal in Hollywood seems to chip away at and sadly, supersede proper acknowledgement of those with real talent.
Let me point out a few glaring errors in that review.
The article states she is pretty, she is not. It also states in essence that men like her, we do not.
She is perhapse the most annoying laboured and icey cold women in the world. And always gives off an air that no matter who you are she thinks she's better than you.
I suppose the difference between N K and the rest of you is she isn't trolling the internet saying nasty things about people.
Can't hate on someone for making money with their talents. I'm not sure she has ever made a claim to being the greatest actress alive.
She seems like someone who knows her capabilities and does what she can to benefit from them.
Of course being Australian her homeland hates her because she didnt earn it like some 'little aussie battler' or whatever other mythical trope Australians like to perpetuate about their provincial selves.