Wednesday night was movie night, although we didn’t take advantage of Orange’s 241 offer, rather we stayed in with a curry and watched Silkwood, starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher. I knew the two female leads had been Oscar nominated and that it was based on real events, but other than that wasn’t sure what to expect.
The film follows Karen Silkwood as she becomes more and more concerned about the safety record of the plutonium power plant at which she works. She becomes involved with the union and uncovers some dodgy practices, and becomes sicker as her investigations continue. This is a Meryl Streep Oscar Nominated Picture, and it’s clear why, she’s in most every scene and creates a sympathetic figure in Karen.
Kurt Russell barely gets anything to do as Karen’s love interest, and Cher is playing against type as their dowdy lesbian flatmate, but again with not much to do other than pine for Karen and be fabulous. It’s a role a million miles away from that in Burlesque, and apparently a whole nose away too.
Silkwood would have been improved with a bit of editing, it’s over 2 hours long but really, not that much happens. Nothing particularly exciting anyway. The nature of the film led me to believe that Streep would not leave the film alive, although rather than succumbing to plutonium-enriched cancer, she’s driven off the road and killed in a car crash. And there the film ends, with some text to the effect that no one knows whether she was murdered or had an accident. It’s a bit of a dud end, but then it reflects the real life story of the poor woman.
The acting is the main thing to admire in Silkwood, the story meanders along too freely and without a great deal of incident. By the end of the film I couldn’t really decide whether there was an anti-nuclear message, or just an anti-this-particular-company meaning. Meryl and Cher were great whatever.
No comments:
Post a Comment