Elizabeth Reaser has always been a compelling actress to me. I first noticed her in the role of Inge Altenberg in the poorly distributed Independent film, Sweet Land, where she carried all the emotional water for this difficult WW1 period film.
Inge is a German orphan who worked on a farm in Norway before immigrating to Minnesota to marry a reclusive farmer that she has never met.
The role involved mastering multi-lingual dialogue on the fly, but Reaser embraced the scandalized Inge, and managed to bring a great deal of dignity and sensitivity to the role.
It is one of the best narrative features I have ever watched, and I bought a copy for myself, my mother, my mother-in-law, my movie-buddy girlfriend, and my sister. It was that good.
Reaser's next feature, The Family Stone, is a family drama in which her character, Susannah, a pregnant housewife with a willful daughter in tow, spends Christmas with her rambunctious siblings and their love interests as well as her dying-from-breast-cancer mother and heartbroken father.
It is a quiet role, with a few small, meaningful moments, and Reaser is quickly shadowed by the conflicts that surround her. In Twilight and Twilight: New Moon, Reaser's role is disappointingly that of a walk-on.
Against the Current's director, Peter Callahan, offered Reaser a role she was really able to sink her teeth in to. Liz, a barmaid turned school teacher who has nothing to do over the last three weeks of spring break, becomes the reluctant participant in checking off the last box in her new friend and eventual love interest Paul Thompson's (Joseph Fiennes) Bucket List before he commits suicide.
It is through her eyes that we follow the emotional roller coaster of the film, and come to resolution. Her past performances serve her well in this conflicted and complicated role, and the subtleness of her craftsmanship is not lost.
Joseph Fiennes can play the troubled romantic who is lost in his sense of lost without opening his mouth. It is all over the face that God blessed him with. What is impressive is all the swimming in the Hudson River that he appears to be actually doing himself. "Brrhh" and "ewwhh" come quickly to mind.
Mary Tyler Moore has fun with her role as Liz's crazy, pretentious mother who delights in the misfortunes of others. Michelle Trachtenberg enjoys a few moments as her sex pot niece who enjoys leading the distracted astray.
Scene stealer is Justin Kirk as Jeff, the wanna-be actor/serious bartender best friend whose clever banter and frustrated inner conflict frame the film.
Jeff wrapping his head around his responsibilities to himself, and to Paul, create a springboard for the audience to have a discussion that lingers long after the popcorn food baby is gone.
The film plays again on Sunday, December 13th at 3:15 p.m. at the Beartooth Theaterpub.
