Though she never attained the box-office clout to warrant it, Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the few female actresses who answers to Movie Star. Beautiful, elegant, talented, beautiful, Pfeiffer would have been a screen icon in any era, and at 50 she’s still got It.
Movie Stars, however, don’t typically appear in straight-to-DVD films. Personal Effects (pictured), though, in which Pfeiffer costars with Kathy Bates and Ashton Kutcher, will be released on video on May 12. This follows I Could Never Be Your Woman, a sweet romance with Paul Rudd that limped straight to video last year.
Is Pfeiffer a victim of the shrinking independent scene, poor career choices, or just a shifting audience that can’t recall how she looks atop a piano? This June, she’ll headline Stephen Frears’ Parisian romance, Cheri, but what she needs is a winning role in a studio film. She was funny and sexy in 2007’s Hairspray, and I still think she was George Clooney’s most formidable onscreen gal, in 1996’s One Fine Day. While her female contemporaries are proving there’s life after 50, it would be a shame for Pfeiffer to be wasting her time in films cast directly into the $3.99 rack.
What was the last Michelle Pfeiffer movie you saw in the theater? Would you like to see her in another romantic comedy? How about a Woody Allen film?
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I thought she was fantastic in “Stardust” and was surprised there was no major Best Supporting Actress Oscar buzz for it.
I might be wrong, but I think that Michelle is more interested in being a wife and mother than in being an actress. As far as the sort of film roles I’d like to see her take on, I’d like to see her explore her cold, dark side, as she did to great effect in Batman Returns and White Oleander.
I personally thought she was going to get some recognition for Stardust and Hairspray, two of her better performances. However, I feel that she is one of those acttresses whom we all expect great things from, so when she does wow us, we don’t feel the effects becuase we expected it to a degree. She definitely has a career ahead of her, I just feel right now she is stuck in the ‘nothing’ time frame where roles are either too young or too old for her. But I still have faith in her. And yes, a Woody Allen film would do her talent justice. Hell, it does almost any talent justice – just look at Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
i love the pfeif but it seems like hollywood has no idea what to do with her (which means their lazy and still wanna give jessica alba work)… id love to see the pfeif work in a woody allen movie… besides almodovar and tarantino, he’s the best director that knows how to write great material for women.
Nic Cage’s movies deserve to go straight-to-DVD.
I’ve loved me some Michelle Pfiefer ever since Grease 2. She’s been so fantastic in so many movies including one of my top five: The Age of Innocence, (talk about Oscar snub). I hate that she’s going straight to DVD, she certainly deserves better but that’s just the way it goes. Would love for her to make a comeback in a role that does her talent justice. Thought White Oleander was the part but, oh well.
This lady should be in the same level of a Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet and so one. But instead is in the level of an Annete Bening and Glen Close: wonderful actress that dont have the chance and the luck they deserve in this industry. It is a shame.
Plese, some studio or director give this woman a big role… Now!
As much as I am a big Pfeiffer fan, I think she also is more interested in raising her family at the moment than her career. When Stardust came out I recall reading an interview that she was very content moving out of LA and only taking roles that held interest for her. Regardless she will always be a star-a naturally gifted actress who was more than a stunning face. I always respected the fact she went after rich, interesting roles (and not just try to cash in on her looks) like Batman Returns, Married to the Mob and Fabulous Baker Boys. Pity she was up against Jessica Tandy for the oscar that year.
I just saw I Could never be your woman, a great funny film, she looks beautiful and Paul Rudd proves what a great romantic leading man he can be!!!
I saw “Stardust” with little to no expectations, and I was so surprised by how good Michelle Pfeiffer was in it. I shouldn’t have been, of course, thinking back to One Fine Day, I Am Sam, Dangerous Liasons, etc. (I’m sure I’m missing plenty of good performances). Anyway, if her career is a priority at the moment (caliban821 could easily be right), I hope she sticks in there because she deserves to be right in the mix with Glenn Close, Annette Bening, and Susan Sarandon as one of the best American actresses over 50.
She is a consistently great performer (Grease 2 not included). Woody Allen doesn’t much like older women though does he? It is frustrating though to see her not get better roles.
I am a huge Michelle Pfeiffer fan and am very sad that she is making films that are going straight to DVD. I am however looking forward to seeing her in Cheri. I loved Michelle in What Lies Beneath and would love to see her make a studio movie like this again.
Woody Allen does create great roles for women of all ages–look at Hannah and her Sisters & Bullets Over Broadway (both of which Dianne Weist won an Oscar for), among others. And Woody’s women do tend to win a lot of Oscars. Might be just the thing for her career.
That’s a shame. She is really talented and gorgeous.
http://tvdonewright.com/
I like Michelle too. The last movie I have seen of hers in the big screen was ‘Hairspray’ where she vamped up the role of a conniving mother/show producer to such a hilarious degree. She should have been nominated in that role — plus her singing is not only on-key but character-ful. A role in a Woody Allen would bring her back in the prestige-film radar. Or maybe from a role from films by Scorsese or P.T. Anderson or Tarantino would give her a higher profile.