It cannot be said often enough: Helen Mirren is the kind of woman every mother should teach her daughter to aspire to be when she grows up. And what I adore about her as an actress is the fact that the qualities of her that are rarest, the most difficult to possesses and important to pursue come out when she takes a role that is patently ridiculous and makes it richly emotionally plausible. Take, for example, her upcoming movie with Joe Pesci, Love Ranch:
The story's real, but it's still pretty unusual: older couple fights for the legalization of their brothel and prostitution in general while she falls for a much younger, exceedingly sexy Latin American boxer. The contradictions Mirren has to embody are significant: she has to defend the dignity of women she is selling, and who regularly enable her husband to break his marriage vows. She has to start out questioning her desirability and experience a plausible sexual renewal. She has lines like this one: "Selling love will make you rich. That's what my mother taught me." And when she goes to bed with that gorgeous, vital younger man, she needs to make the audience feel neither squeamishness or implausibility. I don't know that I can think of another actress who could do it. Maybe Susan Sarandon--I'd love to see her have a role as vital as Annie Savoy at her present age. But for now, Mirren is the champ. I cannot wait to see this.