3.01.2012

Academy Awards: Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep exploded into our film consciousness with Kramer Vs. Kramer and she's been a star and critic's darling ever since. Though she was noticed in a Woody Allen movie (Manhattan) and The Deer Hunter before. It helps that she is a brilliant theater-trained actor who can give a role more dimensions than most actors even know exist. In that first big role, she created a woman so sympathetic in her subtext that we cared about a character who would have been simply unforgivable in the hands of another performer.

Imagine a young actress jumping from New York Theater to Hollywood in the 1950s instead of the late 1970s. They wouldn't even have let her keep that name. Now she defines three decades of actresses.

While she got the Oscar for great work in The Iron Lady, I like to think she's generous enough (and there were indications at the SAG Awards) to admit even she voted for Viola Davis from The Help (and Streep's brilliant co-star in Doubt). Watch either one of them for a master class in acting.

While Streep will be remembered in movie history for the amazing Sophie's Choice and Out Of Africa performances, I think people need to give her credit for triple-threat acting, singing, dancing in Mamma Mia! (a campy piece of fluff without Streep) and the same in Postcards From The Edge.

Two of my favorites in films with less Giant Demographic Marketing potential are Heartburn and Adaptation. She can do it all, including characters with completely different physical presences and accents in their speech.

This post was written by Howard Allen as part of our ongoing series on the 84th Academy Awards.

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