Every year there seems to be one star who comes out of nowhere to be a household name and in 2011 that person was Jessica Chastain. We've already met Chastain via her Oscar-nominated performance in Zero Dark Thirty but a couple of years' earlier it seemed like she was everywhere. In fact she was so ubiquitous that she featured in two of the nine films that were nominated for Best Picture at the following year's ceremony.
First up we have her appearance as Mrs O'Brien in Terrence Malick's oblique The Tree of Life. Chastain's turn as the caring mother to a trio of sons in the 1950s, one of whom soon passes away towards the start of the film, was one of only a handful of the movie’s positive elements. The film is sort of seen through the perspective of a modern day Jack O'Brien who is reflecting on his harsh upbringing at the hands of his tyrannical father. Rather than presenting any sort of coherent narrative, Malick instead presents the film as a series of scenes in Jack's life. The majority of the movie depicts his childhood as quite a bleak time due to the fact that his father would often fly into a rage at a moment's notice. From criticising his sons' behaviour at the dinner table to teaching them how to fight, it's fair to say that Mr O'Brien will never win father of the year. However, Malick depicts Chastain's character in a more sympathetic light as she's more able to forgive her son when he does something a little mischievous. Whilst a coming-of-age film is nothing new, Malick's film comments on all existence featuring as it does a twenty minute sequence which shows us the beginning of time. The fact that dinosaurs appear in a film that is primarily set in the 1950s is one of those pretentious aspects of The Tree of Life that I don't like. That sentiment is echoed in my feelings about the end of the film where Jack is what I assume is the afterlife and is confronted by his mother and father as well as other people who have touched his life. Whilst I always applaud film-makers who think outside the box I do think that Malick is somebody who didn't actually ever see the box. Indeed, this feels more like an art instillation than a coherent movie which I'm assuming is why the critics loved it so much.
The Tree of Life is one of those films that critics love because it makes them seem intelligent but I feel that if they looked at it objectively then there's very little of worth here. Chastain's aforementioned performance as the matriarchal figure showcases why she became such a breakout star in that year. Her facial expressions convey her character's inner torment and she is able to balance the fear Mrs O'Brien feels towards her husband with the love she has for her children. Chastain is more impressive than either of her A-list co-stars, Brad Pitt and Sean Penn who play Mr O'Brien and the adult Jack respectively. Pitt just wasn't convincing as a harsh father figure whilst Penn hardly appears and when he does he just looks wistfully into the sky. I believe my main issue with The Tree of Life was that I felt detached from it throughout its two hour plus running time. Even though there were some parts of the narrative that hung together, Malick did little to make us care about his characters. I do remember going to see the film at the cinema and at the time there were roadworks happening outside which spoilt the quieter moments of the movie. However, I did prefer to listen the rather irritating noises that watch some of the more outlandish scenes that Malick decided to include in his film. I was actually quite surprised that The Tree of Life garnered nominations in the Best Picture and Director categories as it doesn't seem like your typical Oscar film. It does appear to me that this is the Academy's way of trying to look like they enjoy arthouse cinema however this was the same year that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was up for the prize. In fact the only deserving nomination that The Tree of Life received was in the cinematography category which was one of the only elements of the film that deserved celebrating. Ultimately The Tree of Life is a pretentious piece of arthouse cinema that critics go potty over but normal people like me hate with a passion.
Whilst Chastain tried her best to salvage her poorly written character in The Tree of Life, she had more success bringing a bit of humour to Tate Taylor's The Help. In fact Chastain was one of three female performers who were nominated for their role in a film that primarily concentrated on strong women. The plot of the film is based on Kathryn Stockett's book of the same name and involves Emma Stone's Skeeter; an aspiring writer in 1960s Mississippi. Although Skeeter is friendly with the snobbier members of the Jacksonville community, she is portrayed as a forward thinking young lady. Skeeter has the idea to write a book from the point of view of the African American women who help raise white children and clean the houses of families who give them very little respect. Skeeter targets Aibileen Clark, a well-meaning maid who is the first person to come forward to tell her story for the book. Aibileen is soon joined by Minnie Jackson, an outspoken maid who is fired by her Queen Bee boss Hildy after using the guest bathroom rather than the outside convenience that had been constructed for her. After Hildy spreads lies about Minnie being a thief, she is only able to get work with Chastain's Celia Foote who has been shunned by the other women of the community. Celia and Minnie's relationship is one of the most entertaining parts of the film as the former doesn't really know how to treat the latter. However the pair soon become friends as they bond over being shunned by their communities and help each other realise what is important in their life. Meanwhile, Hildy has Minnie's replacement arrested after she steals a ring to pay for her sons to go to college. This prompts a multitude of maids to come forward and tell their stories to Skeeter who eventually publishes the book of the title. After the book is published it seems to me as if Taylor didn't quite know how to finish his film with the last fifteen minutes or so feeling a little unnecessary. However I felt that for a two hour film, The Help was an incredibly easy watch.
Despite being a terribly emotionally manipulative film I have to hold my hands up and say The Help did work its magic on me. I found myself welling up several times during the film and I feel that that's a testament to the strong female ensemble cast rather than Taylor's direction or adapted screenplay. I'm not surprised that the cast were rewarded with the top prize at that year's Screen Actors Guild Awards or that Octavia Spencer won the Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Minnie. I felt that Spencer's strength lay in the fact that she was able to balance the more comedic aspects of her role with the fact that this was a woman who wasn't able to speak her mind. Whilst being strong in certain aspects of her life she was also abused by both the women she worked for and her husband. Joining her in the Best Supporting Actress category was Chastain, whose Celia Foote was a fantastic creation; a white-trash socialite who was just incredibly likeable. As Aibileen, Viola Davis was nominated for Best Actress and I feel she should have triumphed over Meryl Streep's dodgy Margaret Thatcher impression. Davis' narration was the strong foundation the film was based around and I felt the actress perfectly anchored the film. Also worthy of credit is Emma Stone who arguably gave her breakout performance as the pioneering Skeeter. Stone perfectly conveyed her character's willingness to think towards the future whilst at the same trying to maintain friendships she had since youth. I liked how The Help had faith in actresses such as Davis, Stone, Spencer and Chastain who weren't exactly marquee names. Indeed only Davis was really a recognisable presence partly due to her scene-stealing performance in Doubt however not even she was a marquee name. The bigger names in the cast, such as Sissy Spacek and Alison Janney were confined to roles in which they bolstered the leading ladies. Although it's quite a predictable piece of cinema, The Help is one of those films that you can't help but like and to me that's a testament to all of the actresses who made their characters feel three-dimensional.
Next time we look at an actor whose career path took a change for the better during the early part of the 2010s.
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