Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly: The Underappreciated Female Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp is considered by many to be one of the greatest actors of all time. He is also admired for resisting big blockbuster roles for years as he instead opted to choose roles in smaller more independent type films in which he played exceptionally eccentric characters. Some of the characters helped endear him to the public, Edward Scissorhands and other others remain bizarrely brilliant to this day Ed Wood, The Ninth Gate, Benny and Joon. Essentially his choice of roles allowed him to develop his acting ability and receive wonderful critical acclaim for years. It was not until The Pirates of The Caribbean the Curse of The Black Pearl that he truly became a legitimate blockbuster star and a true household name. I am aware of how popular he was especially amongst women when he was on 21 Jump Street. In fact I may have been one of the only young males in America who had his poster on my wall as a kid.

With that being said this is not a love letter to Johnny Depp this an attempt to prove that in many ways great female actors have been marginalized and overlooked for years.  It is no secret that male actors receive far more praise for the ability to portray different complex and engaging characters then most actresses do. Blame it on a patriarchal society, blame it on people thinking that Sandra Bullock is a good actress, (she talked with a slight southern accent in The Blind Side and people were like wow amazing) blame it on whatever you like. I would argue that the talented and truly exceptional Jennifer Connelly in many ways followed the same career path as Johnny Depp did and has created some of the most memorable film roles over the last thirty years.    

She first came to my attention in the bizarrely wonderful Labyrinth. A movie that I first saw at such a young age that I thought it was a figment of my imagination. I really thought it was all in my head and I actually developed a fear of mirrors for a while. It was not until years later that I saw the movie on HBO one day and realized that this film was in fact real and not something that was part of a bad dream that I had. I was both relieved by this realization and also even more disturbed when I realized that David Bowie was the Goblin King. Back to Jennifer Connelly she has never appeared in a prototypical blockbuster film, she was in The Day the Earth Stood Still remake which tried to be a blockbuster film and I have also tried to forget that she was in this complete disaster so we will call it a wash.

          When you examine her career she has not only been in some exceptionally wonderful movies but she has also created some fantastic characters. Requiem for a Dream, The Rocketeer, Dark City, the American remake of Dark Water, Mulholland Falls and of course A Beautiful Mind are just some of the great films that she has had significant roles in. What amazes me about Jennifer Connelly is her ability to play such diverse characters in such a wide array of films. She has also done a great job at for the most part in continuing to select roles that are both challenging and uniquely different. Also the fact that my wife’s name is Jennifer has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I was in love with Jennifer Connelly as a child. At least I think so.

Matthew Giordano