After admitting the laudable Stephen Toblowsky and much-missed JT Walsh, we now see whether The Overlooked Hotel can make room for the delightful and versatile Michelle Monaghan.
A recent film magazine review queried why Michelle Monaghan had not hit it big (or at least bigger) off the back of her charming, star-making turn in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It was and is a pertinent question and it is hard to know why she has not become a more established star. Although she has a varied CV, it is hard to pick too many turkeys (Made of Honour and The Heartbreak Kid were pretty middling efforts, but hardly part of a broad trend), nor has she gone so left field as to disassociate herself from more mainstream opportunities.
Monaghan had been knocking around in a variety of TV gigs and supporting turns on the big screen, before catching a break as Harmony in Shane Black’s incredibly clever, noir-inflected return to form, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. As the object of RDJ’s affection, she proved an utterly beguiling screen presence, convincing as someone who would capture Harry Lockhart’s heart and believable as the closest approximation the film has to what would otherwise be a noir femme fatale. Her scene with RDJ in which they pick out celebrity lookalikes (Native American Joe Pesci!) is genuinely endearing, the audience carried along with the fun that RDJ and Monaghan are so clearly having. Feisty, funny and hilarious, credit goes to Shane Black for creating, writing and directing such a compelling and rich character, but Monaghan had to put the work on screen.
Having held her own alongside a back on track RDJ, Monaghan’s next big role was as Ethan Hunt’s none-the-wiser wife in M:I-3, moving from supporting character to front and centre, once Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Davian has her abducted in furtherance of his nefarious schemes.Tom Cruise is, of course, an out and out superstar, but at no point does Monaghan retreat into the background. We can believe that Hunt would have settled down with her and in the space of a few scenes she convinces us that Hunt would do anything to protect her. Rather than serving as a mere plot device, Monaghan’s Julia feels fully formed and worthwhile, a real person if you will. She is sweet, loving, but interesting and spiky too, especially when called upon to stand in for the incapacitated Hunt when squaring off against the assembled henchmen.
It is perhaps a little reductive to merely talk of “character arcs” but there is a genuine tension between Monaghan’s Angie and Affleck’s Patrick Kenzie as to what is the right way to proceed and what they should ultimately do about what they discover. There is an extent to which they are changed, rather than just working through the plot to the denouement. The source material (Dennis Lehane’s novel) obviously gets praise for creating the characters, the story and the aforementioned arcs, but Monaghan (like Affleck) utterly sells it, believable, conflicted, pragmatic, dogged. Excellent.
The last couple of really memorable roles lie a little more squarely in genre territory, but are no less interesting or effective for it.
Much is often made of “everyman” personas and the roles to which certain types of actor are well suited. Monaghan’s natural demeanor lent credibility to her role as a commuter in Source Code and Hunt’s wife in M:I-3 and that same demeanor helped Eagle Eye no end – a seemingly random single mother whose son is threatened by a voice on the end of a telephone – Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts – none of them could have sold the role, they just look too much like movie stars. That Monaghan is able to hold the screen so seemingly effortlessly while eschewing stereotypically movie star looks is just a small part of her appeal and one of a multitude of reasons why The Overlooked should give her a room, stat.
Love her, she is indeed underrated. Haven’t watched True Detective yet, she is another reason I want to.