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Cate Blanchett is getting some of the greatest accolades of her career for her new Venice Film Festival movieTar.
She reportedly received asix-minute standing ovationat the films worlds premiere.
(At Venice, which is a lot more relaxed and less status-conscious thanCannes, thats considered long.)
A hydrogen bomb of a performance, declaredJack King at The Playlist.
Tarmarks yet another career peak for Blanchett many are likely to argue her greatest, gushedDavid RooneyatTheHollywood Reporter.
The actress will continue to get reviews like this throughout awards season, because theyre basically correct.
(The script was reportedly written specifically with Blanchett in mind.)
Its actually a somewhat risky endeavor.
Blanchetts performance requires us to buy into the mystique surrounding this woman.
We can see the seductive power of Lydias celebrity.
Lydia is a supernaturally charismatic protagonist, the kind fiction often imagines but the real world rarely presents.
Is she also a monster?
The picture is fairly nuanced in its portrayal of the way that power dynamics work in this industry.
But it also obfuscates; we are told about things Lydia has done that we dont actually see.
So, whose point of view are we seeing?
Or is it just a cop-out on the films part?
All of his movies have been admirable, and absorbing, and thoughtful, and well-acted.
Theyve also been forgive me a bit gray and predictable.
She brings the energy and the sensation that much of the rest of the film lacks.
Much is made throughout of Lydias flamboyant, dramatic style of conducting.
That moment does come, though not in quite the way that we expected.
We want to see Tar, butTarhas some cruel fun denying us that.
To Fields credit, he gives Blanchett the baton, and she delivers masterfully.
