by Paula
Gail Benson
Last
weekend, I had the opportunity to see Oceans
Eight, the new heist film featuring Sandra Bullock (age 53), Cate Blanchett
(49), Anne Hathaway (35), Mindy Kaling (38), Sarah Pauling (43), Awkwafina
(29), Rihanna (30), and Helena Bonham Carter (52). [Note: ages according to
Wikipedia.]
Part of
the joy was that a friend and I were treated to dinner and the show by her son,
who called ahead for reservations (I didn’t know one could do that at a movie
theatre) and made us feel like royalty. It was a charmed evening of excellent
food, conversation, and entertainment.
From the
moment the film began, I was completely captivated. The plot and characters
were intriguing; the organization and execution of the heist riveting. For the
first time in a long time, I lost myself in the dramatic situation, forgetting
about the outside world.
Then,
right at the end of the film, and let me warn POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT, the
purloined jewels are redistributed by the services of four distinguished actresses,
each of whom may boast an exceptional career on screen and stage: Marlo Thomas
(80), Mary Louise Wilson (86), Dana Ivey (76), and Elizabeth Ashley (78). These
actresses appeared in cameo shots and had no lines. Their eyes flashed with
enthusiasm and they looked stunning.
Seeing
them took me out of the story for a moment as I wondered: would I watch a movie
about those women carrying out a heist, and would anyone ever make that movie?
In fact,
the weekend before, I had gone alone to see The
Book Club, which showcased Jane Fonda (80), Dianne Keaton (72), Candice
Bergen (72), and Mary Steenburgen (65). When the club members read 50 Shades of Grey, they begin making
some changes in their personal romantic lives, all with unexpected and humorous
repercussions. The movie was predictable, but enjoyable, especially seeing the
talented actresses assembled for the cast.
Glenda
Jackson (82) just won the Tony award for playing a 90-year-old character in
Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women on
Broadway. Her co-star, Laurie Metcalf (63), also won a Tony. Brenda Blethen
(72) plays a middle-aged detective in the British Crime series Vera and was celebrated as a guest of
honor at this year’s Malice Domestic.
In January
2014, Fay Weldon wrote “Writers of a Certain Age” for the New York Times. She
explained that while mature male characters retained reader and viewer attention,
interest in female characters faded if they were older than their twenties or
thirties. Weldon did hold out hope if a character could reach 80 and become “so
old as to seem ageless, sexless as a sage, remarkable if not for youth, why,
then, for extreme age, and again a salable proposition for publishers.”
Holly
Robinson responded with “How Old Is Too Old for a Main Character?” in the
Huffington Post. She wanted to refute Weldon’s premise, but when she pitched a novel
about a character in her late fifties to her agent, she got a negative response.
He told her, “Publishers don’t like older characters. You’d better start with
the younger woman’s point of view.”
Growing up,
I read about characters my own age, but when I reached high school and college,
I found I preferred to read about older characters. The friendship between
middle-aged Evelyn Couch and elderly Ninny Threadgoode in the movie Fried Green Tomatoes based on Fannie
Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the
Whistle Stop Café is priceless to me. And, I wonder, what would the reading
world be like without Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple?
Thanks to my blogging partners for the additional examples of characters portrayed by Helen Mirren (72), Judy Dench (83), and Maggie Smith (83), who as the Dowager Countess of Grantham had some of the best lines on Downton Abbey.
What do you think about older female
protagonists, particularly in the mystery/thriller genres?
