By Jen Johans
As one of the most accomplished and acclaimed performers who's conquered every medium from stage to screen, Frances McDormand has won a Tony, an Emmy, two Golden Globes (one for acting and another as a producer), four Oscars (including one as producer), three Independent Spirit Awards, and countless other honors from film critics' groups and festivals around the world.
A top-notch character actor, McDormand is perhaps most famous for her richly varied work in the films of her husband Joel Coen (most notably as a pregnant police chief in 1996's masterful FARGO). More recently, however, she earned raves as a gig worker who is forced to go where the jobs are after losing everything in the Great Recession in filmmaker Chloé Zhao's 2021 Best Picture winner NOMADLAND and as a mom seeking justice in the performance she modeled on John Wayne in writer-director Martin McDonagh's 2017 film THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI. And while all three of those turns garnered her an Academy Award for Best Actress, McDormand first turned heads with her humanistic and harrowing portrayal of the battered wife of a sheriff's deputy in MISSISSIPPI BURNING. Her performance in the 1988 film earned McDormand the first of three Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress, and was followed by nods for the 2000 Cameron Crowe hit ALMOST FAMOUS and 2005's NORTH COUNTRY in the same category.
Able to adapt to any genre, regardless of a film's style, tone, or success overall, McDormand's warmth, wit, and integrity shine through in every character that she plays. Rather than just focus on her Oscar wins, nods, and/or work with the Coens, I'm casting the net wide to share five of my favorite unexpected turns from throughout Frances McDormand's enviable career.
LAUREL CANYON (2002)
Writer-director Lisa Cholodenko's feature filmmaking follow-up to her acclaimed, potent 1998 debut HIGH ART, Cholodenko derived the inspiration for LAUREL CANYON from Joni Mitchell's classic album “Ladies of Laurel Canyon” and workshopped the script at the Sundance Institute Lab. A gorgeously understated effort which, despite its contemporary setting, is filled with the soft-focus, golden hues of a '70s album cover (thanks to Christopher Nolan's frequent cinematographer Wally Pfister), CANYON stars Frances McDormand, Alessandro Nivola, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, and Natascha McElhone.
Eager to begin his medical residency at an L.A. hospital, when Sam (Bale) arrives out west along with his fiancee Alex (Beckinsale) from the snobby world of east coast academia, they're forced to share a residence with Sam's mom Jane (McDormand), a hippie, pot-smoking bisexual record producer currently finishing an album for an alternative British band. A total free-spirit who you can tell right away is an embarrassment to her son, as the film continues the young couple finds themselves tempted by others, with him drawn to a fellow medical resident (McElhone), and her flattered by the attention and interest of not only Jane but her young boyfriend Ian (Nivola) as well.
Featuring great recording studio performances of songs that fans of the band Sparklehorse will instantly recognize, from the look of the film to McDormand's wildly charismatic, sexy, Independent Spirit Award nominated turn (Nivola also received a nod), and a few scenes that feel like they might've been inspired by THE GRADUATE, the intriguing LAUREL CANYON pays homage to the '70s throughout.
Able to convey conflicting emotions in a single glance as we watch what we believe to be her character processing actual thought – which is a seriously hard thing for an actor to pull off – this is one of McDormand's strongest performances and the film deserves far more attention than it received.
And while she didn't win the Independent Spirit Award for this film, re-teaming with Cholodenko in 2014 for the HBO miniseries OLIVE KITTERIDGE (based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning novel from Elizabeth Strout) garnered McDormand her very first Emmy.
MADELINE (1998)
Based upon a story by Malia Scotch Marmo and husband and wife team Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett who went on to write the screenplay for the film, MADELINE is a fun, vibrant, and fresh adaptation of the beloved children's book series by Ludwig Bemelmans from PARTY GIRL director Daisy von Scherler Mayer.
Deriving the narrative from four different MADELINE book titles, because the film boasts a wealth of different plots and characters that are all at play in any given sequence, occasionally the otherwise energetic family film can come across as episodic. Still, as we happily watch our favorite mischievous but well-intentioned boarding school student (winningly played by Hatty Jones) get involved in one freewheeling adventure after another, it's easy to overlook the film's minor shortcomings because its heart is absolutely in the right place.
Making only a few minor changes to the series, including setting the film in Paris of the 1950s instead of the 1930s as well as making Madeline an orphan – which only heightens her bond with McDormand's strict but loving nun Miss Clavel all the more – MADELINE is as brisk as it is inventive. Although it's perhaps a little too intense for very young children, since, in one of several episodic storylines, Madeline finds herself suffering from appendicitis, falling off a bridge while clowning around, and getting kidnapped until she predictably outsmarts the villains, the film should still delight most children aged grade school and up.
Punching up the colors from the books' illustrations in a decision that's evident in the vivid cinematography by LA HAINE's Pierre Aïm, sets from frequent Stephen Frears production designer Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski, AMELIE set decorator Aline Bonetto, and costumes by Michael Clancy, MADELINE easily captures our imagination. Augmented by the score from legendary French New Wave composer Michel Legrand, from McDormand's earliest moments onscreen, MADELINE is similarly strengthened by her tender portrayal of Miss Clavel. A spirited turn, it's fascinating to see her not only keep a strong united front for the girls in her charge but also let us in behind closed doors to reveal moments that find her worried and wishing she could do more.
On the surface, it's such an unexpected 180 from her role in FARGO, which was released two years before this film premiered. Yet watching the two in quick succession, I couldn't help but appreciate just how much both movies work as well as they do because McDormand radiates so much warmth and goodness that we're constantly thinking about her characters even when she isn't on the screen.
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (2008)
Based on the titular 1937 novel by British author Winifred Watson, Universal Pictures originally bought the rights to MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY in 1939 and over the next few years, started to develop it as a musical vehicle for actress Billie Burke. The advent of World War II quickly put Universal's plans on hold. And although the rights for the film were renewed by the studio in the 1950s, no attempt was made to adapt Watson's novel until producers Stephen Garrett and Nellie Bellflower brought the book to the attention of Focus Features (which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures) and they started to get to work.
Adapted by LIFE OF PI scripter David Magee and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, the duo's script channels the zany adventures and screwball comedy style of both Watson's novel as well as films made in the era in which the late '30s set PETTIGREW is set. A distinctly British film that not only takes place in London on the cusp of the second world war but was also shot in several historical buildings and locales including Theater Royal, Drury Lane, Whitehall, and Pimlico, PETTIGREW's interiors were captured at the landmark Ealing Studios. Lensed by cinematographer John de Borman (who's worked alongside Jane Campion and MADELINE helmer Daisy von Scherler Mayer), PETTIGREW was directed by veteran British TV helmer Bharat Nalluri.
A quickly paced, mindless but diverting trifle, the film gives Frances McDormand the rare opportunity to cut loose as a comedic lead. The eponymous middle-aged daughter of a vicar with staunch moral inflexibility – which has left her fired from her fourth placement as a governess – after she's told by her employment agency that they won't give her another position, the desperate woman snakes a job away from her colleague. Soon she arrives at the home of the free-spirited, morally liberal American singer-actress Delysia Lafosse, who is played with unlimited effervescent charm by the bubbly Amy Adams.
In for a rude awakening, Pettigrew discovers that Lafosse was not requesting services for a nanny but a social secretary instead. Hungry and out-of-options, Pettigrew plays along and quickly endears herself to the American by helping her juggle the first of three very different beaus (played by Tom Payne, Mark Strong, and Lee Pace) whom she'll encounter before the whirlwind day ends. Crossing paths with her own love interest (Ciarán Hinds) as well, over twenty-four eventful hours, Pettigrew loosens up, first out of fear of losing her employment and again when she realizes she's having far too much fun.
A comedy with everything going for it, unfortunately, the film doesn't work nearly as well as it should. Packing too many characters and subplots into its 92 minute running time, whereas MADELINE threw several balls into the air but managed to keep them (largely) aloft from start to finish, it isn't too long before MISS PETTIGREW falls flat. Failing and succeeding in equal measure, although it struggles to find the right rhythm, tone, and approach, the film's buoyed by noble ambitions and the talents of its affable cast, who make it well worth watching. Led by a confident, fiercely funny, against-type Frances McDormand, in the end, it's the people of PETTIGREW who strive to keep the film afloat and ensure that the people at home are entertained as well.
MOONRISE KINGDOM (2012)
This 2012 release is the first of three films that Frances McDormand would make with writer-director Wes Anderson co-starring actor Bill Murray. MOONRISE KINGDOM finds the two playing unhappily married lawyers who live with their four children on the fictional New England island of New Penzance in their home – aptly named Summer's End – at the end of the summer of 1965.
As the mother of a precocious twelve-year-old girl who runs away with her orphan pen-pal (who in turn escapes from his scout camp), McDormand's role in the film is small but significant. While predictably, Anderson ensures that we relate to the children right from the jump, intriguingly it's McDormand's character's extramarital affair with Bruce Willis' Captain Sharp that not only propels MOONRISE KINGDOM's action forward but also gives the romance at the center of the film more emotional heft.
Regardless of the film, of course, she's always strong. But one thing I admire about her turn here is that because of the way that KINGDOM is structured, you don't fully realize just how much is going on under the surface – or the bittersweet way the young lovers' storyline will pay off and bring her own romantic entanglements to a head – until the very end of the movie.
Co-written by Anderson's THE DARJEELING LIMITED collaborator Roman Coppola, who gave McDormand's character his mother's penchant for using a bullhorn to corral rowdy children and (like Anderson) filled the work with his own memories of being an adolescent, the two indulged KINGDOM with Anderson's trademark literary and cinematic allusions.
The film draws a great deal of inspiration from films like MELODY, BLACK JACK, A LITTLE ROMANCE, and – as is often the case throughout Anderson's oeuvre – the work of François Truffaut, most notably THE 400 BLOWS and SMALL CHANGE. Employing Anderson's favorite visual techniques including an emphasis on color, symmetry, and actors who are centered in the frame, MOONRISE KINGDOM feels so much like a product of the period in which it is set.
Boldly making its young female protagonist someone who's been battling issues of self-control, the film dares to be both nostalgic and introspective about the ups and downs of young love. A vital part in a stellar movie, just like she did in Curtis Hanson's brilliant 2000 feature WONDER BOYS (which is often overlooked in favor of her performance that year in ALMOST FAMOUS), McDormand's work in KINGDOM helps to make Anderson's masterful film a little more human and whole.
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE (2003)
Easily the most well-known title on the list, this film was a huge box office hit for WHAT WOMEN WANT and THE HOLIDAY writer-director Nancy Meyers. Yet what begins as an intelligent, fascinating look at the double standards that exist between men and women as they age and date grows increasingly less so by the time it reaches its hotly-contested ending.
Of course, the film's premise – wherein Diane Keaton winds up meeting her twenty-something daughter's (Amanda Peet) sixty-three-year-old beau (Jack Nicholson) when she and her sister (McDormand) arrive at her Hamptons beach house at the exact same time – is as original as one can get in a romcom. However, it's less a Meet Cute than a Meet Ew, particularly after Keaton winds up giving Nicholson CPR when he takes Viagra and has a heart attack while engaging in foreplay with her daughter. But after she winds up having to babysit Nicholson when he's too sick to travel and his relationship with her daughter fizzles out, the two bond at the exact same time she starts dating Nicholson's handsome E.R. Doctor, played by Keanu Reeves.
Embodied by two of their generation's most accomplished performers twenty-two years after they first shared the screen in REDS, SOMETHING'S ending might not make much sense from a narrative perspective but it definitely pays off on Nicholson and Keaton's roles in director Warren Beatty's 1981 Oscar winner.
Although admittedly this has never been my favorite Meyers picture (as I feel like the last half puts her characters through the stereotypical ringer), I was eager to watch it again for the first time in over a decade for this piece. The type of fare that was made for a summer evening, I'm so glad I revisited Meyers' work to delight in the performances of her incredible cast. Repeatedly, it's the film's consummate pros who help make their characters more three dimensional and soften SOMETHING'S sharp edges. And this is particularly evident thanks to a terrific, lovable turn by Keanu Reeves, and a bold firecracker one by Frances McDormand, who's the film's true voice of reason.
Completely stealing focus during an awkward dinner between herself, Keaton, Peet, and Nicholson where he makes a crack about women and their age, McDormand's lesbian women's studies professor unloads on Nicholson while citing the same double standards that Meyers is initially hoping to satirize in one of the film's most memorable scenes.
The type of brief but brilliant dialogue that you know probably sold McDormand the first time she read Meyers' script since it's both pervasive everywhere but especially in Hollywood and also came with the unmissable opportunity to play Diane Keaton's wise, protective sister (even if she's underutilized in SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE), Frances McDormand is incredibly effective and absolutely memorable. In other words, she's something special.
A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.