'20th Century Women' actress Annette Bening's performance is a marvel
Has Annette Bening ever given a bad performance? I鈥檝e been unable to聽recall a single one. In 鈥�20th Century Women,鈥� which is set in 1979, she plays聽Dorothea Fields, a single mother with a 15-year-old son, Jamie (Lucas聽Jade Zumann), and a houseful of renters occupying her ramshackle Santa聽Barbara, Calif. home.
Early in the movie, her Ford Galaxy explodes into flames in a parking聽lot and the firemen who extinguish the blaze are dragooned to her place聽for an outdoor party. This is her way of thanking them, but also maybe聽she鈥檒l meet a guy. If nothing else, this superannuated hippie likes the聽conviviality of congregations.
Without Bening, whose performance is a watchful and laid-back marvel, 鈥�20th Century Women,鈥� written and directed by Mike Mills, would聽still be borderline worth seeing because of its supporting cast: Billy聽Crudup as William, the handyman lodger, a good-natured Lothario; Greta聽Gerwig 鈥� in a very toned-down performance by Gerwig standards 鈥� as聽Abbie, a punkish photographer with close-cropped hair; and Elle Fanning聽as Julie, Jamie鈥檚 somewhat older friend, who sneaks into his bedroom at聽night but only to sleep with him 鈥� no sex.
Dorothea wants Jamie to grow into a responsible man but, without a聽man around to instruct him (William is of no use), she enlists Abbie and聽Julie. Abbie鈥檚 idea of helping out is to give the boy a copy of 鈥淪isterhood聽is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women鈥檚 Liberation聽Movement.鈥� Jamie laps it up.
Mills is one of those filmmakers who often ruins his own best effects聽with a lot of cutesy narrative tricks and cinematic sleight of hand, such as the聽way he sometimes speeds up the action into a herky-jerky procession of聽images in order to signal the frenetic passage of time.聽
But he鈥檚 good with actors, and with Bening especially, he鈥檚 really聽keyed into her prodigious gifts. He鈥檚 given her a role that allows her to聽luxuriate in her genius for playing people who are simultaneously聽supercynical and hyperinnocent. Grade: B (Rated R for sexual material, language, some nudity and brief drug use.)
