Frances McDormand Dazzles
From Blood Simple to Fargo to 3 Billboards
How do we even begin to describe the talent that France McDormand possesses? Our first sight of her was as Abby, the cheating ingenue in the Coen brothers‘ first film, Blood Simple. The 1984 neo-noir is fantastic for so many reasons, but Frances’s debut movie performance (not to mention M. Emmet Walsh‘s smarmy detective) is why the thriller is worth a second and third viewing.
She married Joel Coen in 1984 and continued to appear in many of the Coen’s films over the next ten years, along with other smaller roles in film and television, until starring in the Academy-Award winning Fargo (1996). McDormand danced away with the Best Actress award for her role as the intrepid—and very pregnant—police officer, Marge Gunderson, and made clear in her acceptance speech her feminist stance as a woman in Hollywood, calling for writers and directors to create richer, deeper roles for women.
Not that she’s lacked in that arena. She was nominated for an Oscar for her roles as an abused wife in the racially charged Mississippi Burning (1989) and as the protective mother of a teenaged Rolling Stone writer in Cameron Crowe‘s memoir piece, Almost Famous (2000).
Her Emmy-winning performance as the stern matriarch in HBO’s 2014 series, Olive Kitteridge was nothing short of astounding. As Olive, she’s as tough as nails, often taking out her anger and depression on those closest to her, and yet, somehow, sympathetic. Credit McDormand‘s ability to make even an extremely unlikeable character like Olive, so very likeable.
Which brings us to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In Martin McDonagh‘s pitch black comedy, McDormand plays Mildred, a mourning mother who humiliates the local law with damning billboards for their inability to find her daughter’s killer. As painful as the premise is, and as bitter as Mildred is, her hard shell eventually cracks to reveal her deep, palpable sadness. McDormand’s gift is her skill at peeling off the many layers of her complicated character’s emotions. One minute we’re laughing uncomfortably as she knees a bratty teenager in the balls, the next we’re crying as she speaks softly to a deer that wanders near her garden. This is the stuff that Oscar-winning performances are made of, and we anticipate seeing France McDormand, maybe…if we’re lucky, cracking a smile at the Academy Awards in February. But don’t count on it. McDormand is a serious actor with a lot to say about the many wrongs in Hollywood that need to be righted. And we’ll be cheering her on.
Until then, watch Blood Simple again on Amazon. See if you agree that that spark we first saw thirty years ago is now a raging fire.
