That's Mr. Mirren to You, Buddy

Straight Guy,

I went to see the film The Debt this weekend, which I recommend. It's definitely tight and suspenseful--you could have heard a pin drop in the theater.

From the ads, I expected the film to star a gun-toting, ass-kicking Helen Mirren. But she's much more subtle.

I like Helen Mirren a lot. Who wouldn't. I've liked her movie roles, but none of them has gripped me as much as her role as Detective Inspector Jane Tennison in the U.K.'s ITV series Prime Suspect. She's tough.

Her toughness must inspired this post by Linda Holmes on the NPR blog Monkey See. Read it: "Twenty Iconic Male Movie Roles in Which Helen Mirren Would Have Ruled."  Thank you good friend and fellow blogger Knit Like You Mean It for sending along. 

 To excerpt: "How many roles written for men would have been, if tweaked appropriately . . . . perfect Helen Mirren vehicles?"

A woman as Bond? I can see it. What about you, SG? Any of these uber-male roles up for a woman to recast?

--Gay Guy

3 comments:

Straight Guy said...

Mirren is awesome. That's a given.

Have you seen the commercials or ads for the new Americanized "Prime Suspect?" Maria Bello is a great actress, too. But something is just off. And I guess I have to blame the very indulgent pork-pie hat.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Gay Guy. While Mirren can be very ladylike in some of her roles, say as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen, DI Tennison was FIERCE!!

I will go see Debt now.

straight in upstate said...

SG, Mrs. SIU and I just had that conversation tonight. She said, "nice idea for a series but why bother calling it 'Prime Suspect'?" Tennison wouldn't have been caught dead in a pork-pie hat.

She was awesome in Red, as was the whole cast.