Is Scarlett Johansson the Kiss of Box Office Death?
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, Casting, Box Office, Scarlett Johansson, Cinematical Indie
Poor Scarlett Johansson. The Guardian's Joe Queenan has a piece up slamming the actress with gems such as, "Basically, her acting repertory consists of staring intently at the person she is speaking to, keeping her lips spread apart, and hoping no one will notice that she is no threat to Meryl Streep, and not all that much of a threat to Hilary Duff ." When you're being compared unfavorably to Hilary Duff -- that's gotta hurt. Queenan goes on to enumerate Johansson's string of box office (and acting) failures, including in that list her BAFTA and Golden Globe-nommed performance in The Girl With the Pearl Earring ("listless and vacant"), The Island ("hopelessly miscast"), Match Point ("passive and useless"), Scoop ("thoroughly implausible"), The Black Dahlia ("ridiculously out of her league"), and The Prestige ("entirely extraneous"). Harsh words, but does Queenan have a point?
I liked Johansson well-enough in Ghost World, and I happen to fall on the "liked it" side of the Lost in Translation fence. I'll grant Queenan on some of his points, but her performance in Match Point was one of her strongest, especially toward the end, where she captured well the utter desperation of the "other woman" who finds that her illicit lover doesn't care quite as much for her once she evolves from sexy little vamp who exists to serve his sexual needs to real woman with a real problem.
Queenan moves on from eviscerating Johansson to bring up other stars with the stench of box office bomb hovering about them like an invisible, omnipresent cloud: Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone, Ben Affleck (with or without former love Jennifer Lopez), John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, and Jude Law. Of these, as Queenan notes, a fair number are actually quite talented. Yet, inexplicably, they fail to bring home the box office bacon. Is it a case of bad box office mojo, or bad scripts, or some other secret combination of ingredients that add up to a formula for Hollywood failure?
It's interesting that many of the stars Queenan makes mention of continue to get regular work in Hollywood, in spite of not having carried a major hit recently; Johansson is one of these, as are Law and Cage. What other stars can you think of who bring the "kiss of death" to whatever film they work on? And what do you think of Queenan's take on Johansson? Someone in Hollywood surely likes her -- the actress has no less fewer ** than six projects currently in the works. Is she really as talentless as Queenan seems to think? Or is she a brilliant actress who's taken on some bad roles that don't fully showcase her talents?
** Thanks to eagle eye reader Keith for coming down on me with grammar-police guns blazing for the grammatical error. Of course, as any good grade school teacher knows (and I used to teach grade school, so I should and do know), "less" is for things you cannot count, whilst "fewer" is for things you can count -- like Ms. Johansson's film projects. Thanks, Keith. Even professional writers like we here at Cinematical occasionally need the grammar police to keep us in line. I henceforth assign myself to stay after school and write on the chalkboard 100 times, "Fewer, not less! Fewer, not less!"









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-12-2006 @ 11:40PM
hoop said...
Neither of these actors are film stars per se, but both Jason Bateman and Nathan Fillian are excellent actors that seemingly can't catch a break on superb shows. Bateman for The Jake Effect and Arrested Development, Firefly for Fillian.
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11-13-2006 @ 12:10AM
keith said...
It's "fewer," as in, "...the actress has no fewer than six projects currently in the works." It's sad that a person who purports to be a professional writer doesn't know even the basics of grammar.
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11-13-2006 @ 12:18AM
Bart McFarland said...
i think scarlett is doing what she loves to do. i've seen two or three movies with scarlett in it and i've liked her acting. i'm extremely biased though cause my goal is to meet scarlett. i understand what you mean though. keanu reeves is also criticized for having little to no skill and still he is in big movies. i think it's an opinion and Queenan is one person so...yeah.
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11-13-2006 @ 12:22AM
Kim Voynar said...
Thanks, Keith, for your correction; the grammatical error has been corrected. As always, we appreciate our readers who take the time to graciously point out when we've made a mistake.
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11-13-2006 @ 6:38AM
Amy said...
Are people just realising that Scarlett ain't much of an actress? her line delivery is so awful, it is almost as if she expects the dialogue to catch up with the action or reaction she is giving. Just because she had Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl earring do well doesn't mean she is one of the top actresses. Her problem isn't simply BO, her performances also leave ALOT to be desired, the fact that she is 20 years old and dresses like she is 35 doesn't help either. The tabs blab on about her bringing back "old school glamour", well, she sure brings back the old and glamour part of it!
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11-13-2006 @ 8:04AM
Robert Grant said...
Wotcha
I think the reason she gets so much work is the same reason Keanu Reeves does - they're both so bland and uncharismatic that any director/studio has to feel that they can paint onto them whatever character they want to without the actors personality getting in the way. They're also (arguably) good-looking wool so they're not going to particularly offend anyone either.
Like it or not, casting - like moviemaking generally - is mostly about marketing/demographics and she fulfills the criteria for a modern leading lady quite well. Kinda good-looking, kinda dumb-sounding and kinda young.
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11-13-2006 @ 8:31AM
Mark Daly said...
I have seen Scarlett in a fair few films at this stage. I am in the sizable minority including John Hurt who cant stand Lost in translation, Scarlett Johannson's shapely posterior aside. I think her main problem has been her inablity to act her age. even though she is very young she refuses to play young roles. She plays roles which for mature actresses. There is something cold about her I find. She was wise to escape the clutches of Tom Cruise and i will give her bonus points for that.
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11-13-2006 @ 10:02AM
Elizabeth said...
I think Scarlett Johansson is beautiful. I do not think she is a stellar actress, though, in any way. I,too, have noticed her lack of facial expressions and voice inflections, which mute her characters and come across as bland.
At least she's pretty, or I think she'd be out.
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11-13-2006 @ 10:39AM
Emily said...
Scarlett just annoys me, but I have to say I loved her in the Island. That's a film that doesn't get enough attention. Usually I'll avoid a movie by her.
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11-13-2006 @ 11:58AM
Paul said...
I would love to disagree with this article as I adore Scarlett (but for 'less than honorable' reasons). Alas, I have reached my tether with her. She's just not a great actress, at least not yet. As far as filling a marketing criterion, she's one of the hottest, and seemingly, one of the most well adjusted young actresses out there, but if she's not putting butts in seats at the cinema... what's the point? I think she'll improve though (maybe she 'should' take a couple of roles where she's acting her age). Till then, I'll satisfy my need to ogle her by just googling her images. Mmmmm....
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11-13-2006 @ 3:38PM
thordora said...
Cannot state enough how much I hate Scarlett. Cannot stand her.
The Island was good, but that was more for Ewan.
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11-14-2006 @ 12:17AM
Jeremiah Lewis said...
Is it any coincidence that Nicholas Cage starred in a movie entitled Kiss of Death? I think not.
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11-14-2006 @ 6:57AM
Dona said...
I agree with Queenan that Johansson was "entirely extraneous" in The Prestige. So much so that she disappeared with no explanation.
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11-16-2006 @ 12:29PM
Claire said...
Thank you Joe!
Finally someone that agrees with me - I've been saying the same thing for years...
I don't see that she has any 'acting' ability whatsoever, and whenever I've seen her in a movie she seems blank, bland and uninteresting.
I've yet to see her act at all.
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11-18-2006 @ 10:04AM
Kelly said...
I think scarlett is a good actress, especially among the young crowd of current actresses (Lindsay, Hillary, etc.) I rather enjoy her films.
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11-20-2006 @ 6:48PM
Tina said...
I think the lot of you are way off base. Scarlett's role choices may not bank at the box office, but I credit that to the lack of intellect in the general movie going audience. In Girl with the Pearl Earring, the chemistry between her and Colin Firth is palapable. The scene with Colin pearcing her ear is so erotic without anything sexual actually taking place. I believe that she chooses roles that she can get behind, not the roles that will break the box office. Getting big money doesn't mean much at the box office anymore. All it seems to mean is that a lot of sheeple came out to see your film. Big Deal. I'll watch Scarlett polish bowling balls before I see some of the other flotsam that's floating through megaplexes these days.
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11-22-2006 @ 5:05PM
Josh Boelter said...
Joe Queenan is fun to read, but he's made a career of basically slamming people. Queenan should be read for entertainment value. Some of his comments are insightful, but he's a hatchet man, looking for reasons to be caustic. That's fine, but you've got to take Queenan with a grain of salt. To take him at his word and say "Oh, Scarlett is the kiss of death" is a bit silly. She's good in some roles, not so much in others.
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12-06-2006 @ 10:42PM
Colleen said...
I happen to like Scarlett, and just for future reference, it's REPERTOIRE. Articles that are THAT far off just aren't even worth reading.
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