I loved Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Lucas, but I think just about any other decent actress could have taken Wynona Ryder's roles in those movies. The time has come for me to throw off my adolescent hopes and dreams and realize that Wynona is really a piss-poor actress. Night On Earth? What the hell was that? I think that a good actor is one who can do a ton of different roles (remember when Jack Nicholson used to?) and be convincing in all of them. Wynona's big stretch in Night On Earth was simply embarrassing.
For the last three major movies she's been in, she's played the same role; Age Of Innocence, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Reality Bites. Sexually repressed and meek, Wynona underacts all of her roles and hopes that her eyes can do her work for her. She has eyes like a deer looking onto oncoming traffic. And I'm driving the car, baby. Wynona's eye acting is just about as bad as Keanu Reeve's diaphragm acting. Both of them have lucked into a few cool roles but overall they suck. In more ways than one? Is it Keanu that they always talk about in the "Movieline" rumor section as the young actor who trades sexual favors for decent roles? Reading Bertolucci's comments about the Little Buddha boy would lead me to think so. But enough of Keanu Reeves whose role in Bram Stoker's Dracula could have been better filled with cardboard standee of him.
What was the academy thinking when they nominated Wynona for Age Of Innocence? That movie was bad enough without her "Oh, Louis"ing everywhere. Now I fear the same thing might happen again this fall: if you hear someone heckling Little Women it might just be me.