I really think that Kate Winslet is the one to replace Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon on the Go-To Serious Actress list for the next decade or two. Take a look at her IMDB list--she's got five or six projects either just finished or in the works. She's got classically beautiful features, that peaches and cream English complexion, and a real sense of confidence in her abilities that shines on the screen, no matter what role she's playing. Peter Jackson done good in giving her her first film, althought I'm sure someone else would have cast her in a movie role if PJ hadn't.

She furthermore has unbelievably good instincts in picking movies -- I've never read a review of her giving a bad performance, and I don't think she's chosen any appalling stinkers.

The one with Harvey Keitel where she played the ex-cult member and was naked a lot and peed on camera was pretty bad. I forget what it was called.

Edit: The title was Holy Smoke.

The Life of David Gale was another stinker -- worse, even, than Holy Smoke, because HS is a bad artsy movie and LoDG is a bad message movie, and at least the artsy movie was mostly pretty to look at. (I've had the misfortune of seeing both.)

Talking of Natalie Portman, my little brother, who's visiting me at the moment, brought in his copy of Leon, a.k.a. The Professional, except with 20+ minutes longer European cut. Watched about half of it before keeling off to bed last night, and it's frankly unnerving how smoldering little 12-year-old Natalie is. The interaction between Leon and Mathilda may be sexually innocent, but it has this weird romantic charge to it all the same. I don't remember being this unsettled by it when I watched it the first time around. Hmmm.

Actually, the whole precocious barely pubescent girl/mentally and/or emotionally handicapped adult male thing reminded me a bit of Sunday and Cybele, [link] as well as this little-scene French-Canadian film called L'Enfant d'eau. [link]

I liked Holy Smoke. NSM the peeing, but women peeing is kind of unvoidable in Jane Campion films.

The interaction between Leon and Mathilda may be sexually innocent, but it has this weird romantic charge to it all the same. I don't remember being this unsettled by it when I watched it the first time around. Hmmm.

The extra 20 minutes add a lot of that to it. I remember seeing the weird charge on first view, but it was MUCH more unsettling when I watched Leon.

Really? Huh. Does Netflix have it?

Dunno: I own it, so I've never checked, but I expect they do.

was naked a lot

This was pretty much the only reason I watched that movie. Seemed like standard-issue Campion, but naked Kate Winslet was ok by me.

it's frankly unnerving how smoldering little 12-year-old Natalie is

I recently read Lolita finally (which was utterly phenomenal, by the way, as rich as prose gets) and commented to a friend that it was a crime against literature that Portman turned down the role of Lolita in the 1997 film. When you're reading the book, his description of his little lover, both physically and, well, I guess emotionally isn't the right word, but in the way he describes her sexual vibe, is exactly little Mathilda in Léon.

ETA: I meant to mention that with that image, it's a lot harder to completely hate Humbert Humbert, because, frankly, little Natalie is so incredibly tempting there. Which isn't to say the character isn't incredibly depraved and didn't deserve to go to jail for eight billion years, because he did, but still... it helps with the empathy.