Scarlett Johansson, Misfit Movie Star (part 5)

In Part 4 of this series, I explored 3 films where Scarlett Johansson became a supporting player when the narrative pushed her to the side. In Ghost World, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Don Jon, this is where her misfit status took her and the films were more interesting as a result. Please read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this Scarlett Johansson series.

As I was going through her IMDb page trying to figure out where to take part 5, I ended up choosing three films that are totally different from one another. We are now seeing Scarlett Johansson the Misfit Muse. As an actress with attention to paid to her looks, she did have to play characters who become inspiration for white men (like most actresses have to do at some point). These films do more than show Johansson in some passive role, however, as she continues to find ways to break the male gaze directed at her.

Girl with a Pearl Earring, "Griet" (2004)
In this largely fictionalized story about Johannes Vermeer (played here by Colin Firth) creating his most famous painting, Johansson stars as humble, illiterate servant-girl Griet. Much like in The Nanny Diaries and Match Point, her lower class status is thrown in her face by cold wealthy people. Griet is a misfit in multiple ways: as a servant, she avoids cruel treatment, always walking on eggshells around her employers and other workers in the household. But as Griet starts to learn about art, color and lighting from Vermeer, she becomes a misfit because of her association with the master of the house.

Griet is spotted by the wealthy Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson), who asks Vermeer if he may employ Griet (implying some sort of concubine type thing) and when he is refused, commissions a painting from Vermeer of Griet (the titular work of art). Again, Scarlett Johansson's beauty is the subject of this film as it's a man's desire for her that begets the classic painting. Griet and Vermeer's relationship is also similar to that of Bob and Charlotte's in Lost in Translation. It's not explicitly sexual and romantic, but there is a strong undercurrent of affection and understanding. Griet learns from Vermeer but their friendship is kept hidden from Vermeer's wife (Essie Davis). Griet may be a quiet servant-girl but she finds ways to defy the hierarchy she lives in (like wearing her mistress's pearl earring in the painting).

Johansson's performance is near silent. She uses her wide eyes the most in this performance. Even as Griet is in the passive position as an object of desire and subject in the painting, Johansson doesn't play Griet as just something to be looked at. She is curious and, in a different and more forgiving world, the subject would have become the artist. Johansson scored a Golden Globe nomination for her performance, which is understated but defiant. I think Girl with a Pearl Earring is an under-seen film and her acting is quite subtle and muted without being blank.

The Prestige, "Olivia Wenscombe" (2006)
Bringing a director like Christopher Nolan to an actress like Johansson should spell magic. But as Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Carrie-Ann Moss, Rebecca Hall, Hilary Swank, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Katie Holmes, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain can tell you, female characters do not come easily to the Nolans Christopher and Jonathan. It really takes a fantastic actress to rise above the stock characters these guys write for their actresses. Olivia Wenscombe works as Angier's (Hugh Jackman) assistant and is sent to spy on Borden (Christian Bale). She becomes involved in a really strange love pentagon. But there isn't much to the character beyond being a pawn in the rivalry between Angier and Borden.

The Prestige is a brilliant movie, wildly crafted and full of intense emotional beats especially for Borden's wife Sarah, played by Rebecca Hall. But the movie does not afford the same complexity to Olivia. She is merely a beautiful woman, who is a romantic object, used by the men around her. Both Olivia and Sarah represent the two halves of "Borden" and Olivia represents the flashy professional part of him. As her half of Borden falls in love with her, she helps his magic act and his attempts to sabotage Angier. Scarlett Johansson gives a fine performance, playing a desirable woman who gets used again after Match Point. But while that film deconstructed its character, The Prestige plays it straight. However, Nolan does allow Olivia some form of self-preservationist agency. As she gets deeper and deeper into this magician madness, she leaves. Both she and Sarah finds themselves trapped in this masculine world of revenge and find their own ways to get out.

The casting of Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall in this film is very interesting to me. This was the first of 2 films in which they starred together and played two sides of the same coin--the other being Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Here, the women serve as counterparts in a much more overt way. What Rebecca Hall thinks of being cast twice as Johansson's more plain counterpart I don't know. Woody Allen also directed a film about magic starring The Prestige stars: Scoop with Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman. He clearly loved this movie!

Her, "Samantha" (2013)
To create a character using only your voice is a major challenge for any actor. Without any help from any kind of onscreen character--animated, motion capture, etc--audiences don't have much to latch onto so your voice has to carry the entire film. This was the task at hand for Scarlett Johannson and I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Johansson displayed so much vivaciousness, neediness, sexiness, confusion, humor, intelligence and even her voice suggests a different presence than what Johansson usually brings onscreen. Scarlett Johansson's work in Her is probably my favorite performance and it's an important role for her for 2 reasons.

Her is a response to all those rom-coms where a girl helps a guy live again without any sort of meaningful life of her own. Samantha starts out that way but the film gradually hints that Samantha wants more from her life. She inspires Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) to find his own way but it's not enough. As Samantha discovers the limitations of human life, she discovers her own boundless potential. Scarlett Johansson really manages to strike the right chord: she acts as an operating system finding her own humanity, not just as an actress acting like an operating system. If Samantha starts out as a misfit--the lone OS in a cast of humans--the film ends with Theodore being an ill-fit for her. Who is the true misfit?

This film also plays really well with Under the Skin (discussed in part 3) and Lucy (part 1). These three films form a sort of trilogy where the main character is placed in different spots on some sort of humanity scale. In Lucy, she lost her humanity to become all-knowing. In Under the Skin, she tried to discover humanity again. And in Her, she surpasses it after fulfilling her potential. In Under the Skin, Johansson was all body and no voice--she was robotic and horrifying. Here, she gets to play one of her most charming and liveliest roles, using only her voice. Only an actress with a full command of her talents and her image could pull off a reversal like that.

For now, this will be the final edition of Scarlett Johansson, Misfit Movie Star. The last few weeks have been absolute thrill for me, discovering how my favorite actress's films complement and contradict each other. I hope I encouraged you to seek out some new films or revisit some old ones with a new perspective.

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