She may have aged, but she didn't get any older. Even in recent performances, she showed the same sort of plucky youthfulness she showed when we first met her. She was a bit like Sally Field in that way.
I didn't first meet her in The Godfather, as some people would have, or in Annie Hall, as some other people would have. I wasn't born when The Godfather came out and was only four when Annie Hall came out.
No, my first Keaton was likely Father of the Bride in 1991, considering that a quick scan of her 1980s output shows only movies I would have caught up with later as well. And though I don't remember Father of the Bride very well -- and I certainly don't remember loving it -- I can tell you that Diane Keaton likely played scenes of high comedy very well in it. She was a gifted physical comedian, one who could instantly show her exasperation with an outrageous situation in only a few gestures. The same charming loopiness that I now know was really perfected in Annie Hall was something she kept giving us throughout her career, as she became the best thing about Nancy Meyers movies and their ilk.
There were times I didn't think it was particularly appropriate, but that wasn't due to Keaton's abilities in that mode fading in the slightest. I remember feeling frustrated, on behalf of the character, that in 2003's Something's Gotta Give, she had to act klutzy and discombobulated over a man (Jack Nicholson) who was not treating her very nicely. (Again, not another movie I remember particularly well. I just remember this feeling.) But that Keaton could still do this so convincingly, at age 57, was beyond question -- I just wish her character didn't have to do it because I always thought a Keaton character deserved better. Keaton characters won our sympathy, always, effortlessly.
Of course, I now know, 22 years later, that 57 is not "old." I'll turn 57 myself in five years.
But maybe Keaton seemed older than 57 only because of how long she'd been around, how regular a presence she was in the lives of cinephiles. She was also old in Hollywood years, because she was able to keep doing what she was doing, cast in roles where she was the romantic lead, for far longer than the industry suggests she should have been able to. Sure, maybe the audience for Something's Gotta Give wasn't the same as for some of her earlier films -- I'm talking in terms of demographics -- but it was still a high-profile release playing on all the screens. And don't tell me Keaton's ability to knock over a lamp while fumbling through some bit of chatty nervous dialogue wasn't key to why they thought they could sell it to us.
I didn't know I was seeing Keaton's last role at the time I watched the movie Summer Camp on the plane earlier this year. Not a great movie to end on, but what actor really does go out on a high? But I would have had no reason to think I was seeing her last at the time, because she looked as youthful and spry as ever in it, and won us over just as easily.
But Keaton's health took a turn recently, and she passed this weekend at age 79.
I'll close my thoughts on Diane Keaton with a movie she made 20 years ago, that I think not a lot of people appreciate, but more should. The movie is called The Family Stone, and it showcases kind of an ideal Keaton that seems like an amalgam of what I liked best about her.
Keaton plays the matriarch of a fiercely liberal Connecticut family, and the cast is an all-star one: Craig T. Nelson, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes and Dermot Mulroney. Although the movie certainly has some fun with her eccentricities and moments of big personality -- it wouldn't be a Keaton role if it didn't -- Keaton's Sybil Stone is a true bohemian wonder, tirelessly supportive of the marginalized, and eager to wrap everyone in a clumsy hug of her acceptance, even when it's the uptight conservative (Parker) who's dating her son. In fact, she's so accepting that she says about her one gay son that she wishes she had more gay children. From someone else, this line might read as overcompensating for decidedly mixed feelings about having a gay son. From Sybil Stone, you do really believe she wishes all her children were gay.
We wish we had more Diane Keatons, because the one we had has left us now.
Rest in peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment