Jennifer Jason Leigh

I LOVE JJL in this great underrated Movie! Her characterization was spot on and a major reason that this is such a great Movie. Brassy yet poignant - Brilliant!
It's one of my top post '65 female performances and the best of the '90's.

"Does anybody agree?" - Yes
Do I agree? - No

"Sometimes you have to take the bull by the tail, and face the truth" - G. Marx

JLL makes a passable stab at doing a Katherine Hepburn. She has some sparkling dialogue and her character is a terrific creation. However, I do not think that she totally pulled it off. I thoughtthat she was the one weak element in a brilliant movie. It did not soil it for me, tough.

Yes she spoils the film. Her performance is a disaster. If you're going to get Russell/Hepburn-esque, you better nail it convincingly or it will end up being the most grating thing ever. Her performance comes off as a child playing dress up and doing a school production playing Katharine Hepburn. Just because she's good in other films, doesn't excuse this performance from being the mess that it is.

This is what Entertainment Weekly said about her performance and I agree:

And I'm afraid that Jennifer Jason Leigh is a disaster. She does a meticulous imitation of Katharine Hepburn's aristocratic vowels, only without a hint of Hepburn's effusiveness, her saucy joy. Leigh looks so pouty and rigid that you can't connect the speech to the face. It's like watching a replicant do screwball comedy.

Annoyed the sh*t out of me. It didn't spoil the movie but...yeah, it was insanely annoying. Eventually I got use to it.


-- I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been

Geez, are you guys crazy? I thought she was hilarious.

As far as not doing a "good" impression of a Hepburn type character, people like that Entertainment Weekly reviewer cited in the previous comment miss the whole point. As in all Coen Bros movies, it's a slightly off-kilter version of that sort of character.

Totally, dude, like wow, sweet! Why would Jennifer Jason Leigh want to sound like women from that era, like Katharine Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Bette Davis, or Barbara Stanwyck? I mean, like who cares. It's old school, from back in the day. It would be so much better if she could sound like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Khloe Kardashian, or Jessica Simpson. That would be da bomb! It would be phat!ou

Uh, well sorry about that, if it seems a bit snide & rude.

But to answer your question, no it didn't bother me in the slightest, because this film is supposed to take place in the USA of the fifties, and that is the way that some people spoke during that era. It was the style, and that was their slang you heard them speak.

That's all.