Neve Campbell horribly miscast INCLUDES ENDING SPOILERS!!!

BTW
am I only one who think Suzie was 90s Lisbeth Salander ?

Sidney will die or not but I'd love to see Neve's mainstream films

Heheh. Thanks Gimme_a_jeep for reviving this old post :)

First, let me clear up a misunderstanding. I wasn't saying that Neve is meant to be blonde - I never thought that the hair at the end was her natural hair colour. I'm saying that she should have done a better job of playing the part of white trailer trash up until the big reveal in order to add more gravitas to the twist. Having her portrayed as blonde up until the end (contrastingly wearing dark hair) would have helped.
Neve is an actress of quiet intensity - in real life she was a childhood ballet prodigy but she gave it up to become an actress, she has the appearance of steely intelligence. Now had the role merely called for someone capable of hatching a mastermind plot, I agree she would be top of my list. However, the role called for a duality in performance. Remember, you are not meant to guess she is a genius UNTIL the end! In this case, she would be the last person I would hire for the role if I was casting.

Now you realise that this a thriller full of twists, don't you? You know the revelation that Neve is a criminal genius is meant to be a TWIST? A good twist you don't see coming. It makes your head spin and jaw drop as you are forced to reevaluate everything that you have just seen. It subverts (not confirms) our expectations. You're not meant to know she is capable of doing up her shoelaces, let alone hatching such a brilliant plot. A twist like that works best if she has been shown to be the opposite until the big reveal.
What I'm suggesting is that the twist should have been hidden better, in plain sight, in the books she reads etc, so it makes sense in hindsight but is not obvious on first viewing.

Also, in order for her plan to work, she needed everyone to like her quickly, to find her superficially charming and sexually alluring, yet believe her to be naive, gullible and easy to dispose of without causing a stir.
She would have nothing to gain from inventing a persona that was too close to her actual personality. That she came across as frumpy, emo-like and half-way intelligent makes no sense from a story-telling perspective. In short, yes, I agree she looks perfectly capable and this is exactly why she was wrong for the role. Jaime Pressly (as do many actresses) has the advantage of being able to act superficial and dumb but I could also believe perfectly as a criminal mastermind.

Now do you understand my point?

To illustrate further:

ENDING SPOILER FOR DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (GREAT FILM, WATCH IT BEFORE YOU READ AND IT MIGHT HELP YOU UNDERSTAND MY POINT):
Imagine if the mark had been portrayed as sleek, intelligent, confident and quick witted with someone like Catherine Zeta Jones or Natalie Portman in the role. The twist would not have worked at all!