by Nathaniel R
Have you heard that news that Annette Bening and Michelle Pfeiffer have signed on as the leading ladies of a new feature film? If you've heard that news than you'll understand that I, Nathaniel, am typing this from heaven as I must have died and gone there for this to be true. Last thing I remember I was on a plane back to NYC (more on where I've been shortly) and then I was dead. Death by actressexuality. What a way to go.
The future film what done me in is called Turn of Mind and it's based on the novel of the same name by Alice LaPlante. Gideon Raff (best known for creating the Israeli series that TV's Homeland is based on) will be directing the thriller with Doug Wright (Quills) doing the screenplay. Annette Bening plays Dr Jennifer White, a retiree suffering from Alzheimers and suddenly accused of killing her longtime best friend Amanda (Michelle Pfeiffer) and unable to remember whether she actually committed the crime...
We're assuming that much of the story is in flashback since indications are that Pfeiffer's role is also fairly large. Gideon Raff describes their dynamic like so:
A story of a warped friendship between two brilliant, sharp, forceful women who are bonded equally by their love for and jealousy of one other.”
The book has two possibly intriguing major supporting characters, Jennifer's twentysomething son and daughter so let's hope they cast powerhouse young actors for those parts, too.
Longtime readers will know that among the hundreds of actresses we love here at TFE, Annette Bening and Michelle Pfeiffer are near the tippity top of our Most-Obsessed-With list. They're both easily in the top five 'all time most egregiously non-Oscared movie stars' list so imagining them together is thrilling. Some of Annette Bening's most indelible screen moments have come opposite other actresses -- think of her "endolphin" stroll with Meryl Streep in Postcard from the Edge, or her challenging maternal conversations with Greta Gerwig in 20th Century Women, or the way she silently collapsed when realizing that Julianne Moore was cheating on her in The Kids Are All Right.
Pfeiffer's most riveting screen partnerships, on the other hand, have largely been with male stars but now that she is serious about getting back to work (and in challenging large roles again finally!) having signed on for both French Exit and Turn of Mind in the past few weeks, we're eager to see her go head to head with an actress of her own caliber, something she hasn't done since the ill-fated A Thousand Acres (1997) with Jessica Lange.
I'll be cheering them both on from my screening room in heaven.