At over two hours, Mike Nichols' "Silkwood" is rather long and slowly paced, and not quite what I was expecting. The dramatic, mysterious circumstances surrounding the real Karen Silkwood's life and death led me to think that the movie would be suspenseful and closely plotted, focused mainly on the subject of unsafe working conditions at a plutonium-processing facility. Instead, it's more of a character-based movie, a chance for Meryl Streep to create a detailed portrait of a working-class Oklahoma woman.
Of course it's always a pleasure to watch Streep dig deeply into a character. She subverts our initial impression that Karen is just a rowdy good-time girl, playing her as a woman who throws herself into union and workplace-safety concerns because she is losing everything else in her life. She also has good scenes with Kurt Russell (as her boyfriend) and Cher (as her lesbian housemate).
But ultimately, I think that Nichols loves his leading lady a little too much. He lights and shoots Streep to look almost too movie-star pretty in many scenes (despite her awful shag haircut), and her voice is almost too good when she sings "Amazing Grace." Several scenes could be trimmed or cut entirely, and Karen's character arc would still be in place. For instance, the first 30 minutes of the movie spend way too long dealing with Karen's relationship with her three children, who are now in the custody of her ex-husband, but never appear in the movie after that.
Because Nichols is never sure whether to focus more attention on Karen's relationships or on her job, and is unwilling to even try to explain the confused circumstances behind Karen Silkwood's death, "Silkwood," while a good showcase for Streep, does not fully work as a film.
Of course it's always a pleasure to watch Streep dig deeply into a character. She subverts our initial impression that Karen is just a rowdy good-time girl, playing her as a woman who throws herself into union and workplace-safety concerns because she is losing everything else in her life. She also has good scenes with Kurt Russell (as her boyfriend) and Cher (as her lesbian housemate).
But ultimately, I think that Nichols loves his leading lady a little too much. He lights and shoots Streep to look almost too movie-star pretty in many scenes (despite her awful shag haircut), and her voice is almost too good when she sings "Amazing Grace." Several scenes could be trimmed or cut entirely, and Karen's character arc would still be in place. For instance, the first 30 minutes of the movie spend way too long dealing with Karen's relationship with her three children, who are now in the custody of her ex-husband, but never appear in the movie after that.
Because Nichols is never sure whether to focus more attention on Karen's relationships or on her job, and is unwilling to even try to explain the confused circumstances behind Karen Silkwood's death, "Silkwood," while a good showcase for Streep, does not fully work as a film.