Mamie Gummer

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It's not exactly a bad time to push Mamie Gummer, but it's not the greatest time either. She's Meryl Streep's look-alike actress daughter who plays the younger 1950s version of her mom's character in Lajos Koltai's Evening, which opens Friday. There are just two problems. One is that Evening, a baahing little lamb of a movie, is being sent out this weekend into a forest filled with wolves. Another is that Gummer's obvious resemblance to her mom runs 100% counter to the idea behind Claire Danes portraying a young Vanessa Redgrave, since Danes looks nothing, nothing, nothing like Redgrave when she was in Blow-Up.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 26, 2007 at 12:45 PM

comment #1

Rich S. says ...

Maybe it's just me, but I think in some shots Mamie Gummer actually looks more like Glenn Close, who is also in the movie.

Posted by Rich S. at June 26, 2007 1:12 PM

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

Plus I bet she's kind of a fatty. I saw her at Carls Jr. once. She looked like she was eating with a Hispanic girl. I hope when she dies they don't hold the fuckin' thing in Long Beach. HOW'S THE MOVIE?

Posted by BurmaShave at June 26, 2007 1:16 PM

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

Obviously the worst example of this is Paul Bettany playing the young Malcolm McDowell in GANGSTER NO. 1.

Posted by BurmaShave at June 26, 2007 1:27 PM

comment #4

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Burma Shave: Like I tried to say yesterday (agreeing with David Denby) -- it's too sensitive for its own good. I was groaning after about 30 minutes. I was leaning forward in my seat and going "Hmmh-ummh-hmmmmmhhh" after 45 minutes. I couldn't stand it at the hour mark and finally left. It's a very boring film.

Posted by gruver1 at June 26, 2007 1:27 PM

comment #5

erniesouchak says ...

Danes doesn't look like the Vanessa of "Blow Up," but there's enough similarity around the eyes that you can buy her as Vanessa's younger self. The much bigger problem is that Vanessa is twice as vivacious, even though she's on her deathbed!

Posted by erniesouchak at June 26, 2007 1:29 PM

comment #6

BurmaShave says ...

I figured as much. The cinematography looks gorgeous though, I'm sure Koltai made sure of that. FATELESS was so good. What the hell happened?

Posted by BurmaShave at June 26, 2007 1:31 PM

comment #7

gruver1 says ...

The photography in "Evening" is NOT gorgeous, like it was in Koltai's "Fateless -- it's rote. I mean, it's attractively lit and all, but not what anyone would call stylistically distinctive.

Posted by gruver1 at June 26, 2007 1:37 PM

comment #8

George Prager says ...

Claire Danes laying a young Redgrave is like Matt Damon playing a young Harry Dean Stanton.

They did use Joely Richardson for young Vanessa in Wetherby, but that was a good movie.

Posted by George Prager at June 26, 2007 1:46 PM

comment #9

Wrecktum says ...

Not wild about the name "Mamie Gummer." Sounds like the name of someone starring in a granny-porn video.

Posted by Wrecktum at June 26, 2007 1:48 PM

comment #10

Mark says ...

Anne Hathaway has the big eyes needed to pull off a young Redgrave ca. Blow Up.

Posted by Mark at June 26, 2007 1:54 PM

comment #11

bmcintire says ...

That's been a problem in a number of otherwise fine films: trying to get the audience past their common knowledge of what a star actually looked like in their youth. The worst example of this that I can think of is SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The little girl playing Clarice Starling as a child doesn't have even the slightest bit of physical resemblance to Jodie Foster (dark hair or light), let alone how she looked in the TAXI DRIVER / FREAKY FRIDAY era.

Posted by bmcintire at June 26, 2007 2:03 PM

comment #12

jeffmcm says ...

That was buzzing in the back of my head too, Wrecktum, and you put it into words.

Posted by jeffmcm at June 26, 2007 2:13 PM

comment #13

nemo says ...

Mamie Gummer. It's bad enough that you saddle a kid with a last name like Gummer. And then you call her Mamie on top of that? After the past century's frumpiest first lady?

It's like those people who think it's cute to give their kids joke names. Meryl Streep did this? This makes hippie names like Moon Unit and Dweezil look good.

Posted by nemo at June 26, 2007 3:49 PM

comment #14

le corbeau says ...

"Obviously the worst example of this is Paul Bettany playing the young Malcolm McDowell in GANGSTER NO. 1"

Unless it's Ewan MacGregor playing the young Alec Guinness, especially when he was so perfect as the young Albert Finney in Big Fish.

(Or, for that matter, Hayden Christensen as the young James Earl Jones...)

Posted by le corbeau at June 26, 2007 4:28 PM

comment #15

BurmaShave says ...

Wells, fair enough. Pretty enough pictures. But I've only seen trailers on TV or on my computer. Some of the grass reminded me of the insane things Richardson did with green in THE AVIATOR. I don't really care about the movie though.

Posted by BurmaShave at June 26, 2007 5:33 PM

comment #16

Hallick says ...

The television ads are so off-putting with that damned Dido song everybody must be sick to death of by now and the whole "starring the finest actresses of our lives and our times" while the name Mamie Gummer is rolling across the screen. I don't understand why the people who market movies like this don't understand what they ought to be avoiding like the plague. Even tampons and douches are pushed better with more brio than this twaddle.

Posted by Hallick at June 26, 2007 7:47 PM

comment #17

Rob says ...

What kind of masochist is this young woman to try her hand at acting? If I were Meryl Streep's kid, I would be getting my MBA or going to law school or something...

Posted by Rob at June 27, 2007 9:10 AM

comment #18