Patricia Clarkson: Ageless Beauty

I rented The Station Agent (2003) the other night and forgot what a delightful character piece it was. And the best part about the entire movie was Patricia Clarkson. She was funny, sexy and utterly charming as the love interest to Peter Dinklage. A totally believable, heartbreaking portrayal of a mother who lost her son and lost her way in the process. I loved her so much in that movie that I followed it up with a much earlier, much less meaty role but the only one I had in my DVD library with Patricia: The Untouchables (1987).

I watched Patricia play the adoring wife of Kevin Costner’s Elliot Ness and was enraptured once again with her amazing on-screen presence. Then I realized what seemed pretty profound in the early-morning hours of a Saturday night: Patricia Clarkson does not age. Okay, she ages along with the rest of us, but unlike the rest of us — she gets more gorgeous and sexy as she ages oh so gracefully.

To prove my point, I watched her online in several more films, like the more recent Easy A and Cairo Time (both 2010). She was even more luminous now, literally glowing off the screen. So, I just had to look her up and find out that Patricia was, well, well into her 50’s. Not only that, but she’s been cast more now than when she first started out – over thirty years ago and running. A true anachronism if you consider Hollywood’s attitude towards leading-ladies over 30.  Patricia just keeps getting cast when most actresses have hung it up, short of Meryl Streep.

Maybe Patricia truly is timeless and therefore the normal rules in today’s youth-obsessed American culture don’t apply. Maybe she’s got great genes along with a youthful spirit and joy for life and her work. But in an age where teenage girls are getting plastic surgery, I believe Patricia Clarkson should be more the rule than the exception: A woman who is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, no matter what her age. I know that not everyone can be so lucky – but then again maybe she knows something we don’t – that life should be celebrated every day, no matter what you do or who you are. And therein lies the secret of her timeless beauty and success.

Whitney Houston: Immortalized on Film

It’s hard to believe that Whitney is really gone. Her funeral today will be closure for her family and close friends but it will take far longer for her legions of fans to fully comprehend the woman with an angel’s voice has really ascended. That’s because Whitney was as beautiful as she was talented. This was never more apparent than in the film The Bodyguard, in which she starred opposite Kevin Costner.

The role wasn’t a stretch. Whitney is a diva/movie star who is being stalked by a killer on the eve of her appearance at the Oscars for a breakout movie performance. The movie was good, but the soundtrack was amazing! Whitney’s voice was as much a star of the movie as was her luminescent beauty. She was captured at the (in my opinion) height of her physical beauty in this film. Whitney had a wholesome, accessible beauty. Those huge, soulful eyes and that incredible smile that made your heart melt. Then when she sang, she blew our collective minds. That’s how I’ll always remember Whitney and how I believe everyone who ever heard her sing will as well.

Whitney Houston was a wonderful, prideful and completely vulnerable woman. She brought these traits to her character in The Bodyguard. She wasn’t acting so much as projecting her own persona onscreen. Now, watching in the knowledge she is gone is a bittersweet experience for this cinephile. Sad that her life and talent was painfully cut short, but grateful that we have her movies and music to remember her by. I think as time goes by we’ll all begin to appreciate how special she was and forget her very public meltdowns. It’s the least we can do for such a beautiful woman with the voice of an angel.