Jennifer Connelly had a stellar 2017, making a welcome comeback. I’ve loved Connelly since I was a kid and she was the girl trapped in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, but she’s tremendously underrated as an actress. Requiem for a Dream, A Beautiful Mind (for which she deservedly won an Oscar), and Blood Diamond alone are enough to prove you’re one of the most talented actresses working. It’s just good to see her working more often. In 2017, she joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as “Karen”, the AI in Spider-Man’s upgraded suit in Spider-Man: Homecoming. In real life, Connelly is married to actor Paul Bettany, who provided the same service for Tony Stark as JARVIS before he transitioned to The Vision. She was also a lynch pin in a great ensemble cast in the firefighter drama Only the Brave. It looks like she has projects lined up, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her on TV and in films to come.
Jennifer Connelly’s Best 10
1. A Beautiful Mind (2001) Alicia Nash
2. Requiem for a Dream (2000) Marion Silver
3. Blood Diamond (2006) Maddy Bowen
4. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Karen
5. Labyrinth (1986) Sara
6. Only the Brave (2017) Amanda Marsh
7. The Rocketeer (1991) Jenny
8. Dark City (1998) Emma Murdoch
9. Little Children (2006) Kathy Adamson
10. Pollock (2000) Ruth Kligman
Honorable Mention: Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Young Deborah
Oscars, Golden Globes & Emmys
Oscar Wins (1): A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Oscar Nominations (1): A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Golden Globe Wins (1): A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Golden Globe Nominations (1): A Beautiful Mind (2002)
Emmy Wins (0): None
Emmy Nominations (0): None
My Favorite Connelly Scene:
“Alicia Discovers Nash’s Dark World” from A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Next Film: Connelly in 2018 will be part of the cast bringing the anime classic Alita: Battle Angel to the big screen as well as co-starring in a TV adaptation of Snowpiercer that seeks to expand the world we saw in the film. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Karen return in Spidey’s armor when Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters in May 2018.
I’m trying to wrap my mind around ‘Snowpiercer – the TV series’ … I hope they resurrect Tilda Swinton’s character! 😀
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Its a big world, I haven’t heard anything about Swinton coming back and they did kill her pretty definitively
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They could give it the retro treatment I suppose, starting the story, ‘where it all began’.
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Or they could explain the fricking ending lol
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Was I missing something? Honest question. From where I was standing the train derailed, with only two apparent survivors, and it turned out there was still some hope for other life on Earth. I thought I understood where Wilfred was coming from too. As repellent as he was. I saw this movie on the same day as Zero Theorem, and while I liked them both equally, I discussed ZT for several hours with a freind. We got 20 minutes of discussion out of Snowpiercer. Tops.
I had assumed this series would be a reboot, what used to be called “based on.” I hope they go that route. What’s the point in doing a prequel or sequel to something so few people have been exposed to?
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I’m not sure. I’ve not read the GN it’s based on so I don’t know if there’s a larger world to focus on, but if they got Jennifer Connelly, there must be something to the script.
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So glad Labyrinth got a mention. She was fantastic as Sarah.
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Loved that whole movie
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I was just talking to someone about her yesterday, about how she held her own next to David Bowie in Labyrinth. Her acting was not quite up to snuff yet at that age, but she was as much a force of nature as Bowie.
Obviously she grew up into a totally polished actress, but it’s no accident that some people succeed. She had what it took from a young age.
I don’t want a Snowpiercer series. The film has not been given time to achieve cult/classic status. If a series is successful, serious thunder will be stolen.
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Well it’s coming lol
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How about Career Opportunities? Classic…ha! I share your love for her.
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I still tear up at his revelation in this scene and her release of anxiety. She does an amazing job revealing a true mother’s panic when she discovers the depths to which his progressive illness has plummeted.
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She’s an amazing actress who hasn’t gotten the kind of roles that her talent deserves, and she’s also taken large amounts of time off, so you don’t realize that she’s been acting since 1984 until you, say, write an article on her lol.
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I find this scene hard to take. In fact I have not watched the film all the way through since the first time. Everyone involved was just too good at thier jobs. Then, as the real life John Nash and his wife sit in the audience at the Oscars, the evening’s host, Whoopi Goldberg, makes fun of paranoid schizophrenia on national tv. Kind of the nadir of the oscars, yet not surprising.
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I think the nadir of the Oscars was….there are like 80 things coming to mind. Haaaaate the Oscars.
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At least half the films that have ever won best picture represent the nadir of the Oscars. Every moment that Seth MacFarline spent hosting the Oscars was a part of the nadir, and his joke about Abraham Lincoln counted for at least 30 nadirs. And remember when the Dark Knight failed to get nominated for best picture, and it prompted the Academy to expand the number of films that could get nominated, and all that happened was that even MORE pretentious films that no one saw began to get nominated? That was a nadir beyond reckoning.
So I disagree, there’s room for a lot more than 80 things to come to mind.
I still think that when Whoopi hallucinated her musclebound men, that was an example of Poor Taste at the Oscars rivaled only by Seth and the parts of his infamous musical number that referenced rape scenes.
I don’t know what’s wrong with these people.
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Well Harvey Weinstein buying Shakespeare in Love Best Picture was a bad Oscar moment but comparatively polite to his interaction on a human level
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They say to separate the art from the artist. They say it’s not personal, it’s business. I’m not buying it. The act of making art is not kept in some hermetically sealed place, apart from the life of the artist. It’s a part of the life of the artist. In fact, it’s one of the most vitally important parts.
If a person is loathsome, it usually spills over into his professional life.
I honestly don’t wish anyone ill will, but in addition to being a malevolent predator, Weinstein was a malign force in the industry, and had a history of ruining perfectly good movies because of his own ego. So it’s good that he is gone, on several levels.
However… and this is a big one… he is still being offered up as a kind of sacrifice, because while he might have been an especially bad example of the evil that exists in that part of California, he is NOT ALONE.
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He’s just the latest in a diseased line of studio moguls going back to Hollywood’s origin
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Polanski got a standing ovation at the Oscars not too long ago. Victor Salva finds work, and are you aware of the subject matter in one of the first films he made after getting out of prison? A film he directed for Disney? I’m not going to throw Woody Allen and Bryan Singer into the mix, because innocent until proven guilty. And I’m not trying to impugn an entire industry. Without movies, I would not be able to get through certain days stress-free. But you don’t have to trace the disease back to Hollywood’s origin. Lots of bad stuff going down in the here and now.
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No House of Sand and Fog?! 😮😮😮 That was one of her most impressive roles!
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Honestly it didn’t leave a huge impression on me but it’s been awhile, maybe I need to revisit it.
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absolutely H.O.S.A.F – that was the role that made me re-discover my admiration for connelly as an actress, as previously, bizarrely i had just watched her films over the years and not really appreciated her!
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Totally agree!
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Jennifer Connelly was quite good as a homeless woman in a film called “Shelter” that her husband Paul Bettany wrote and directed.
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