Which Hazel

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If I weren't trying to wring every last drop of relaxation from my vacation-time before it's back to work tomorrow (or alternately you might say "if I were the type of person to plan ahead..."), I might take the time today to write up a separate post for StinkyLulu's Annual Supporting Actress Blog-a-thon for every single actress in Synecdoche, New York (the rules state only one actress, one performance per post).

Such a wealth of actressing wonder that orbits Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Caden! But we knew that going in, it was one of the film's selling points - Catherine Keener! Michelle Williams! Dianne Wiest! Hope Davis! Jennifer Jason Leigh! Emily Watson! The surprise to me was just how many of them got the chance to stick their landings (Special Mention Love to Michelle Williams noted here). The film has split a lot of the critical community, but consider me a peon at the alter of Kaufman worship - I think the thing is mad genius (on a related note, keep an eye out for my Favorite Movies of '08, coming soon!).

And nothing within the film held more power over me than Samantha Morton's performance as Hazel. This has been a banner year for Morton in my estimation - I also considered posting on her performance in Harmony Korine's film Mister Lonely as a sad echo of Marilyn Monroe... hell if I find the spare time later I might still do just that.

But for now, let's love Synechdoche's Hazel some. Out of all of Caden's women, she's the one defined most by her constantness. She's always there. She's the love of his life, even while he fritters away everything over the absence of the early love lost (that being Catherine Keener and his daughter) and doesn't realize it until it's almost too late. Morton imbues Hazel with a wide-eyed earnestness that could've wandered into Idealized Girlfriend territory - the undying support even in the face of crippling neuroses - if it weren't for the spark and sexiness she also deploys. Hazel is almost always kind, but never a doormat, and with delicate sweetness on more than one occassion she's forced to tell Caden why they do not work.

It could be argued - I have - that all of the characters are written as abstractions, meant to be representations of nothing more than Caden's shifting impressions of these people he comes across through his life - the characters these actors are playing are filtered to us through Caden, the creator's, view of them - and I think that holds true for everything but least of all where Hazel is concerned. She refuses to be pinned down, and seems constantly in flux. She's never who he wants her to be or who he doesn't want her to be - she is who she is and she confounds him through his entire life. Morton gels the many contradictions of Hazel into place and makes us see what Caden comes to see - that he would be nothing without her, and once she's gone, the story of his life just stops making sense.

You can go and check out more entries for
StinkyLulu's Supporting Actress blog-a-thon here.
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