syrinx

It's a laura fraser-thon
Just this past weekend saw the first episode of Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right in which Laura has a lead role as Emily Trevelyan whose husband Louis, played by Oliver Dimsdale, becomes increasingly insanely jealous, with the emphasis on the insane aspect. Incidentally, in a subplot, the part of Mr. Gibson is played by guess who? The Doctor!(more after the read more)

This Friday the 14th, Laura appears as Kate the Farrier in A Knight's Tale starring Heath Ledger, who most recently played the Riddler in his final role before a tragic overdose. The movie itself is a bit lightweight, although the lead character played by Ledger does have a central motif of a split personality or character - a commoner pretending to be a nobleman. And of course, medieval jousts with a rock soundtrack by Queen.

I also watched in recent days, Devil's Gate, in which Ms. Fraser plays the lead character Rachael, a nurse, who reluctantly comes home to the island she left 5 years previously. Her former boyfriend calls and claims her father is dying, and she returns with no intention of staying. Secrets and clues are revealed as the tightly woven web of deceit and mystery is unwound ever so slowly and painfully and the emotional and stress level gets wound up ever so slowly and painfully on the other end. Quite good and very dark.

Although not part of this week's mini-Fraser-thon, the theme of troubled characters (and actors) might as well be extended to another of her films that I've seen, in which she played one of the major love interests of Kevin McKidd (Lucius Vorenus of Rome) - 16 Years of Alcohol - a well done but draining story. Susan Lynch, who played Nora in "Nora" (James Joyce's love interest) and also had a major role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which I saw recently, played the other McKidd love interest in 16 Years. There's a music video of the tune I guess this is goodbye with excerpts from the film on YouTube.

And to end up on a slightly more cheery note, I first became aware of this native of Glasgow, Scotland, in the character of Joanna Robinson - respectable clerk by day and punk girl by night, as the romantic female lead in a delightful comedy entitled Whatever Happened To Harold Smith?

Pop the popcorn, dim the lights, and start the movie.

tags: laura fraser masterpiece theatre