Unfairly maligned for recent roles in ‘Bride Wars’ and ‘One Day’—and that Oscars-show disaster—Anne Hathaway turns in a performance as Catwoman that’s the best thing about ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ Marlow Stern talks to critics about how Hathaway is the real deal. “Oscars Bomb: James Franco Looks High, Anne Hathaway Overcompensates” That was the headline plastered atop many media reports following the
83rd Academy Awards on Feb. 27, 2011. The ceremony, viewed by nearly 38 million people worldwide, was an unequivocal disaster, with co-host
Anne Hathaway doing her best to buoy her disinterested accomplice.
“I was there in the audience,”
Claudia Puig, chief film critic for
USA Today, tells
The Daily Beast. “She was really going for it and had to work five times as hard to make up for
James Franco, and she did. During the breaks, she’d be chatting with the audience, asking us how we were doing.”
The iconic HOLLYWOOD sign casting its baneful shadow over the City of Angels might as well read, “What have you done for me lately?” In the case of Hathaway, 29, it’s been a mixed bag.
In addition to the Oscar-hosting debacle, Hathaway starred in last year’s
One Day. Directed by
Lone Scherfig (
An Education ), the decades-spanning romantic drama looked like sure-fire awards bait, but the movie—along with Hathaway’s mangled British accent—was savaged by critics.
Prior to that, Hathaway starred as a woman afflicted with early-onset Parkinson’s disease in
Love and Other Drugs. Despite earning her a Golden Globe nomination—a rather dubious accolade these days—the film grossed just north of $32 million in North America. And before that, with the exception of a supporting turn in
Tim Burton’s
Alice in Wonderland, she popped up in the atrocious ensemble rom-com Valentine’s Day (presumably as a favor to her
The Princess Diaries director,
Garry Marshall), as well as the comedy
Bride Wars, which was later named one of the Top 10 Worst Chick Flicks by
Time magazine.
But all doubts about Hathaway’s acting ability should be erased in 2012.
The Dark Knight Rises, the final chapter in
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster
Batman trilogy, is poised to be one of the highest-grossing movies in film history. It boasts a non-stop barrage of special effects as well as an all-star ensemble, including:
Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and
Marion Cotillard. Given the 14 Oscar nominations—and five wins—among her co-stars, Anne Hathaway’s turn as
Selina Kyle (a.k.a.
Catwoman) was thought to be one of the film’s biggest liabilities by eager fanboys and fangirls prior to the film’s release. After all, how could the usually demure Hathaway match the feline sexiness of
Michelle Pfeiffer in
Batman Returns ?
And yet, it’s Hathaway who steals the show.
Her performance as Catwoman sees her acting versatility on full display. She not only looks great in her leather Catwoman suit and pulls off all the action stunts convincingly—flipping over tables and roundhouse-kicking thugs one moment and deftly operating the Batcycle the next—but also, with the slightest shift in her body language and wide, soulful eyes, fully transforms herself from a fragile maid into a wily diamond thief.
Hathaway even channels
Audrey Hepburn in one memorable scene, runway-strutting through an airport terminal in elegant designer duds.
“She’s brought a whole new dimension and intelligence to the character,” says Puig. “There’s a wonderful chemistry that flares up between her and Christian Bale and she’s more assertive and feisty than previous catwomen. She’s the kind of heroine women can get behind and admire, and men can lust after.”
At the age of 19, Brooklyn-born Hathaway burst onto the scene in 2001’s
The Princess Diaries, which told the tale of
Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), an ugly duckling who, over the course of the film, morphs into a gorgeous princess. While the film went on to gross more than $165 million worldwide, Hathaway was still growing into her own as a woman and an actress.
“The first time I became aware of her—in
The Princess Diaries, I guess—I thought something like, ‘No, this doesn’t work. Her features are too big for her face. She almost has clown features. That smile is enormous. She’s awkward,”
New Yorker critic
David Denby tells
The Daily Beast. “I didn’t really see her until
The Devil Wears Prada, when the awkwardness—the way emotions would rush out after hesitation—was something, I realized, she was using as an actress.”
Following an impressive turn as an unfulfilled housewife in 2005’s
Brokeback Mountain and a laughably bad one as a Valley Girl teen-cum-crack-smoking wannabe thug in the direct-to-video flick
Havoc that same year, Hathaway emerged as a full-fledged leading woman in
The Devil Wears Prada, holding her own against the inimitable
Meryl Streep. Sporting a plethora of designer outfits—courtesy of
Sex and the City costume designer
Patricia Field—Hathaway became a fashion symbol of sorts.
“She can wear clothes well—she’s got the body for fashion—but there’s still something lovably uncomfortable about her, as if she were abashed, a little hesitant even, about being a beautiful movie star,” says Denby. “She has an absolute refusal of complacency; she isn’t the least narcissistic.”
Indeed, because of Hathaway’s go-for-broke attitude, her failures are just as big as her successes.
After dropping out of
Judd Apatow’s
Knocked Up, because she objected to the scene showing her character giving birth, Hathaway landed the role of
Kym Buchman, the black sheep of a dysfunctional family in the 2008 indie
Rachel Getting Married. Directed by
Jonathan Demme (
The Silence of the Lambs ), the film was a critical hit thanks to Hathaway’s fearless, unglamorous performance. As Kym, she exhibits the entire spectrum of human emotion—horrifying one moment and quietly devastating the next. The performance earned Hathaway a 2009 Best Actress Oscar nomination—her first. That same year, she played a psychotherapist tasked with treating a group of plane-crash survivors in the indie drama,
Passengers. Directed by
Rodrigo García (
Albert Nobbs ), the critically-panned movie was quietly released in theaters, grossing under $300,000 at the North American box office.
“She’s made a lot of interesting choices in terms of versatility and diversity,” says Puig. “She’s not even 30 years old and you can’t really say this about anyone else in her age group—except for maybe
Michelle Williams, although she hasn’t done as much—that she can go from a low-key, sensitive role to a feisty action performance to a comic role.”
One of the biggest criticisms of Hathaway leveled by her detractors is her perceived aloofness—perhaps due to her glamorous fashion sense, lack of ‘regular gal’ characters onscreen, or that jet-setting relationship with her church-swindling ex-boyfriend,
Raffaello Follieri (which she terminated in 2008, citing the potential damage it could cause her career).
“Not so,” says Puig. “I was talking with my daughter about how a friend had interviewed her and said she was really nice, and my daughter said, ‘Oh, I could totally see her being nice.’ Sure, she’s beautiful and glamorous, but she doesn’t have the detached beauty and glamor of other actresses from her generation. She and Mila Kunis pull off comedy and, even though they’re both really beautiful, they seem relatable.”
These days, Hathaway’s love life is a lot less turbulent: she’s engaged to actor
Adam Shulman, whom she’s been dating since Nov. 2008. Unlike the flashy ex-con Follieri, the decidedly low-key duo has been known to split $25 checks at bistros, like any regular couple, and even participate in
Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
And after
The Dark Knight Rises, Hathaway will star as
Fantine, a tragic prostitute, in director Tom Hooper’s (
The King’s Speech ) adaptation of the hit Broadway musical
Les Miserables, opening this Christmas. The film’s trailer, which almost exclusively features Hathaway showing off her great singing voice, is already garnering Oscar buzz for the actress.
“She hasn’t gotten jaded and never kicks back and rests on her laurels,” says Puig. “She’s somebody who takes it all on. She’s just one of those rare actresses, and I can see her having a career until she’s 93.”
