‘Complete Unknown’ showcases Rachel Weisz’ acting gifts
Published 1:30 am Friday, September 2, 2016
Whatever its other attributes, “Complete Unknown” is a gift to one of our most consistently impressive actresses.
Rachel Weisz has been in a few Hollywood hits, won an Oscar, and regularly seeks out serious, challenging smaller projects. In her private life, she married James Bond — Daniel Craig — which is really piling it on thick.
Now in her mid-40s, the English-born Weisz is easily tackling roles that have nothing to do with being the youthful ingénue. Her devastating work in “The Deep Blue Sea” and her moving turn in “The Lobster” provide ample evidence of that.
What makes “Complete Unknown” a fitting role is that beneath its contrived story line, there’s a study of what acting is all about. Yet the plot is not about showbiz.
One night in Manhattan, Tom (Michael Shannon) is enjoying a birthday dinner with friends. There’s some career anxiety with his wife (Azita Ghanizada, from “Alphas”), so the evening is just a little tense.
A friend brings a date, a woman he’s met at work. She is Alice — at least that’s what she calls herself now. As played by Weisz, she’s all attractive charm, full of stories about her globetrotting and her fascinating life as a scientist.
Tom knows better. We won’t know for a while why he seems so hostile to Alice, but we can guess they have a past. Unraveling that becomes the basis for the last two-thirds of the movie.
In setting up the film this way, writer-director Joshua Marston (“Maria Full of Grace”) deliberately creates a long anticlimax. An exception is a brief interlude when Tom and Alice encounter a married couple (Kathy Bates and Danny Glover), and Alice demonstrates what it’s like to change your identity and personality on a whim.
As the film’s prologue suggests, Alice is a shape-shifter, someone who’s occupied different roles throughout her wandering life. In her performance (she’s got a good sparring partner in Shannon), Weisz understands that this is a metaphor for what an actor does, and how life can be a constant work of art.
“Complete Unknown” doesn’t sustain its initial interest. Maybe it’s too literal about it all. But this is an interesting foundation for a movie.
What kind of person becomes an actor? Why do some people want to disappear in the skin of others? What Weisz does with these questions is more haunting than the movie itself.
“Complete Unknown” (2 ½ stars)
Rachel Weisz is a mystery woman who re-enters the life of an old friend (Michael Shannon). The explanation for all this makes the last half of Joshua Marston’s film anticlimactic and somewhat literal, but Weisz explores some interesting questions about why actors act and how some people make an art of their very lives.
Rating: R, for language
Showing Guild 45th theater
