Alison Elliott can make a character's desire to get away feel more urgent than the plot around her. Her Rachel in The Underneath gives us good reason to seek her out, even when the film itself disappoints.
Fi1m perspective
Rachel sings in a club in The Underneath (1995), but Elliott makes it clear that she would rather be out of town. Her scenes with Peter Gallagher have the friction missing from much of Steven Soderbergh's film. We felt a welcome jolt of interest when they were together, because Rachel wants an escape more than she wants this particular man. She is hard and hungry, with no obligation to make either quality attractive. That gives us something to watch even when Michael Chambers, the man at the centre, does not.
The early leading parts drew on her ability to draw sympathy: Percy Talbott, a parolee seeking a fresh start, in The Spitfire Grill (1996), followed by the heiress Milly Theale in The Wings of the Dove (1997). Elliott's understatement is useful in roles that could easily become invitations to pity. Her Percy gives The Spitfire Grill a strong centre, even when the script leans too heavily on sentiment. Rachel is the reason we would not mistake that sympathetic presence for softness.
The later work shifts towards supporting parts: Laura in Jonathan Glazer's Birth (2004), then Martha Bolton in Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). The latter is a much stronger film than The Underneath, though it asks for patience and sometimes repeats what its performances have already made clear. Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck make hero worship uncomfortable to watch. Elliott is part of that ensemble, rather than its centre.
A performer this good at giving someone an immediate want still needs a film willing to follow it. Soderbergh gives Rachel charged exchanges with Gallagher, but keeps returning to a central man we never care about. Elliott cannot solve that problem on her own, and we would not pretend that she does. Start with The Underneath for her, provided her scenes are enough compensation for a cold evening.
Biography
Alison Elliott is an American actress. Born in San Francisco on 19 May 1970, she began modelling at the age of 14 and made her acting debut in the television series Living Dolls (1989).
She is known for film roles including Rachel in The Underneath (1995), Percy Talbott in The Spitfire Grill (1996) and Milly Theale in The Wings of the Dove (1997), for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for best supporting actress. Other film appearances include Wyatt Earp (1994), Birth (2004), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and 20th Century Women (2016). She has also worked in television, with roles in ER (1994) and Servant (2019).
