Cherry Jones

In Signs (2002), Cherry Jones plays Officer Paski as someone who can be trusted to get on with the job. Her low-key manner gives M. Night Shyamalan a credible local professional, without making her seem cold or officious. We found her reassuring: her warmth provides some relief in a film that earns its scares by limiting what we can see. Her matter-of-fact delivery suits the patient suspense, even when the writing starts pressing its points too hard.

In Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich (2000), Pamela Duncan is a resident affected by contamination, and Jones plays her with quiet resilience. Julia Roberts carries the film, but Jones helps make the people around its central character worth attending to. That plainness suits a story attentive to how a case is actually assembled, even when its progress becomes predictable. Jones gives Duncan enough weight to matter within it, without asking us to stop and admire the performance.

Her stage work asks more of that control, notably Catherine Sloper in The Heiress (1995) and Sister Aloysius in Doubt (2005). In the latter, stillness, controlled inflection and precise body language convey conviction while allowing the conflict underneath to register. Her film work expanded from the late 1990s, with television later giving her Allison Taylor in 24 (2009–2010). The small screen parts sit alongside a continuing commitment to theatre, where she has had more substantial characters to explore.

The caution is that some early screen parts are functional, with too little for her to do beyond making an ensemble plausible. She has not had a prominent lead film role comparable to those stage parts, so the films cannot tell us everything she can do. We remain interested in what a larger part might ask of her, rather than inclined to overpraise every brief appearance. Start with Signs or Erin Brockovich, provided a supporting actor’s share of the evening will do.