Deborah Kara Unger brings a cool, guarded presence to people whose desires are difficult to explain. We value her most when a director puts that distance to work, as David Cronenberg does in Crash.
Fi1m perspective
In Crash (1996), Deborah Kara Unger's Catherine Ballard gives little reassurance that we are meant to sympathise with her. Her detached manner suits David Cronenberg's treatment of sex and marriage, and we think this is where it works most persuasively. We were unnerved by the emotional distance within the central couple, which makes their sexual behaviour all the more disturbing. Committed performances keep us looking, even when repetition makes the slower passages tiring. That is the reservation about Unger's coolness too: it can hold our attention without bringing us much closer to anyone.
Crash was her breakthrough, followed by David Fincher's psychological thriller The Game (1997). Ensemble roles in Norman Jewison's The Hurricane (1999) and István Szabó's Sunshine (1999) widened the work beyond unsettling thrillers. These choices fit her stated interest in directors with a strong sense of the film they want to make. We would rather see that reserved manner given a purpose than mistake it for proof that a character has depths the script has neglected to provide.
Signs & Wonders (2001) is a useful caution against treating her presence as a recommendation in itself. She plays Katherine in Jonathan Nossiter's drama, which asks for more patience than it rewards. Stellan Skarsgård and Charlotte Rampling supply emotional force, while Adrian Utley's music sustains the unease. Those are substantial virtues, but they cannot rescue the film from its heavy-handedness. We would not send anyone through the whole film simply to complete a survey of her work.
Nor should coolness become a lazy description of everything she does. For Between Strangers (2002), she gained weight to fit the character's emotional state, a concrete reminder of the physical preparation behind a performance. Her later work includes the mother Brooke LaLaine in Catherine Hardwicke's Thirteen (2003) and Dahlia Gillespie in Silent Hill (2006). Start with Crash, and allow for the stretches where its determination to unsettle becomes tiring.
Biography
Deborah Kara Unger is a Canadian actress. Born in Vancouver, she studied philosophy and economics at the University of Victoria before becoming the first Canadian accepted to Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1988.
She began her career in Australian television and film, including the 1989 series Bangkok Hilton. Her breakthrough came with the role of Catherine Ballard in David Cronenberg's Crash (1996). Subsequent films include The Game (1997), Payback (1999), The Hurricane (1999), White Noise (2005), Silent Hill (2006) and The Way (2010). She has received Genie Award nominations for her performances in Sunshine (2000) and Between Strangers (2002).
