Jennifer Beals is most persuasive when confidence leaves room for vulnerability. Flashdance gives her too little to work with, despite her appealing eagerness; the authority of Bette Porter in The L Word is a better reason to seek her out.
Fi1m perspective
In Flashdance (1983), Jennifer Beals makes Alex Owens's eagerness believable even when the script gives us little else to know about her. Adrian Lyne's film is enjoyable whenever it gets moving, but its lead has more presence than the romance has substance. We were frustrated by how little we learnt about Alex, because Beals had made us want to know her. It is a performance we respond to inside a film we cannot quite recommend.
The dance sequences largely use doubles, so credit for their energy needs to be kept separate from an assessment of her performance. Her enthusiasm suits the film, but we wanted more opportunities to understand the person beneath it. Michael Nouri makes less of an impression as Nick Hurley, and their scenes need more help than either actor supplies. Our disappointment is not entirely with the writing: neither performer makes these people interesting enough to sustain the passages between dances.
The 1990s brought selective roles in independent and art-house films rather than a steady succession of leads. She appears as herself in Nanni Moretti's Caro diario (1993), a funny, uneven film whose chief pleasure for us is its scooter ride. We recommend it for its digressions, though it offers less to discuss about Beals than Flashdance does. Her part as Daphne Monet opposite Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) belongs to this period of supporting work.
Television gives us a clearer view of what she can sustain. As gallery director Bette Porter in Ilene Chaiken's The L Word (2004–2009), Beals makes authority convincing without losing the vulnerability beneath it. That gives her more to work with than the unqualified eagerness asked of Alex, and makes better use of her presence. She returned to Bette in The L Word: Generation Q (2019–2023), also serving as executive producer. Start with The L Word if you want to understand why she deserves attention beyond the dance numbers.
Biography
Jennifer Beals is an American actress. She made her film debut in My Bodyguard (1980) and rose to prominence with the lead role of Alexandra Owens in Flashdance (1983), for which she received an NAACP Image Award and a Golden Globe nomination. She later played Bette Porter in the series The L Word (2004–2009) and its revival The L Word: Generation Q.
Beals graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in American literature in 1987. Her other film credits include Four Rooms (1995), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) and The Book of Eli (2010). She appeared as herself in Caro diario (1993).
