Lisa Bonet has spent most of her screen life as the woman the story has already moved past, and she plays those parts more honestly than they are written. Two good supporting turns do not make a case, but they are worth noticing.
Fi1m perspective
In Enemy of the State (1998), Lisa Bonet plays Rachel Banks, the ex-girlfriend Will Smith's lawyer has to go back to when he needs a way to a source called Brill. The scene exists to move the plot along. Bonet plays it as two people who once knew each other well and are no longer sure how to stand in the same room, and she does this without the script's help, because Tony Scott's script is in a hurry. It is a small thing, and it is one of the few truthful things in a loud film.
That is her habit, as far as our reviews can show it. She is cast as the woman the story has already left behind: the former lover, the singer who gets one number, the person who is interesting for a scene and then not needed. In High Fidelity (2000) she is Marie De Salle, a musician who sings a song and holds John Cusack's attention for one chapter of his romantic inventory. The film is a good one and she is one of its pleasures, though we said its women deserved more of the jokes, and she is among the women we meant.
The career has a shape most readers already know. At 16 she was Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show (1984–1992), and she took the character to A Different World (1987–1988) for its first season. The same year she made Angel Heart (1987), a deliberate step into adult material as far from a family sitcom as she could get. She has said of the period: "My obligation wasn't to Denise. I felt obligated to myself and my career." In 1991 she was fired from The Cosby Show over creative differences, and the rest of the decade was quiet, smaller films and television films. Enemy of the State and High Fidelity brought her back into view. Since then the work has been sporadic and mostly television: Life on Mars (2008–2009), The Red Road (2014–2015), Ray Donovan (2016).
Neither film we have reviewed asks her to carry anything. Both are built around a man who talks for a living, and both give her a corner of his story rather than one of her own. What she does with the corner is the point. In Enemy of the State we found ourselves wanting the film to stop running for a minute and stay with her, and it would not, and we minded, because the discomfort between her and Smith was more interesting than the next chase. That is a complaint about the film, not about her.
Her parts are small. They are also, in both films we can speak to, played better than they were written, which is the most useful thing a supporting actor can be. Start with High Fidelity, and stay for her song.
Biography
Lisa Bonet is an American actress. She is known for her role as Denise Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1991) and its spin-off A Different World (1987).
Her film credits include Epiphany Proudfoot in Angel Heart (1987), Rachel Banks in Enemy of the State (1998), Marie De Salle in High Fidelity (2000), and Queenie in Biker Boyz (2003). She has also appeared in television series such as Life on Mars (2008–2009) as Maya Daniels and Ray Donovan (2013–2016) as Marisol Campos. Bonet received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1986 for The Cosby Show.
