Mercedes Ruehl is good at playing women who sound tough and have reason to be hurt. We rate her highly when she gets room for both, particularly in The Fisher King.
Fi1m perspective
In The Fisher King (1991), Anne is a video-shop owner with enough force to interrupt Terry Gilliam's fondness for sentiment. Mercedes Ruehl makes it possible to believe that this woman might decline to be tender, which matters in a film so eager for romance. We were moved by her because the kindness never felt compulsory. She gives Anne emotional needs of her own, rather than letting her become another reason to feel warmly towards the people around her.
Her film breakthrough came in 1988 with supporting parts in Big and Married to the Mob. As Mrs Baskin in Big (1988), she is the mother of the child who becomes an adult, within a comedy Penny Marshall keeps warm and gentle. We like the film, though its sweetness makes adult life look a little too easy to dismiss. Connie Russo, the brash mafia wife in Married to the Mob (1988), helped establish the more forceful screen presence for which Ruehl became known.
That force can become a casting habit, and the repeated offers of tough-talking urban women have limited what films let her do. Her ability to move between comedy and vulnerability needs more room than a brash supporting part necessarily provides. In The Fisher King, Gilliam gives her that room, even if we would exchange some of the plot's complications for longer scenes with Anne. Ruehl and Jeff Bridges keep the sentiment honest, while Amanda Plummer gives Lydia an awkwardness that feels individual. The romance benefits from women who do not seem to have been supplied simply to make it charming.
Film opportunities narrowed after 1991, and the later credits offer only intermittent reminders of what she can do. Lost in Yonkers (1993) brought her stage role, Bella Kurnitz, to film; Hustlers (2019) later cast her as a strip-club matron. The theatre remained a substantial part of her work, alongside guest and recurring television roles. Start with Anne, and allow for Gilliam's wandering plot; Ruehl makes the time spent with her worth it.
Biography
Mercedes Ruehl is an American actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. Born on 28 February 1948 in Queens, New York, she graduated with a BA in English from the College of New Rochelle and trained at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. She began her career in regional theatre, including with the Denver Center Theatre Company.
Ruehl is known for her performance as Anne in The Fisher King (1991), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Golden Globe. On stage she won a Tony Award for her leading role in Lost in Yonkers (1991). Other film credits include Big (1988), Married to the Mob (1988), Last Action Hero (1993), Roseanna's Grave (1997) and Hustlers (2019). She has also appeared in television series such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS and 2 Broke Girls.
