Natascha McElhone is often cast as a man's ideal woman. We value her most when she makes that position uncomfortable: in Solaris, her frightened, hopeful watchfulness gives a chilly film much of its sadness.
Fi1m perspective
In Solaris (2002), Natascha McElhone's Rheya watches Kelvin to learn how she is supposed to behave. She looks frightened and hopeful at once, and the hopefulness matters: without it, the fear would make for a much simpler performance. We found her uncertainty painful, because she keeps looking to the man opposite her for reassurance he seems unable to give. Steven Soderbergh gives her a difficult part. She makes its strangeness felt without losing the ordinary need to be loved.
Her film debut, as Françoise Gilot opposite Anthony Hopkins in Surviving Picasso (1996), began a screen career in which male-centred stories recur. The Truman Show and Ronin (both 1998) brought the breakthrough, before a later move towards long-running television. As Sylvia in Peter Weir's The Truman Show, she fits the pattern of the idealised woman. We rate that film highly for its humour and hurt, though Jim Carrey's vulnerability does most of the work. For a clearer sense of what McElhone herself can do, we would turn to Solaris.
Clooney's restraint gives her little to respond to, which can make Solaris a chilly evening. The lack of easy warmth between them is a limitation for anyone hoping for a consoling romance, but we think it belongs in this film about grief. McElhone does not try to supply enough feeling for both of them. She keeps Rheya watchful, and the effort of working out what Kelvin expects becomes more affecting than an assured romantic performance could have been. Soderbergh gets something valuable from her here: she lets us see Rheya thinking without making her seem any less afraid.
The move into long-running television brought Karen van der Beek in Californication (2007–14), another role built around a male protagonist. There is nothing inherently slight about playing a love interest, but the writing needs to give the woman something to do beyond being wanted. We would like to see McElhone given more of the difficult work that Solaris asks of her. Start there, if you can bear a romance that offers so little reassurance.
Biography
Natascha McElhone is an English actress. Born Natascha Abigail Taylor on 14 December 1969, she trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and began her career in theatre and television before moving into film.
She is known for her roles as Lauren Garland in The Truman Show (1998), Deirdre in Ronin (1998) and Rheya in Solaris (2002). On television she has played Karen van der Beek in Californication (2007–2014), Alex Kirkman in Designated Survivor (2016–2017) and Dr Catherine Halsey in Halo (2022–2024). She has also appeared in The Crown (2022) as Penny Knatchbull.
