Rachel Weisz makes clever women entertaining even when their judgement fails them. We value her wit and conviction most when the writing lets her characters behave badly without worrying that we might stop liking them.
Fi1m perspective
In The Mummy (1999), Rachel Weisz can topple a library and still seem the person best qualified to correct somebody’s Egyptian. Her Evelyn Carnahan is clumsy without being helpless, and Weisz gives the comedy enough confidence that the character keeps her dignity. Brendan Fraser supplies the bravery and the uncertain reactions; John Hannah makes cowardice look well practised. Director Stephen Sommers often keeps all three in the same frame, allowing us to enjoy their different responses to trouble. Even in an adventure this noisy, her character’s intelligence remains part of the fun.
After that mainstream breakthrough, she kept working in studio films while taking on smaller productions. The Constant Gardener (2005) drew on her emotional conviction, while The Favourite (2018) put her skill with female rivalry to work. Television has also given her work as a producer: on Dead Ringers (2023), she combined that job with the dual roles of Elliot and Beverly Mantle.
As M, the professor in Vladimir (2026), she makes articulate self-justification funny without asking us to endorse it. We laughed at M’s fantasies because Weisz makes her loss of composure so amusing. The pleasure comes from seeing somebody who ought to be able to explain herself make such a poor attempt. Her comic energy stops the midlife crisis becoming a solemn case study, and she remains good company when we disapprove of her.
The series is less assured, repeating those fantasies until they reveal less and hesitating when M might become harder to like. We wanted it to follow the discomfort Weisz was capable of producing. She cannot make that repetition disappear, any more than the cast of The Mummy can supply the jokes its script neglects. Both are qualified recommendations, with her performance a substantial reason to try them. Start with Evelyn for the easier evening; try M if watching a clever person talk herself into trouble sounds agreeable.
Biography
Rachel Weisz is a British actress. Born on 7 March 1970 in Westminster, London, she began acting in stage and television productions in the early 1990s and made her film debut in Death Machine (1994).
Her breakthrough came with the role of Evelyn Carnahan in The Mummy (1999) and its sequel The Mummy Returns (2001). She has since appeared in films including Constantine (2005), The Constant Gardener (2005), The Bourne Legacy (2012), The Lobster (2015), The Favourite (2018) and Black Widow (2021). In 2026 she played M in the series Vladimir.
Weisz studied at the University of Cambridge. On stage she appeared in the 1994 revival of Noël Coward’s Design for Living and the 1999 Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer. She has received an Academy Award, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
