Rooney Mara

In Side Effects (2013), Rooney Mara leaves her drink untouched at a party. As Emily Taylor, she makes the business of keeping a face composed look exhausting. We found that first hour hard to sit through because her tired, blank expression made ordinary company feel like work. Soderbergh shoots her under greenish, flat light, letting the other people blur when they are not speaking. Mara does not need a speech to convince us that Emily has little left to give.

From Erica Albright in David Fincher's The Social Network (2010), she moved to the breakthrough lead of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). That part involved physical preparation and changes, including piercings and motorcycle riding. Yet the watchfulness of Therese Belivet in Carol (2015) tells us more about the acting we value in Mara than those conspicuous changes do. She can suggest feeling without rushing to display it. The limitation is visible in Mary Magdalene (2018), where restraint can settle into solemnity.

In Sarah Polley's Women Talking (2022), that quietness has a clear job to do. Her Ona is the thinker in a hayloft full of urgent argument, and Mara must hold our attention beside Claire Foy's furious Salome. Mara's composure matters because Ona has to think through what the others are saying, rather than simply offer a quieter version of their anger. Luc Montpellier's drained colour is less helpful, making an already sombre film look washed out, but the acting remains worth the evening.

Side Effects remains the clearest place to see how much she contributes even when a film does not fulfil its early promise. Its later thriller machinery is efficient, but the script becomes less interested in the distress she has made so convincing. The performance holds up better than the plot, and Soderbergh's close attention to her face gives us a reason to stay. For an introduction to Mara, start there and resist looking up the story first.