Rosemarie DeWitt

In Smile 2 (2024), Rosemarie DeWitt plays a mother who also manages her daughter's career, and the two jobs sit uneasily together. As Elizabeth Riley, she makes a comeback schedule feel like a family problem worth examining. We were frustrated because we wanted to stay with that relationship while the film kept returning to its curse. Parker Finn's sequel sees the possibilities, then gives its attention to another fright. DeWitt is worth watching in it; she cannot make the repetition less wearing.

Her breakthrough in Rachel Getting Married (2008) put family ensemble acting at the centre of her film work. Your Sister’s Sister (2012), in which she plays Hannah alongside Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass, made room for her skill with improvisation. She has worked on three films with director Lynn Shelton, too. It is worth remembering that independent-film work when she turns up in another supporting part whose importance the script only half understands.

UNTAMED (2025) gives us a quieter reason to value her. As Jill Bodwin, she makes the personal material worth attending to even as the investigation becomes routine. Eric Bana and Lily Santiago provide the central investigative partnership; DeWitt gives the personal scenes a reason to be there. We remain unconvinced by a mystery so dependent on familiar detours and forced turns. But her work is one reason to keep watching, without pretending that a credible performance can repair the plotting.

The limitation is partly in the casting: sisters and maternal figures recur, and supporting status can leave little room to develop them. That is a reason to question the writing, rather than to dismiss the parts. The mother-manager in Smile 2 interests us because care has become difficult to distinguish from control; UNTAMED needs her to make its private troubles count. Neither production gives us enough to recommend it for her alone. For a fuller evening with her work, start with Your Sister’s Sister.