Vanessa Redgrave gives quiet characters an authority that does not depend on winning the conversation. We recommend her patient work with James Ivory, and the amused ease that makes her such welcome company in Mission: Impossible.
Fi1m perspective
In Howards End (1992), Vanessa Redgrave's Ruth Wilcox makes us attend to someone who is not doing all the talking. Anthony Hopkins gives Henry J. Wilcox the assurance of a man who expects his opinions to pass unchallenged; Redgrave finds authority without that insistence. We were moved by the quietness of her performance, because Ruth continues to matter among people so much more practised at putting their case. There is no need for her to compete with their fluency.
Her screen prominence came in the 1960s, with Blow-Up (1966) and the leading role in Isadora (1968). The physical and vocal commitment of Isadora gives some measure of how much she later chooses to hold back. Character parts in Merchant Ivory films, followed by supporting work as different as Mission: Impossible (1996) and Atonement (2007), gave her smaller spaces to work in. We would not treat those smaller roles as a decline: Ruth is reason enough to keep watching Howards End.
James Ivory gets particularly good work from her when he lets the characters consider one another, with Emma Thompson also rewarding that patience. He is less persuasive when the screenplay hurries from one relationship to the next, and the performances cannot make every connection convincing. Richard Robbins's score helps the film feel steadier than its editing does; the actors have already earned the feeling that the music supports. We recommend it warmly, with the warning that the hurried passages are frustrating when the acting gives us so much reason to linger.
Brian De Palma puts her to quite different use in Mission: Impossible, where she brings amusement to a film full of people concentrating hard. Tom Cruise makes the gadgets and disguises look like practical tools, while Redgrave appears to find the whole business rather enjoyable. That change of manner is a substantial pleasure, even when the screenplay makes the job needlessly difficult to follow. Her performance looks unforced, and we never feel that she is asking for special attention. Try Mission: Impossible before deciding that Redgrave is only for serious occasions.
Biography
Vanessa Redgrave is an English actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and made her London stage debut in 1958. She rose to prominence in 1961 as Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
On screen, Redgrave has appeared in numerous films including Blow-Up (1966), Howards End (1992) as Ruth Wilcox, Mission: Impossible (1996) as Max, and Atonement (2007). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Julia (1977) and received further Oscar nominations for Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Isadora (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), The Bostonians (1984) and Howards End. She has also won a Tony Award and an Olivier Award for stage work.
Redgrave comes from a family of actors: she is the daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, sister of Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, and mother of Natasha Richardson and Joely Richardson. Her niece Jemma Redgrave played her on-screen daughter in Howards End.
