In Appreciation of Vera Farmiga

Now that she's nominated for an Oscar, Vera Farmiga has entered the acting big leagues. I've loved Vera's work for some time now. She is a rare talent like Cate Blanchett: a chameleon. Give her any role and she isn't just herself playing a character, she becomes the character.

Vera's most notable stint to date has been the love intereste of Matt Damon in "The Departed." Her character could potentially be one dimensional, but she gave a nuanced portrayal. Then she starred as the mother in "Orphan," from which our blog title derives. The movie took a nosedive into cliche toward the middle, but her acting was excellent as usual. She played a tortured mother, trying to get over alcoholism and raise some kids. Then she was in "Up in the Air," for which has received her Oscar nomination. The movie was extremely bad, and it's appeal was strictly to the midlife crisis crowd. It was so boring, had poor humor, and was very crude. But Vera's stint in the movie was a good foil to George Clooney's character.

Vera's best movie is the Korean drama "Never Forever." She plays a woman married to a successful Korean businessman. She feels keen pressure from his traditional family to get pregnant but can't. She is driven in her desperation to sleep with another Korean man, a stranger she meets. Over time, as her husband becomes increasingly selfish in the face of her unknown sacrifices, she falls for the stranger. The soundtrack is beautiful, but the film itself is as close to poetry as a motion picture can get. Shots of New York City looked like paintings. The lighting and cinematography people were really good. Vera's acting as the tortured wife was excellent. I wish she won an Oscar for this movie, or at least some Korean film award.

Keep watching Vera's career. She's consistent and will surely rise.

Is it just me or does she look like a hybrid of Cate Blanchett and Patricia Arquette?