I don't get all the praise for Bryce
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Manderlay
PsychoDingo — 15 years ago(December 29, 2010 01:59 PM)
There are lots of Manderlay reviews talking about what an amazing job Bryce Dallas Howard did as Grace, and I just don't get it.
Am I the only one who thinks she did a horrible job?
To me, she seemed quite detached, delivering her lines without feeling as she stared into the ether. Her voice was dreamy and spacey, like a person who had been awakened in the middle of the night to engage in a conversation they probably wouldn't remember in the morning. It was a mostly monotone, disengaged performance, like that of a person recovering from general anesthesia, or like the stereotypical portrayal of a person under hypnosis.
Nicole Kidman was worlds better in Dogville. I wish she could have done the role in Manderlay.
Is it just me? -
mostajabi2004 — 15 years ago(January 04, 2011 10:55 PM)
I also agree. Kidman would have been much better then Howard. It feelt as though Howard didn't have an active interest in the story. Her performace could be rounded up, as PsychoDingo said, as monotone.
-
stachogan — 15 years ago(February 18, 2011 11:04 AM)
Yeah i have to agree as well, it wasn't that awful, but very flat, and completly different to the way Grace was portrayed by Nicole Kidman. The beginning especially, her language and actions reminded me very much of her character in The Village, the language seemed too "old" (it would have seemed more appropriate in The Village which was set in the 1800s)
It made me want to go back and watch Dogville where everything seemed much more appropriate and was better acted.
Come and get it, bitches. -
smgsundevil — 14 years ago(May 22, 2011 11:27 PM)
Definitely agree. She was monotone, as you said, and didn't provide any sincerity to the role. She just stumbled through the lines about as well as any of us could.
For me this just made her an unbelievable character in general. And this is disregarding the fact that she was demolishing a character that Kidman really made her own in Dogville. -
cittadina — 14 years ago(June 25, 2011 02:18 PM)
I guess I'm going to be the first one to disagree! I too enjoyed Kidman in Dogville and I agree their respective portrayals of Grace are worlds apart. But in saying that, I have to say I actually preferred B.D. Howard. She was more believable as a naive girl with impossible ideals and the 'detachment' you cite as evidence of 'poor acting' is actually just a true portrayal of this character. She walks into slave quarters with ideals of freedom and democracy after having being such a willing slave herself in Dogville. She uses her father's gangsters to enslave the white family with icy efficiency and seems so oblivious of her own lust for Timothy that it is forced to surface in her erotic dreams. I think 'detachment' is a necessary part of her entire nature. Howard is less of the glamorous moll we see in Dogville but I honestly cannot picture Nicole Kidman (as she was in Dogville) doing these things. Grace in Manderlay is supposed to be hardened, detached
It is possible to appreciate both actresses' performances I suppose if you tell yourself that after what Kidman's Grace was subjected to in Dogville then some psychological trauma would surely account for Grace in Manderlay "delivering her lines without feeling as she stared into the ether". Understandable, don't you think?! -
PoppyTransfusion — 14 years ago(August 20, 2011 02:33 PM)
After what happened in Dogville, that Grace would have had no faith in the goodness of human nature. Manderlay-Grace seemed to have her faith strangely renewed.
Agree with this completely.
I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl -
Yinky — 13 years ago(June 30, 2012 06:21 AM)
I think a big problem for me with Howard's Grace is that she looks far younger than Nicole Kidman does. Howard looks about fifteen years old to me, and very innocent, whereas Kidman has that ultra-feminine, sexy "woman with a past" look about her. I couldn't take Howard seriously in this role (though I do respect her work elsewhere) because I couldn't get past the actress's boyish looks.
I didn't see her performance as hardened or detached; I too think the portrayl of the character was ungenuine. I don't blame this on Howard, thoughI think it more a problem of direction. I would like to know what Lars was trying to get at with her. There were too many inexplicable contradictions. -
PoppyTransfusion — 14 years ago(August 20, 2011 02:36 PM)
It was always going to be hard following Nicole Kidman as Grace who really made the part of her own. Bryce Dallas Howard, to my eyes, lacked the grace that Kidman brought to the role of Grace. It's possible that the criticisms the OP finds in her performance stem from trying to portray Grace as Kidman might. Howard also seemed to lack the grit that Kidman brought to Grace especially her coldness at the end of Dogville.
I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl