I’ve seen about ten of her movies and she is always astonishingly good - it’s as impressive as watching an Olympic high diver. So I’m curious if she has ever really dropped the ball in any movie.
I see that she was in one movie called Postcards from the Edge where she stars as a loser drug addict. I haven’t seen it but I can’t imagine her as being convincing in that role.
The River Wild was not her typical role, she plays a mother on a family whitewater river rafting trip. They end up kidnapped by a couple of bank robbers. It was a crime/thriller movie and I don’t think she has done any other movie of that type. She did a good job with that role.
I haven’t seen it either, but she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar so a lot of people must’ve thought she was pretty amazing in the role.
She can do anything and make it believeable. I thing she’s the greatest living actress, if not the greatest actress ever. 16 Academy Award nominations (2 wins) shows that a lot of people (Academy voters anyway) agree. Katherine Hepburn WON 4 Oscars though, so Streep has a ways to catch up and surpass that. She’s got decades to do it though, and just might, if the voters stop taking her for granted.
I thought she was not very good in the Devil Wears Prada, but I also disliked the film. Almost everyone in it, to me, was miscast. It was a better script than the movie that came out of it.
I hated her in Mama Mia. Did anyone actually listen to her sing before offering her the role?
Deer Hunter.
This.
I love musicals, but this was pretty damned close to unwatchable. She did what she could with the role, but my god, what a steaming pile of crap that was.
Postcards From the Edge (based on the book by - and life of - Carrie Fisher) was an excellent movie for both Streep and Shirley MacLaine; it was both funny and poignant. Streep sings a song with her band at the end, by the way.
“Mama Mia” was the first thing I thought reading the thread title. It was the only plausible answer in my mind.
About all that can be said for her is that her singing wasn’t as bad as Brosnan’s.
I remember seeing Pierce Brosnan on a talk show fairly recently (Craig Ferguson’s show?) and he joked about how bad his own singing was in Mama Mia.
I get the impression that Pierce Brosnan has a bit of an overinflated ego, so if he is willing to cop to how bad he was, he must have been really terrible.
Blasphemy.
She-Devil is a real piece of shit. I don’t remember if Streep was any good, but I don’t remember there being anything good in the movie.
Death Becomes Her was an interesting technical feat, but truly a terrible movie for leads Streep, Bruce Willis and Goldie Hawn. None of them were capable of rising above the low quality of the script.
He seems to have the opposite of an overinflated ego. He’s never been afraid to take on very unflattering roles (The Matador, for example) and has never come across in interviews as anything less than gracious and generous.
Another vote for (against) Mamma Mia! Streep was unable to make her character even slightly believable, but I suspect it was because it was written so badly. Even my kid asked what was wrong with her. Her singing was fine.
I haven’t seen her do badly in anything - and I HATED Mama Mia and She Devil (having seen the UK TV version) she’s still good in those and awesome in almost everything else.
(I have to say its been a long time since i saw Sophie’s Choice because I don’t think I could bear it again - Deer Hunter OTOH is exceptional.)
All of course IMHO
MiM
I have heard it said that in one of her very early films, Anal Angels VII, her squirming and moaning was unconvincing. Others ascribe it to bad direction, and that it was, well, anal.
Now that I think of it, weren’t people making fun of her acting in Cry in the Dark (especially the “Dingo ate my baby” lines)? But when I saw the movie I thought she was great.
As much as I adore Defending Your Life, Meryl Streep’s flighty character was the movie’s weakest point.
I was about to nominate this one, except I’ve only seen clips, never the whole thing. (And now I’m hungry for some lamb chops…)
I came in to nominate She-Devil, as well. IIRC it was her first attempt to play comedy, and she was terrible.