Alright, Emily Blunt, time to lose the training wheels and deliver not just as an actress, but as a movie star.
You're watching Beyond The Trailer's review of Sicario...
A number of people, including me, are rooting for Emily Blunt. She's proven again and again
that she's not just a great actress, but capable of closing the gender divide in the types
of roles women are offered in comparison to men. And she's done her time in more traditional
female roles. A period piece, The Young Victoria. The family comedy, Gulliver's Travels. The
woman our hero risks everything for, The Adjustment Bureau. The "you can change your life" awards
contender, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The romantic comedy, The Five Year Engagement.
The mom who would die for her son, Looper. The sweeping musical, Into the Woods. And
do you know what all these movies had in common besides great performances from Blunt? Bad
box office. Even the most successful of the bunch, Into the Woods, failed to match the
financial success of other recent musicals AND live action fairy tales. And box office
continues to be Blunt's achilles heel when it comes to her career. Critics love her,
and her fans love her, but the majority of moviegoers simply won't pay to see her on
the big screen. So how she's still working? Well again, as I said, people are rooting
for her but that doesn't mean her window of opportunity isn't closing and Sicario will
be a real decision maker for Blunt - as to whether she can keep going or fade away so
that the next ingenue can make a run at legitimate stardom. There was a glimmer of hope with
Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise's 2014 sci-fi actioner where Blunt's role was far from the
stereotypical women's role usually found in that type of film. Instead, she was more Ellen
Ripley, more Sarah Connor, and she flexed those muscles well. On a side note, both Sigourney
Weaver and Linda Hamilton also had trouble finding success outside of the action roles
that defined them. And it was on the strength of her work in Edge of Tomorrow than many
fans felt she'd make a good Captain Marvel. After all, she'd been Jon Favreau's first
choice for Black Widow but was already signed on for...Gulliver's Travels. But again, Edge
of Tomorrow's box office was weak, demonstrating once again that at the very least Blunt can't
sell tickets and at the very worst she keeps people away. However, now that so many people
have discovered Edge of Tomorrow, either in theaters or on the small screen, Sicario is
Blunt's chance to prove that to Hollywood. In the type of female role not seen since
Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs, Blunt will go down another dark and twisted
path following Benecio del Toro's Mexican hitman. And the film is impressively packaged
indeed. Josh Brolin co-stars, and up and coming director Denis Villeneuve is at the helm.
He's so hot coming off of Prisoners that he landed the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. And
Villeneuve is re-teaming with his Prisoners cinematographer, Roger Deakins, who shot The
Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, No Country for Old Men and Skyfall! So, will Blunt finally
realize her potential here? Or is she the female Jake Gyllenhaal?
Mainstream audiences don't like him either, dammit!