TV COLUMN: KELLY MACDONALD

I Know That Face! Vulnerable? Fragile? Don’t Underestimate Her Strength

By: Clare Elfman

November 29, 2010

I’ve got to confess, I tried to resist Boardwalk Empire.  I was full-up with reruns of Sopranos.  Not in the mood for another lovable…well at least understandable and sympathetic gang boss. I'd used up the last of my understanding and sympathy on Dexter--a man of good qualities who only murders and dissects really bad guys. Of course the criminal justice system might have eventually done the job for him, but he’s a great character, and of course not his fault--his twisted dad made him do it.

So I passed the first episode of Boardwalk Empire--this prohibition-era saga, but just happened to glance in on the second, became intrigued by an interesting characterization, and by the third episode, I was hooked. The writing was just too good.   And so was Steve Buscemi--great actor who won my heart as the stupid kidnapper in Fargo who buries the loot next to a fence in a snowstorm, leaving a little shovel to mark it where everyone but him knows that the snow will cover it up. Okay, it’s the writer who wrote that little twist, but Buscemi is the bloodstained stupid guy who can play the you-know-what out of that role. Now he’s suited-up to play Nucky Thompson--a well-dressed crime boss with a soft spot for widows and orphans.   

Then another character caught my attention: a gentle soul of a woman, Margaret Schroeder, whose husband Nucky seems to have “rubbed out.” And Nucky’s got this tender spot for the abused wife--a vulnerable creature, so soft- spoken, and you could almost feel the frightened fluttering of her heart. Nucky is taken by her soft, sweet manner. She’s a good woman of conscience, but she’s stuck and she has children to feed. Not until she’s moved (without benefit of marriage) into the plush apartment Nucky has provided for her does she begin to understand what she’s become: a woman who, in her heart, believes in prohibition (those poor wives battered by drunken brutes of husbands), but for survival, she is reluctantly sleeping with the guy who masterminds the whole business.  Until little by little…well, you understand how it works. In Sunday night’s episode, she finally confronts Nucky; he’s shocked that finally she’s spoken up. In a moment of anger, he reminds her of what she actually is, and the accusation is to a vulnerable woman like a bullet to the heart.   

Suddenly I remembered seeing her before in another similar role! She was the deserted wife in Two Family House! Back about ten years ago, a small little gem of a film. She played a similar part, with her soft voice, her gentle manner: a woman crushed by the world but who stands up for what’s important to her; a sweet vulnerability but with an inner strength like iron.  

The plot: A factory guy, part of an Italian working class family, and with that family’s strong racial prejudices who, during the war (WWII), used to entertain his war buddies with his sweet singing voice, and now this ordinary guy has a yen to be a singer. He buys a broken-down “two-family house.”  He’ll live upstairs and set up a little bar downstairs. His wife disparages him, tells him what a fool he is. He’s determined. But first he has to kick out the upstairs tenants--a drunken Irishman and his pregnant wife. The husband skips, leaves the wife. Of course, the singer bar guy is concerned about the woman… until she delivers her baby…and he’s shocked to see that it’s black. At this time and for this prejudiced family, the revelation of what this girl has done is total shock.

Kelly Macdonald plays the wife who shows her strength in spite of her absolutely untenable position.  So who is this Kelly Macdonald with her soft Scottish accent?  And suddenly I remember her in another similar role in another favorite small film, back about ten years!  She was the soft, put-upon, uncomplaining lady’s maid in Gosford Park! In one memorable scene, she stands there in the pouring rain while her self-centered “Lady” sits in a dry car asking to have a thermos opened. A kindly uncomplaining servant who accepts her place until, at the conclusion, when she is the only one to recognize Clive Owen’s crime, she confronts him with it. I won’t explain the crime. If you missed this little gem, it’s worth a look.

Kelly Macdonald lives in Glasgow with her musician husband and child.  And I wonder if now, with Boardwalk Empire, will she begin to emerge beyond her roles as the sweetly vulnerable, softly accepting woman who rises to life’s challenges--a woman with that appealing wounded-bird emotional fragility yet strong inner-strength and branch out to other roles?

Kelly Macdonald, I’m looking at you.