It might not be fair to pick on the performance of Meaghan Martin (formerly of the TV show “10 Things I Hate About You”) in “Mean Girls 2.” After all, she’s not given much to work with. The directing and production are average assembly-line-type efforts, the supporting cast is mediocre and the writing is god-awful – terrible to the point of laughable, especially when compared to the actually fairly decent original “Mean Girls.”
That predecessor, which was written by Tina Fey (“30 Rock”), may not have been visionary cinematographic art, but it was at least consistently funny. The sequel, by contrast, has lines like “What happened to that girl I met in shop class”? used liberally throughout.
Still, though, that’s the point of this column – take two movies and compare a specific aspect of plot, production, theme or direction – so let’s see how Meaghan Martin’s acting stacks up against the performance of two-time Best Actress Oscar winner Hilary Swank in “Conviction.”
Martin plays Jo Mitchell, the daughter of a single father whose job building engines for NASCAR somehow necessitates constantly switching schools. She begins her senior year of high school at North Shore (the same school as the original), determined to avoid drama, boys and anything that will inhibit her dream of attending Carnegie Mellon. Unfortunately, the Plastics still control every aspect of life at North Shore. Sides are drawn, and Martin’s character becomes determined to put the superficial in-crowd led by Mandi Weatherly (Maiara Walsh, “Desperate Housewives”) in its rightful place. Of course, to do so she may have to take a page out of the Plastics’ playbook and risk becoming more like them than anyone could imagine.
Yeah, it’s the same as the first one, only without Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, Amy Poehler, originality, humor and Lindsay Lohan (though Tim Meadows remains, which is nice). Martin’s character is written to be strong, self-motivated, tomboy-ish and heroic, but Martin brings a weird timidness to the role that’s confusing in the best of times and downright off-putting at others. Frankly, the performance is sub-Lohanian, though it’s tempting to predict that Martin might win that battle in more important aspects of life.
Martin seems to lack the emotional range required to hit the highs and lows of her character. For instance, Mandi and company stealthily destroy a motor her dad has built, which could potentially cost him his job. When Jo storms into Mandi’s favorite coffee shop to confront her, she seems only piqued, not furious – far less angry than the events in the plot combined with high school hormones would suggest. Not to pile on, but Martin lacks screen presence as well. Remember Ann from the TV show “Arrested Development?” The one who was Michael Cera’s character’s girlfriend and no one could seem to remember for more than a minute at a time? Martin’s Jo was a little like that.
It wasn’t all bad for Martin. She’s sassy and flirtatious where she needs to be, and, again, the writing was horrendous, so she certainly can’t be blamed for the noticeable lack of flow in the dialogue. But when compared to Hilary Swank’s portrayal of Betty Anne Waters in the recent release “Conviction,” it’s more than clear why Swank’s mantle needs steel girders and Martin’s sits bare.
A dramatization of actual events, “Conviction” tells the story of a Massachusetts woman whose brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell, “Iron Man 2”) is sent to jail for life on charges of a murder he swears he didn’t commit. Never questioning her brother’s innocence, Betty Anne embarks on a 20-year mission to free him by going to college and earning a law degree, all the while fighting the system to gain access to evidence she feels will earn his release.
The movie makes heavy but effective use of flashbacks to Betty Anne and Kenny’s childhood as well as the murder trial to paint a complete picture of Betty Anne’s dedication to her brother above anything else in her life.
Although ignored by the Academy in nominations, it’s a near-perfect role for Swank, who has made a career of playing seriously set-upon characters working to overcome long odds (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Amelia,” “Boys Don’t Cry”). Betty Anne comes from poverty, is a product of foster homes and doesn’t even have a GED when Kenny is first sent to prison. But her upbringing makes her tough.
Swank adopts a heavy New England accent and a perpetually concerned expression. It’s the ideal characterization of a woman who has been shorted by the system her entire life but remains committed to working within it to accomplish her goals.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Swank’s performance is the way in which she’s able to clearly and effortlessly portray an entire range of subtly different negative emotions. Fatigue, hopelessness, despair, anger, jealousy, concern, frustration, moderate and extreme annoyance all make appearances, written on Swank’s face, apparent in her volume and tone or worked into the pauses between certain words.
At the very end of “Conviction,” there’s a short text sequence where viewers are brought up to date on the lives of the characters in the movie. Then, a picture of the real Kenny and Betty Anne Waters is briefly shown before the credits role. It’s fully disconcerting to realize that Hilary Swank isn’t the real Betty Anne Waters. And for an actress, that’s the highest existing praise that doesn’t come in statue form.
Mean Girls 2: two stars; Conviction: four stars out of five.
Lin Weeks is a junior majoring in Finance and Marketing. Upset with his omission of the DVD you were most excited about renting this week? Vent at [email protected].
