There were many things I enjoyed about the new Star Trek movie, such as…
- Zoe Saldana’s whip-smart appeal as Uhura.
- The Romulan villain’s effectively “human” backstory.
- The fact that when the actors were in close-up, you could see their pores and blemishes, which made them seem like real people.
Nothing surprised me more, however, than my deep delight at seeing Winona Ryder on screen.
After the jump, let’s remember her glory years.
Winona! Ryder! Star Trek cakes her in old-age make-up to play Spock’s mother, but she’s obviously still the pixie-faced charmer that made me want to welcome Roxy Carmichael back home and eat plate after plate of finger foods with Mrs. Flax.
And it’s funny, because the last time I really thought about Winona, I was totally over her. That was back in 2002, when she followed her shoplifting conviction with the more heinous crimes of Mr. Deeds and S1m0ne.
If I’d known she was going to be in Star Trek, I’d have been prepared to be annoyed, but that’s the thing: I didn’t know. So when she appeared, I had no intellectual barrier against my my gut reaction to seeing her on the big screen for the first time in thirteen years.
Yep, I haven’t seen a Winona Ryder film in an actual movie theater since The Crucible was released in 1996. I had forgotten she could exist in those dimensions.
More to the point, I had forgotten how much I used to LOVE Winona Ryder the Movie Star. I was an adolescent during her halcyon days, and back then, she embodied everything I thought I wanted to be. Her characters were cool, smart, and consciously segregated from the mainstream, but they always had access to their feelings. To me, that was a flawless way to live, which is why I bought tickets to everything from Reality Bites and Mermaids to The Age of Innocence and Little Women. (My teenage dedication also extended to early classics like Heathers and Beetlejuice, which my friends and I rented over and over from the Blockbuster down the road.)
Rider’s handful of scenes in Star Trek brought all of that flooding back. Like I said, if I’d known she was coming, I might have defended myself, but instead, I was left wobbly with reawakened happiness.
I’ve calmed down since Friday afternoon, and I doubt I’ll be firing up The Crucible this week, but I’m glad that for a few hours, I remembered what it felt like to be a passionate kid sorting himself out with pop culture markers. It reminded me how far I’ve come in knowing myself, and it reminded me that I’ve always been someone who gets seriously invested in the art I love. I like that.
Granted, this experience also reminded me that in 1994, I thought Little Women had the best cast ever assembled for a motion picture, and that names like “Ryder,” “Dunst,” and “Danes” would someday be whispered like holy prayers in American homes. My bad! But if Claire Danes randomly pops up in G.I. Joe, then this will seriously be the summer of my re-crushing.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Dani // May 11, 2009 at 1:54 am
I’m shocked every time I remember that Christian Bale was in Little Women. How was the cast THAT GOOD?
2 Russ Jackson // May 11, 2009 at 8:09 am
You know who’s a better Winona Ryder than Winona Ryder? Phoebe Cates.
3 C. // May 11, 2009 at 9:47 am
Nah, both are beautiful women but Phoebe Cates was hot. Winona Ryder was weird. One cannot imagine Ryder doing the pool scene in Fast Times at Ridgemont High; there is nothing of the bombshell about her. Dying of consumption in Victorian England, being a demimondaine in Weimar Germany, these are the areas where Ryder leaps to mind. She’d make a good elf.
4 Collin H // May 11, 2009 at 10:55 am
@Russ Agreed. Ryder is great, but Cates is the superior model. Just like how Anna Paquin is superior to Natalie Portman.
5 stephanie // May 11, 2009 at 11:03 am
i have to say that her presence bothered me and i used to be a fan also. really, jj? you couldnt find a single actress that didnt need age make-up to play that role? i was so surprised at how little i was distracted by tyler perry and how much i was distracted by ms. ryder. (i also clicked on the link from your headline expecting it to somehow to be about your favorite actress- s epatha merkerson!)
6 Mark Blankenship // May 11, 2009 at 11:34 am
@Stephanie — Wait a minute. Tyler Perry is in “Star Trek?” What? Where?
@Collin — I also prefer Anna Paquin to Natalie Portman… if we’re comparing actresses who made their starts as youngsters in arty films set in foreign countries.
7 Kel // May 11, 2009 at 11:44 am
@Mark Tyler Perry is the guy in charge of the Starfleet…court? Whatever, where Kirk is accused of cheating and then at the end when he commissions Kirk the captain of the Enterprise.
Our theatre gasped audibly when he came onscreen. It was pretty amusing.
8 Mark Blankenship // May 11, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Thanks, Kel. Clearly, I don’t recognize Tyler Perry out of his Madea get-up, which I’ve seen in every subway station for the last four years.
9 ferretrick // May 11, 2009 at 1:19 pm
“@Collin — I also prefer Anna Paquin to Natalie Portman… if we’re comparing actresses who made their starts as youngsters in arty films set in foreign countries.”
Kate Winslet decimates everyone in that category with Heavenly Creatures.
10 Russ Jackson // May 11, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I remember at Trek’s conclusion and we all saw Winona Ryder’s name in the credits, none of us could recall her in the film. A quick Twitter search from my iPhone (so futuristic) confirmed she was Spock’s human mother. I didn’t even recognize her.
Now you’re telling me Tyler Perry was in this film too?
11 Collin H // May 11, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Well, that makes Star Trek the best Tyler Perry movie released last week.
12 Bob // May 16, 2009 at 2:19 am
Natalie Portman IS Winona Ryder
13 Darryl // Jul 13, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Winona may seem like an elf but she is also an elf with D-cups. Winona over Natalie anyday…
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