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COPYRIGHT 2006 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
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The Film File
Nicole Kidman, who assumes the role of Diane Arbus in "Fur," is unique among modern movie stars in her willingness to take on tough parts and put herself in the hands of little-known or art-house directors. And it's not hard to see why filmmakers as varied as Jane Campion ("The Portrait of a Lady"), Jonathan Glazer ("Birth"), and Lars von Trier ("Dogville") have wanted to play Pygmalion to her Galatea. She's responsive, eager, and gentle; her tactile flesh takes the light better than anyone else's; her confiding smile can turn demanding and perverse, and yet she still seems fresh, as if she'd taken up acting last month. But, while other actresses have successfully searched for mentors--Marlene Dietrich found her way to Josef von Sternberg, Bette Davis landed in William Wyler's productions at Warners, and Diane Keaton teamed up with Woody Allen--Kidman hasn't always been lucky in her choices, and her taste in scripts is often as shaky as it is brave. As Arbus, she re-creates the waiflike and recessive quality that many noticed in the photographer, but the screenplay, by Erin Cressida Wilson, doesn't allow her to do much else. Although the subtitle of the movie is "An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus," Wilson and the director, Steven Shainberg, draw on Arbus's family and on many elements from her life and her art, only to turn the material into feeble nonsense....
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