Hermit Cat Lady

There are reasons why Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky‘s Francine only managed a 63% positive on Rotten Tomatoes and a 62% on Metacritic. 62% or 63% means “not bad but with problems.” Francine is an austere study of a recently released ex-con (the great Melissa Leo) who’s unable to bond with humans and who turns to animals (cats, dogs, hamsters) for intimacy and affection. That’s all it is really. But Leo so disappears into the role that Francine is at least absorbing and at times a little more so.


Melissa Leo — Monday, 5.22, 5:50 pm in third-floor suite within Beverly Hills Montage hotel.

There’s a brief but rather ballsy nude scene at the very beginning that tells you straight off, “This is not going to be a portrait of a character who will eventually find redemption and happiness.”

I met Leo the other day at the Beverly Hills Montage and spoke with her for 10 or 15 minutes. I’m a longtime fan so it was easy. Everyone is acknowledging that she owns the last few minutes of Flight. She portrays a National Transportation and Safety Board official who cross-examines Denzel Washington‘s secretly alcoholic pilot, and the drip-drip tension is so thick you can cut it with a blade of grass.

I didn’t ask Leo about all the upcoming indie films she’s acted in, and which are now in post-production. She works like there’s no tomorrow. The newbies reportedly include Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion, A Single Shot, The Butler (in which she’ll play Mamie Eisenhower to Robin Williams‘ Dwight D. Eisenhower), The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and Something in the Water. She’s also slated to costar in Prisoners, I Fought the Law and Over the Wall.

Leo looks and sounds terrific in person — a polar opposite from the sad, congealed person she plays in Francine.

39 thoughts on “Hermit Cat Lady

  1. Leo looks different in every picture and every role she does. And of course, her versatility is matched by insane talent.

    I haven’t even heard of Francine beyond 1 or 2 posts on this site, but I’ll see it if it’s playing somewhere close.

  2. Yeesh … I hope that nude scene isn’t TOO ballsy …nyuck nyuck.

    Leo is a complex actress who makes interesting choices. A film like FRANCINE sounds awful to sit through, yet I’d consider it just to see Leo in action.

  3. I remember watching her playing an evil little bitch in the early 80s on the soap All My Children and thought she was special. she is also Great in Treme where in the first season she was married to John Goodman. It is amazing that David Simon makes the greatest television shows, with the best actors, that no one watches. Could it be that all those black faces just turn off the white american audience?

  4. Stewart: in the case of The Wire, of course.

    In the case of Treme, sorry, the show isn’t nearly on that level. People don’t watch Treme b/c it’s a dreadful bore not operating in the Hall of Fame mode we’ve come to expect from Simon. In fact, if it weren’t for Simon, most people wouldn’t look twice at Treme. He’s an all-timer that deserves whatever he gets though.

  5. I remember watching her playing an evil little bitch in the early 80s on the soap All My Children and thought she was special. she is also Great in Treme where in the first season she was married to John Goodman. It is amazing that David Simon makes the greatest television shows, with the best actors, that no one watches. Could it be that all those black faces just turn off the white american audience?
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  7. The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and Something in the Water. She’s also slated to costar in Prisoners, I Fought the Law and Over the Wall.ppi

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