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Iris

© James C. Hess

About a week ago (as I write this) I was doing a workshop. As such efforts tend to go this one was running long because no one wanted to leave. (Owing much, he suggested, batting his big blues, to moi, and his amazing wit and intelligence?) In an attempt to wrap things up (and keep the rather large security guard at the back of the room from actually picking me up and removing me from the room) I said:

I want everyone here to take out a piece of paper and write on it the name of the greatest actor working today. When I say 'actor' I mean male or female.

Sixty-seven people in the room, not counting myself or the security guard who wanted to go home to a nice dinner. Fifty-one of them wrote the exact same name on their paper:

Dame Judi Dench.

I was surprised. Pleasantly, mind you. But surprised all the same. I was surprised because I know my tastes, when it comes to things cinematic, are somewhat off the beaten path. But how far off the beaten path am I actually when this sort of thing happens?

For years I have publically and privately sung the praises of the aforementioned Dame Dench (who, I am told, gets openly cranky when anyone attaches said title to her name). For years I have had people, as response to my pronouncement, give me concerned looks over this opinion. Surely, some sniff, there is another better suited for such an honor.

I must say, without hesitation or intent to recant my remarks: No. There isn't.

Dench is such an acting talent that it is understandable she does not get the praise and celebration she deserves. If she did, how can anyone else realistically be considered a valid acting talent?

Of course, given Dench is given to tackling acting roles no one else could possibly succeed in, it follows, albeit perversely, that she is overlooked, ignored, or simply shunned by those who could otherwise give her the support and recognition she deserves.

Now I wonder: What will the cinematic sparrowfarts, pundits, and naysayers say after they see her latest effort, "Iris"? Will they, at last, acknowledge her for her talent and effort?

Life is not nice nor polite, fair or accurate, so: No.

Given this, it follows I must take on the task of informing you of her latest role, Iris Murdoch, the novelist, who, if you ask, was one of the most important writers of her time. Murdoch, as the film shows, began her writing with almost unlimitless energy and who ended her life in the horrible shadow that is Alzheimer's.

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