Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio gives capable women an alertness that keeps us watching beside noisier performers. We value her authority in supporting parts, though Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves shows how much a crowded script can ask of her.
Fi1m perspective
In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Mastrantonio's Marian holds our attention without trying to match Alan Rickman's Sheriff for excess. She brings an alertness to the quieter scenes that the adventure needs when so much else is competing for notice. We warmed to her Marian because she gave us someone worth watching when the changes of tone were becoming tiresome. Kevin Reynolds's film entertains in patches, and her performance is one of the reasons to persist with it.
She had established her screen presence as Gina Montana, Al Pacino's sister, in Scarface (1983). Carmen in The Colour of Money (1986) gave her a supporting part opposite Paul Newman and Tom Cruise, to which she brought authority and nuance. James Cameron's The Abyss (1989) made different demands on her as the engineer Lindsey Brigman, with underwater sequences that called on her physical commitment. Her grounded acting makes that ordeal matter.
Her stage work helps explain that precision: clear diction and physical commitment have been strengths of her Shakespearean performances. She varies emphasis and movement from night to night to keep the work fresh. As Marian, her alertness and Morgan Freeman's steadiness as Azeem briefly make Densham and Watson's crowded screenplay seem workable. They cannot make its shifts of tone feel natural. We would not ask her to compete with Rickman to compensate; that would sacrifice one of the film's quieter pleasures without solving anything in the writing.
The later films offered different work: singing as Donna De Angelo in John Sayles' Limbo (1999), then playing Linda Greenlaw in The Perfect Storm (2000). Her film appearances became more selective alongside recurring television roles and stage work. Try Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves if the adventure appeals, but watch for Marian as well as the Sheriff, and allow for a screenplay neither can put right.
Biography
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer. She studied drama at the University of Illinois and made her Broadway debut as an understudy in the 1980 revival of West Side Story.
She appeared in the 1983 film Scarface as Gina Montana, the sister of Al Pacino's character, which became her breakout role. For her performance as Carmen in The Color of Money (1986), she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Other film roles include Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss (1989), Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and Linda Greenlaw in The Perfect Storm (2000). She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the 2003 Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha.
Mastrantonio has also appeared in television series including Grimm and Blindspot. She is married to film director Pat O'Connor.
