Rachel Griffiths

Brenda Chenowith is difficult company, and Rachel Griffiths does not soften her to make the evening easier. In Six Feet Under (2001), she keeps us interested in behaviour we need not approve of, a considerable help in a programme so occupied with unhappy people. We were grateful for her when the brooding began to wear us down, because she gave us someone worth trying to understand. Griffiths is particularly good at making strained relationships feel specific to the people involved.

The breakthrough came as Rhonda in Muriel's Wedding (1994), followed by parts including Hilary du Pré in Hilary and Jackie (1998). Then television gave her sustained ensemble work, as Brenda and later as Sarah Walker in Brothers & Sisters (2006). That move suited an actor whose strengths lie in emotional intimacy and the difficulty of sharing a life with other people. These are useful qualities in family dramas, where a performance has to keep responding to the same people without merely repeating itself.

Long-running television also gives the writers plenty of chances to overdo it. Across five seasons and 63 episodes, Six Feet Under sometimes lets psychological detail become repetition. Griffiths keeps Brenda interesting, but she cannot stop the series pressing its characters' suffering until the humour has too little space. The fanciful touches can seem unnecessary beside acting that has already made the feelings clear. She is one reason those stretches remain worth sitting through.

Anyone but You (2023) gives her the opposite problem: barely enough material to develop. Will Gluck pairs her with Dermot Mulroney as Bea's parents, then leaves them with a running gag and little else. The leads are good company, but the supporting roles give Griffiths few opportunities to make a relationship interesting. A thin part need not mean a bad performance; it does mean this is a poor place to look for her strengths. Start with Brenda, provided a long stay with unhappy people sounds tolerable.