Reese Witherspoon is at her best playing women whose determination makes them hard to like. We rate the precision of her comedy: she lets us see the effort, and trusts us to keep watching when the character becomes exasperating.
Fi1m perspective
Tracy Flick takes her own ambition seriously, however funny it looks to everyone else. In Alexander Payne's Election (1999), Reese Witherspoon plays her as a school candidate whose determination will survive the lack of applause. We laughed at Tracy's relentless effort, then felt uneasy about laughing, because Witherspoon makes it hard to dismiss how much that effort matters to her. It is precise, uncomfortable comedy, and we recommend the film warmly for allowing her to be so exasperating.
Payne gives her a useful opponent in Matthew Broderick's Jim McAllister, the teacher determined to obstruct Tracy's electoral progress. His motives deserve more scrutiny than hers, but Witherspoon never makes that judgement easy by softening Tracy into someone agreeable. She does not signal that the girl knows how funny she looks. Occasionally the exaggeration brings her close to caricature, a weakness in a film that sometimes enjoys ridicule too much. Her commitment keeps us interested in the pupil even when her behaviour is trying.
The early attention came with Freeway (1996) and Pleasantville (1998), before Election and Cruel Intentions (1999) brought the breakthrough. Legally Blonde (2001), with Witherspoon as Elle Woods, established her as a romantic-comedy star. Her dramatic work includes June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2005). The subsequent blandness of This Means War (2012) points to the risk of losing the edge that made the earlier work interesting. We value her comic timing most when a character's determination causes some discomfort.
Her move into producing accompanied a return to acclaimed dramatic work with Wild (2014), in which she also played Cheryl Strayed. She later produced Big Little Lies (2017) and played Madeline Martha Mackenzie, extending that work into television. The quality worth protecting is the willingness to let a character test our patience without abandoning her. Start with Election; liking Tracy is optional.
Biography
Reese Witherspoon is an American actress and producer, also credited as Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon. Born on 22 March 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana, she made her screen debut in The Man in the Moon (1991) as a teenager. Her performance as Tracy Flick in the black comedy Election (1999) brought her wider attention and a Golden Globe nomination.
Witherspoon gained further recognition for her role as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (2001) and its sequel. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying June Carter Cash in the biopic Walk the Line (2005). She has also starred in Sweet Home Alabama (2002) and Wild (2014), and produced and appeared in television series including Big Little Lies.
