Rosie O'Donnell is good at making the wisecracking friend sound like someone worth listening to. We like her plain-spoken comic company, while wishing the films gave her more to do than support somebody else's story.
Fi1m perspective
The joke sounds like something a friend might say, rather than a line saved for a comedian. Rosie O'Donnell's Long Island accent and down-to-earth delivery are well suited to confidantes with opinions of their own. She makes that familiar supporting job worth watching, although the repeated casting as a best friend can leave the work looking narrower than it need be. There is a risk of taking the ease for granted.
Her film debut, as Doris Murphy in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own (1992), put that comic manner to work within a team. We felt cheered as the players became a group; Marshall makes their coming together worth watching for its own sake. O'Donnell's presence helps make the ensemble good company, though Geena Davis and Tom Hanks are the film's principal pleasures for us. The sentiment grows heavy, and several players deserve more space. That is a frustration in a film which makes us interested in the people around its stars.
In Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Becky is Meg Ryan's friend, a neat fit for O'Donnell's conversational humour. O'Donnell has said she copied Bette Midler's walk and way of speaking for the part. The apparently casual manner is something she has thought about. The actors and jokes earn our affection, even as the plot asks too much of coincidence. Her wisecracking is well placed in a romance that benefits from someone able to talk plainly.
Betty Rubble in The Flintstones (1994) and Terk, a voice role in Tarzan (1999), continued the comic work. The later television role of Lisa Sheffer in I Know This Much Is True (2020) took her into drama, away from the best-friend assignments that shaped her early film work. We would welcome more parts that ask something different of her, without assuming that seriousness is automatically an improvement. Start with Sleepless in Seattle for the jokes, and be prepared to forgive the coincidences.
Biography
Rosie O'Donnell is an American actress and comedian. She made her feature film debut as Doris Murphy in A League of Their Own (1992) and appeared as Becky in Sleepless in Seattle (1993). Other film roles include Betty Rubble in The Flintstones (1994) and the voice of Terk in Tarzan (1999).
O'Donnell began performing stand-up comedy as a teenager and gained national attention as a five-time winner on the television talent show Star Search. She has also appeared in television series including The Nanny (1993) and Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), and hosted the daytime talk show The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996–2002).
