A Woman, A Part

Anna cares so little about her script for her successful television show!

*** / *****

An actress for a popular television show in LA grows increasingly frustrated with her career and the character she’s saddled with, yearning for escape. But she’s attached to the show for a five year contract, burdened with the knowledge that if obligations aren’t fulfilled no work of any acting can be performed due to the language specifying her responsibility to the show. I noticed a brief preview for this in my Showtime package and decided to give it a shot once time permitted. I had a bit of afternoon on Thursday (the 15^th) and gave this a go. I knew Maggie Siff (as the lead actress looking for escape from the doldrums of a career that has gradually robbed her of her joy) from an episode of Mad Men I recently had as background on the television while trying to scrap together a review for the blog. She was trying to resist (failing) Don Draper but eventually succumbed to desire as the two discussed their miserable past afterward. In A Woman, A Part (2016), she really held my attention. Just something about her captivated me. The film I thought was okay. It was essentially a New York City character piece about a woman (still quite lovely) in her early 40s hitting that career crisis (many of us do; I was embattled with 40 blues when I hit the age last August) where she wonders if acting has lost its passion. She stumbles through a script on her television show, unnerved with discontent because those involved in its production won’t listen to her ideas on how to make it better. When she gets to her old stomping grounds, Anna gets back in touch with old friends from her theater days, Isaac (John Ortiz) and Kate (Cara Seymore). Isaac is struggling as a playwright, desperate for a written work to get him out of a rut while Kate has left acting and tries to remain sober if possible, although staying away is difficult as is sobriety. Isaac pines for his youth, looking at footage of their happy-go-lucky acting studies and putting together a play that gets under Anna’s skin because of how close it describes her real self. Kate resists Anna’s return into her life as distance has certainly created a discord the two try to penetrate as her stay in New York continues. The film allows the trio to present characters with warts and all. Their unmasked when no one is looking except us, the viewer. Anna has this moment where she lays on the sidewalk until a couple of passersby lift her up…it is one of the film’s highly regarded scenes. Anna beds a guy she meets in Kate’s Yoga class while trying to reconnect with her two friends despite degrees of tension and angst that often resurfaces even in simple conversation. Both seem to desire more than just friendship with Anna but with Isaac married (and trying to salvage a marriage on life support) and Kate trying to conquer her demons it is better to retain the platonic side and not attempt the minefield that getting too close could create. I must say, the scene where Anna is sitting up in bed with her one night stand, that naked back as he gradually caresses her is quite exquisite. This film is basically a journey of rediscovery, I think, where Anna wants to see what that next chapter in her life is. She stuns her friends by reemerging in their lives after a lengthy absence, having left on less-than-amicable terms. But by the end it does appear Isaac’s semi-autobiographical play will be a success and Kate has somewhat proven to herself that the stage still has a place for her. Khandi Alexander (of CSI: Miami) is Anna’s agent, finding her client in the pool with scattered script across the water! The film has no concerns with rushing anything and it isn’t too bothered with necessarily following a thru-line. It is more or less, I think, a document of a woman going through a feeling out process after realizing that her career as an actress could be at a crossroads, wondering if perhaps there’s more to life than the television show (and amenities of its success that give her luxuries and creature comforts) she has grown to loathe.