We’re accustomed to seeing actress Anne Hathaway portraying semi-nerdy, innocent yet still hot–in a librarian sort of way–characters, but she will have to search deep within for her inner alpha female to convince audiences as DC Comic’s super-sexy antiheroine Catwoman in the upcoming Batman thriller, “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Hathaway has been all the buzz this week for channeling rapper Lil Wayne while belting out a few bars aimed at the thorn-to-the-stars otherwise known as the paparazzi during her appearance on “Conan.”
As a part-time conspiracy theorist, I wondered whether she was really trying to introduce us to a more aggressive side of her personality, since the next time we’ll see the 28-year-old as a leading lady (after “One Day,” a romantic film that opens this Friday) starkly contrasts with much of her previous work.
Now, I’ve never tried to break Catwoman’s psyche down prior to writing this, but the feline Gothamite–famous for wearing skintight, full-body patent-leather suits–strikes me as a sexually independent woman who could use a guy (or gal, for that matter) as a life-size prop for her carnal desires as effortlessly as she’d cut those very pawns into a thousand pieces.
In fairness, it should be noted that Selina Kyle (Catwoman’s real identity) can hardly be blamed for her sociopathic behavior. After all, getting transfenestrated from a skyscraper by your boss would make anyone crazy.
In the looks department, Hathaway leaves little to be desired. But can she “suspend our disbelief” taking on such a dark character? Michelle Pfeiffer pulled it off 20 years ago, but more recently, Halle Berry’s interpretation in a title role was universally excoriated.
This is tough to call. It’s not the same as finding out Heath Ledger was going to be the Joker in the film series’ previous entry, “The Dark Knight.” You knew that actor would take the character and film franchise to greater heights–and he did.
But Hathaway, who’s a solid actress, obviously impressed director Christopher Nolan enough to land the role. And Nolan wouldn’t pair Batman (Christian Bale) with any Catwoman unless he was certain the actor and actress portraying them had good chemistry.
Hathaway did well as Jake Gyllenhaal’s neglected wife in “Brokeback Mountain,” in which Ledger also starred. I just hope her role in Nolan’s next Batman film doesn’t turn out to be one of those Daryl-Hannah-in-“Wall Street” scenarios, where the movie and everyone in it was great despite Daryl Hannah.