I'm the wife, you know. I take care of the kids, I host the dinner parties, arrange the social schedule... Try to look pretty so your friends can admire your taste. I've become one of those women who shops all day and gets pedicures, but I want to be more. There's more to me.
-Alice
Mia Farrow really is extraordinary. A special talent who's almost always the exception in her films. Check your calendar - it's not every day you're selected to carry Satan's child. Mia's characters are often everyday women faced with great dilemmas and grandiose choices; not because she's equipped to handle them, but because she's really just better than us.
Rosemary Woodhouse is a perfect example. It's the singular role that would define much of Mia's early career... and a kicky new hairstyle. Born and bred a Catholic schoolgirl in Omaha, Rosemary couldn't be more enchanting and fresh-faced, so it's no wonder Satan took a second glance.
Scattered amongst Woody Allen's best works are some of Mia's finest and most exceptional women. It helps that her performances are cast with such a loving, graceful glow... at least for heft of their lengthy collaboration. Mia's often our sympathetic outsider, who's often the fixation of everyone outside her. Even when her characters are behaving badly, everyone's still drawn to her like a hyper-articulate and well-balanced magnet. Maybe it was Woody's feelings for her at the time, and maybe it's that Mia's strength lies in that everyday mystery.
Take for example her inoculated introspection via Chinese herbs in Alice that sends us through the looking glass of her mundane upper-crust existence. Only Mia could turn a bad trip into a total transformation from metropolitan mom into Mother Teresa. Mia should probably stop taking strange herbs from her on-screen counterparts, but we can rest assured something extraordinary will happen.
Her presence alone is magic. She's served as a mystical and revelatory alter-ego in Another Woman, the fourth wall in female form in The Purple Rose of Cairo... and being emotionally and financially stable was outstanding enough for Hannah and Her Sisters. Jon Cusack offered up $700 for just an hour alone with her! The woman's got powers.
