Remember when Keri Russell cut her hair in the 2nd season of FELICITY, and it was major cultural news? No? Oh. Well, I do, and so of course when she popped up earlier this summer in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3, I couldn't help but notice that her hair looked awesome. And the movie? Not so much, but not awful, either. Directed by FELICITY, ALIAS, and LOST creator JJ Abrams, M:I3 ...
...felt vaguely familiar, despite Keri having long, flowing, straight locks. Tom Cruise of course reprises his role as Ethan Hunt, the crazy ass secret agent, who in this sequel has just married and settled down to a desk job when, da dum, Agent Faris (Keri) is kidnapped and Ethan and his team have to go back to the field to save her. This MI has a lot more standing around talking in the secret agent office (just like ALIAS), and a cameo by Greg Grunberg (just like the ALIAS series finale AND LOST), and even a Marshall-like computer geek (when the guy started in blabbering about technowizardry, I was, like, "Hi, Marshall! Where's Syd?"). Ah, if only Sydney Bristow were around. THAT would be perfect.
But M:I3 was not imperfect. It was very loud, but made tons more sense than the earlier MI films, and as much as Tom Cruise bugs me lately, I have to say he and Michelle Monaghan, who plays his wife, had real chemistry on screen, so much that I was thinking he should've knocked her up instead of Katie "Dawson" Holmes. If it's Keri Russell you're after, be warned that her part is small, but the movie overall is BIG, and worth renting if you like this sort of thing. JJ brings his sense of humor and style to the movie, and the cast delivers. Still, I wouldn't have minded a little glimpse of Sydney and Vaughn in the background...
Back to Keri, she also appears in the movie THE UPSIDE OF ANGER, now available on DVD (join Netflix already). She's one of 4 daughters of Terry Wolfmyer (Joan Allen) struggling with their Mom to adjust to their father's abrupt departure. Mom takes to drinking, Keri takes to dancing, and the others cope in their own ways in this okay drama. Mostly, Terry is so angry at her husband that she takes it out on everyone else, and the movie ultimately looks at the futility of being angry about things that you can't change. But it takes a while to get there, and several times I almost gave up... don't! Stick with it to the end, and it's a satisfying film. Also features a fine performance from Kevin Costner, who's aging nicely into these roles.