Holly Hunter Time

It’s Holly Hunter time, all the time, over at Variety. In something called “Holly Hunter: Profile in Excellence” you will find five — count ‘em: five! – articles on the Georgia-born actress. There’s a piece on her TV show Saving Grace, one on how her career got jump-started via a meeting in an elevator, an article on her favorite roles “in her own words,” her relationship with the Coens and a ground-breaking exposé on — I kid you not — how her hair softens and adds depth to her roles. A positive Cornucopia for obsessive-compulsive Hunter fans.

A category which doesn’t include me — the obsessive-compulsive part, that is. I’ve been a normal, everyday fan of Hunter since I first saw her in Raising Arizona (1987), Joel and Ethan Coen’s screwball comedy about an ex-policewoman (Hunter) and an ex-con (Nicholas Cage) who steal one of the quintuplets of a Southwestern furniture king. In that role, she demonstrated a razor-sharp timing combined with with a certain vulnerability that has become a hallmark of her career.

Another of my favorite Hunter roles is in James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News, where she was the apex of a deliciously funny triangle, with William Hurt and Albert Brooks vying for her attention. She put her knack for mixing smart and vulnerable to good use as news-person Jane Craig, who although far outstripping Hurt’s shallow anchorman in know-how and brains, pines for him nevertheless.

Finally, there’s her role as George Clooney’s some-time wife in O Brother, Where Art Thou, her second collaboration with the Coens. (In their Blood Simple she had an uncredited voice part.) As Penny — get it? Penelope from the Odyssey? — she shows her hard-nailed Southern side, playing effective “straight man” to Clooney’s comic creation. Never before has the line “I’ve counted to three” sounded so maddening, yet somehow, so sexy.