What’s not to love about Holly Hunter? Talk about the total package. The pint sized leading lady has proved herself one to watch since the beginning, packed with perky pep and knee-weakening charms few in the business ever come close to having. She made her debut back in the 1981 slasher summer camp film The Burning in a small supporting role, cuz you know, ya gotta start somewhere, but it picked up from there, a few TV movies later and she had her first bit with the Coen Brothers, though as an uncredited voice on a phone in their debut Blood Simple (Hunter had once been roommates with Frances McDormand, wife of Joel Coen). Either wat, she made an impression, landing the lead in their next film Raising Arizona, a black comedy that saw Hunter as a cop who meets and falls in love with a criminal (played by Nicolas Cage), leading to a crazy kidnapping scheme and one of the most talked about movies of that year (make sure you see it because it’s trippy fun).
She earned high praise for her work and because so, was eventually cast in the James L. Brooks comedy/drama Broadcast News (above), where she plays a newsroom producer caught between the admirations of two very different men (played by William Hurt and Albert Brooks). She earned an Academy Award nomination for her efforts and was immediately after, one of the most sought out and respected women in the business. And she made good use of this rare opportunity, starring in and working with some of the industry’s biggest names, including one of our favorites, Steven Spielberg‘s Always. However, it would be a few years later, in 1993, before Hunter would roll out 3 in a Row and solidify her legacy as one of Hollywood’s greatest.
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom
Okay so we’re going to start with a bit of cheat as this wordy-titled comedy from director Michael Ritchie is actually a TV movie first appearing on HBO in 1993. Hunter is Wanda Holloway, a young mother with a teen daughter, looking to do anything she can to give her child the best in life, including any opportunity denied her when she was a girl. To what lengths she’ll go though is just a wee bit more than most mom’s in similar circumstances. See, Wanda’s daughter Shanna (Frankie Ingrassia) wants to be a cheerleader, er rather since Wanda wants Shanna to be one, she goes out of her way in getting her trained and ready, knocking down roadblocks that would keep her from reaching that dream. Unfortunately, bribes don’t work and in the end, what choice does he have? She’s got to murder the competition.
Hunter won an Emmy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the very real life Holloway, the entire story based on actual events. The black comedy seems a perfect fit for the sometimes manic acting Hunter, who, even in her tiny frame, feels ready to combust at a moment’s notice. She’s great fun to watch alongside fellow award-winner Beau Bridges, playing her brother-in-law Terry, with the whacky story lending itself to bits of head-scratching moments of, “Wait? Did this really happen?” Either way, Hunter is magnetic, absolutely commanding attention and doing things here that once again made it clear she was out to topple the world. This was the start of a defining year for her and she was just getting started. Up next, she would win it all without saying a word (sort of).
The Piano
It’s hard to describe the impact a film like Jane Campion‘s deeply moving The Piano has until you see it and feel it for yourself, but I’ll try anyway. On paper, it would seem to have no chance for any interest, that of a mute Scottish woman and her young daughter sent to New Zealand in the 1850s for an arranged marriage, and yet, it’s strangely compelling from the very first frames. Hunter is Ada, a woman who stopped talking when she was six years old, though no one, including herself, knows why. We hear her inner monologue, only occasionally, explaining her plight, but mostly communicates in sign language through her 10-year-old daughter Flora (Anna Paquin). Ada is sold to a man named Alisdair (Sam Neill), living on the edge of the New Zealand frontier. All Ada has, besides Flora, is her piano, and to her it is the very definition of life and freedom. When that comes between her and Alisdair, a man she never trusts or loves, it falls on neighbor George (Harvey Keitel) to take in the instrument and in turn, the love of its owner.
Hunter won an Academy Award (among a slew of others) for Best Actress, using her body and hands to express so much of her character’s harrowing emotional breaks. It’s truly a unique performance unlike most you will ever see and Hunter does amazing things with so little, challenging us to slip inside her distraught thoughts in ways no one on screen has done before. Paquin also won an Oscar for her brilliant work, becoming the second youngest ever to do (and beating out Hunter for a Best Supporting Actress award for a film we’ll get to in just a bit). The Piano is a drop-dead gorgeous film, even as it’s filmed mostly in mud, the mood, setting, and richly-defined peoples within making it a breath-taking experience. Hunter is a modern wonder to behold, becoming an international superstar because of it. But she wasn’t done yet wowing theater-goers this year.
The Firm
John Grisham books adapted into film was sort of a craze in the 1990s, seemingly so rampant that it was hardly a season that would go by where a new movie about one of his novels wasn’t in release. The first to make it to the big screen however (and one of two in this same year) was the wildly-anticipated The Firm. And sure, people went crazy when Tom Cruise was cast, believing him not the right choice (much like the backlash when he landed the lead in Jack Reacher), but when the dust settled, he earned deserved praise, starring opposite film legend Gene Hackman in a story about a young lawyer drafted into a small Southern firm that ends up having a few sticky issues with keeping lawyers alive. So, anyways … Holly Hunter. Where’s she fit in all this?
Hunter is Tammy, the secretary of Eddie Lomax (Gary Busey), a private detective who runs afoul of the firm and [bg_collapse view=”link-inline” color=”#eb0e0e” icon=”zoom” expand_text=”Show Spoiler” collapse_text=”Close” ]well, meets his end[/bg_collapse]. Tammy doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but that doesn’t stop Hunter from giving the chain-smoking woman some powerful presence, becoming a crucial player in the story’s clever twists. What she does with this little bundle of anxiety and wicked smart cuts is very nearly the best thing going in the film. It earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, which she lost to her co-star Anna Paquin in The Piano. Either way, not a bad year.
The Aftermath
Hunter continued her reign as a box office queen, following up 1993 with a long run of hits, including her co-starring role in the Sigourney Weaver thriller Copycat, the Holiday comedy Home For The Holidays with Robert Downey Jr., another Coen film called Oh,Brother Where Art Thou? and many, many more. More recently, new fans have seen her pop up in the superhero movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (above)… and of course, she is a superhero in the Disney/Pixar hits The Incredibles and Incredibles 2. Still, she’s yet to have a career year like 1993, when she hit 3 in a Row that knocked her right out of the proverbial park.