You didn’t need a fact checker to know Donald Trump was wrong about Meryl Streep.
She’s not one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood. She’s a brilliant performer, and her three Oscar trophies attest to just that.
No one’s perfect, though.
Even our very best actors stumble onto a film clunker or two during their careers. Remember Warren Beatty AND Dustin Hoffman starred in 1987’s “Ishtar,” one of the industry’s most notorious flops.
So since the actress is back in the news with her hypocritical Golden Globes speech, let’s look at four Streep movies that didn’t live up to her legend.
1. Lions for Lambs
This 2007 dud found Streep, Tom Cruise and Robert Redford sharing in the humiliation. Redford’s anti-war, anti-Bush screed was a snoozefest, a rare political misfire from Cruise. Streep isn’t to blame here, but she typically picks far meatier roles. Her ideology clearly betrayed her.
Audiences rejected it outright, and critics struggled to say something nice about it.
2. She Devil
Remember when Roseanne Barr was the next “It” movie star? It never happened, in part, because her first major role after her sitcom “Roseanne” flopped.
The studio behind “She Devil” hoped teaming Barr with an all-star like Streep might ease her transition to big-screen roles. Nothing doing. The strained comedy traded on Barr’s blue-collar appeal but without the wit of her show’s earlier seasons.
Streep proved a good sport playing a nasty character, but the flat screenplay made sure no one escaped the project unscathed.
3. Rendition
Once again Streep’s political instincts betrayed her. This was part of the anti-Bush movie movement from a decade ago, and it lined up an admittedly impressive cast. Jake Gyllenhaal, Streep and Reese Witherspoon star in a film that served up plenty of red meat for the Bush Derangement Syndrome crowd.
What it failed to do was fill movie theater seats. The movie proved a dud, and it didn’t factor a whit into the year’s awards season lineup.
It couldn’t even win over some progressive film critics. Here’s Richard Roeper’s take on the film:
“I don’t fault Rendition for its liberal politics. I fault it for hammering home those politics in such pounding, slanted fashion.”
4. Into the Woods
Once more Streep set her ego aside to play a role in an ensemble feature. For the first half of “Woods” that pays off handsomely. Streep is quite a good bad witch, down to the iconic makeup. Too bad the source material simply doesn’t know when to end. We’re left with a strained narrative you’ll want to put out of its misery.
The movie can’t be blamed on Streep, but she still should have used her talents elsewhere.
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