When she’s not playing Rory Gilmore, Alexis Bledel usually plays variations on Rory Gilmore. So a fan might wonder “What if she played against type?” We see it in “Sin City,” but that’s a minor role. In “Violet & Daisy” (2011), though, she’s in the lead role as a hired assassin.
Unbelievable start
At first, it’s a case of “Be careful what you wish for.” Bledel’s Violet and Saoirse Ronan’s Daisy – using schoolgirl looks and nun-habit disguises in their favor – gun down a roomful of hardened bad guys to open this film from writer-director Geoffrey Fletcher, an Oscar winner for writing “Precious” (2009).
It’s not believable. Their surprise factor is soon exhausted and the bad guys are still standing. It takes an incredible number of low-caliber rounds to bring them down. But the bad guys always miss, and Violet and Daisy never flinch. They are, after all, in a stylized film where they are untouchable.
To celebrate the 40th birthday of “Gilmore Girls’ ” Alexis Bledel, this month Reviews from My Couch is looking back at five of her movies that we haven’t previously reviewed.
“Violet & Daisy” (2011)
Director: Geoffrey Fletcher
Writer: Geoffrey Fletcher
Stars: Alexis Bledel, Saoirse Ronan, James Gandolfini
“Violet & Daisy” takes a half-hour to recover from its initial impression of being all premise and no bite; I might’ve bowed out if I wasn’t reviewing it for my blog.
Good ole Gandolfini
Then “The Sopranos’ ” James Gandolfini – credited only as The Guy – is introduced as the third lead. He seems to want the assassins to snuff him out, an attitude that throws off our gals.
The film gradually grows into something different from its beginning. Eventually, it’s a late-career Gandolfini turn to treasure. He plays a particularly cuddly huge teddy bear who breaks the ice of Violet and sees through the veneer of Daisy, who is too kind-hearted for this job.
I initially thought Violet and Daisy were sociopaths, but by the end they are shown to have some empathy. It’s not exactly character development. It’s more that Fletcher gradually alters the film he’s making.
While Gandolfini steals the show, he’s generous to his supporting actresses. Ronan shows the delicate touch that would later serve her in better roles.
Out of her range
Bledel is, well, not exactly good. The initial impression that she’s wrong for this role is hard to shake off. All of her assassin-style lines sound like they’re recited. It’s only when the movie changes its tone and allows its characters to be non-stylized humans that Violet’s scenes become plausible.
So the movie changes to fit its actors. Initially, “V&D” is not good enough for Gandolfini’s talents and incompatible with Bledel’s specific range. Later, it encompasses them both.
Moments toward the end border on being touching, with somber music and pretty scenery such as autumn leaves on a walking path.
But too often before that, the dark comedy is flat – neither funny nor cleverly dark. It’s ridiculous and mildly off-putting, especially when V&D dance on the corpses of bad guys, finding it amusing that blood spurts from their mouths.
“Violet & Daisy’s” dual tones don’t mesh, although the transition from one to the other is gradual enough to not be jarring. It doesn’t achieve what it’s aiming for (a smooth mix of seemingly incompatible tones). It has to be labeled a failure, but it’s an interesting one.