Naomi Watts is Due for a Bit of a Comeback

Bottom line: the actress needs to pick some better projects.

Unless your name is David Lynch, you probably haven’t been giving Naomi Watts her due lately. Watts absolutely killed it as Janey-E in the Twin Peaks revival last year, bringing her signature emotional availability to a volatile but captivating role.

However, it’s safe to say that although Watts’s performance in Twin Peaks will undoubtedly go down as one of her best and most memorable, she has also unfortunately suffered several career lows in recent years, especially when it comes to her work on the big screen.

If for some reason you’re not convinced about Watts’s talent, take a quick refresher course in films such as Mulholland Drive, Eastern Promises, Birdman, 21 Grams, and The Impossible –the last two of which brought her Oscar nominations. These movies highlight Watts’s range and her ability to work with a number of distinguished and unique filmmakers.

On the flip side, they also beg the question of why she seemingly can’t get stellar roles more consistently when she has demonstrated invaluable abilities as an actor.

Word from The Hollywood Reporter is that Watts will star in a new film from the man behind The Purge movie series, James DeMonaco. Nope, they’re not doing horror together. Watts has been cast to play a mom in a coming-of-age period drama titled Once Upon a Time in Staten Island alongside Frank Grillo, who plays the protagonist’s father.

The synopsis of Once Upon a Time in Staten Island goes as follows: The year is 1982 in Staten Island. Amidst the release of Rocky III, an average teenager navigates the Rocky Balboa fever of his town in order to “embark on a quest” with his family. DeMonaco will direct from his own script.

The last thing anybody would expect from DeMonaco is a coming-of-age period drama and admittedly, this commitment to something that is most definitely a 180-degree shift for him is strangely fascinating. But something so experimental may not serve Watts well at all, especially with so many characters potentially competing for screen time.

The film’s line-up generally feels rather nondescript except for Watts’ presence too, with Grillo and Cannavale being better character actors than leading men. Once Upon a Time in Staten Island just feels inadequate for someone of Watts’s caliber.

Fortunately, the actress has another feature in the works that could be a better fit. Watts will once again team up with director Claire McCarthy, with whom she worked on the unconventional new “Hamlet” adaptation of Ophelia. A few weeks ago, Variety reported that Watts will headline McCarthy’s next feature, Burning Season, opposite Sophia Lillis (IT).

The film will be based on Laura Van Den Berg’s short story “What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us” and center on a complicated mother-daughter relationship. Watts will play brilliant primatologist June Engle, who travels to Madagascar to find an endangered species. Her teenage daughter (Lillis) begrudgingly tags along on the trip and together with a local researcher, the Engles have to navigate their strained relationship, with June needing to find a balance between work and family.

In the hands of a different filmmaker, Burning Season could very well be a generic drama set in an “exotic” location where westerners go to find themselves or whatever. But having worked together with McCarthy to create a distinctive feminist take on “Hamlet,” Watts has established a promising relationship with a director with a remarkable vision. Hopefully, McCarthy will bring some of that freshness to Burning Season too. Plus, I’m betting the combination of Watts and Lillis will be an electric one, given their individual strengths at commanding the screen.

Watts’s filmography going forward still sounds hit or miss, even though I very much want to be pumped for anything she’s in. Burning Season may have a better chance of working out than Once Upon a Time in Staten Island in that it definitely won’t waste Watts’s talent, so that’s the film I’m more keen on seeing.

Watts is also set to feature in Julius Onah’s Luce, Alistair Banks Griffin’s The Wolf Hour and Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level (which also stars Grillo). These are a lot of movies on paper, but will they be worth it? Let’s be real, nobody should cast Watts in anything unless they’re willing to make her a shining star. She is a powerhouse performer and deserves an explosive comeback.

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