Body Image

Body Image

We went to go see the movie Argylle on Sunday. It was Kim’s choice and falls somewhere in that genre of action and/or spy thriller movies that have campy comedy as a significant undercurrent. The gist of the plot is that a female author of spy novels, a woman who is a homebody who is basically non-athletic or even adventuresome, gets caught up in an espionage plot by virtue of the world supposedly copycatting her novels and therefore needing her next chapter to get out ahead of events. Of course there are then twists that find that this homebody author is really a spy by training who is experiencing amnesia and her ordinary-seeming parents are really spymasters. Nothing about the story or its production are radically different to what you have seen before in terms of special effects or cinematography, though it is very au current in all of those regards.

The cast is a panoply of A-list stars that have not otherwise committed themselves to another fast-fighting action hero series (think Cruise/MI, Neeson/Taken, Denzel/Equalizer, Damon/Bourne, Keanu/Wick or Jolie/SALT). It includes such greats as Brian Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Henry Cavill, John Cena, Sam Rockwell and Bryce Dallas Howard. Howard, who is Ron Howard’s daughter and is the central author figure, is the subject of my quandary with this movie. She is a 43-year old actress who has 40 film credits including significant and memorable roles in The Help, Gold, Rocketman and Jurassic World Dominion. But here’s the thing…in the dozen years since her role as skinny Hilly Holbrook in The Help, she has gone decidedly plus-sized. I can get away saying this because weight political correctness be damned, I have spent my entire life 3XL plus-sized, and if you think its different for a man than for a woman, perhaps its you who needs to recalibrate your political correctness meter on the gender scale.

Plenty of plus-sized actresses have gotten acclaim in film. Melissa McCarthy, Queen Latifa, Rebel Wilson, Amy Schumer and Octavia Spencer come to mind in the same way as men such as Jonah Hill and James Corden fit that mold, but with the exception of Octavia Spencer, the others have mostly made their mark in comedy more than dramatic roles. While Argylle has clear comedic angles to it, the role occupied by Bryce Dallas Howard is less comedic and more action-oriented. When Melissa McCarthy does a high kick with her stocky legs, it is done to get a laugh, not to thrill us with action acrobatics. Well, with Argylle, they have made a very specific point of putting a plus-sized actress like Howard front and center for one action fight scene after another. Unlike the other female actresses mentioned above who are big enough or outwardly funny enough to not get noticed for their broadness of beam as they walk across the stage, it is hard not to take notice of Howard’s derrière in her rather ordinary blue jeans or her Rubenesque décolletage when she suits up in her bedazzled evening gown.

When we came out of the Carmel Mountain Angelika, I couldn’t help but comment and was quickly shot down by Kim and the others with us. They acted as though it is about time the action movie genre caught up with the real people trend that seeks to ignore body image as a defining characteristic of action stars. I was chastised for thinking that the likes of Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence or Jessica Chastain are a necessary ingredient for a credible action/thriller star. I do not think that is so very crazy or even sexist. There may be some chubby people who can do all the stunts needed to be credible in these roles. I think of Chris Farley as a guy who didn’t fit the mold, but could credibly be the crazy little tubby frat boy who takes on physical challenges that he rightly shouldn’t, but even he was more comedic than serious. No one thinks Denzel as the Equalizer is lacking the physical skillset to do what he does in the 19 seconds on his watch that he allots himself, even though it is highly unlikely that any human could do what he does.

Movies are all about being able to suspend some degree of disbelief, but unless they are a fantasy pic, I think Argylle goes out beyond the point of reasonable believability and I think one of the reasons is their casting of their heroine. I had a discussion about this at dinner tonight where there were two very quiet men and three quite vocal women including Kim. My point is not that plus-sized women (or men) should not have an opportunity to be seen on the big or little screen or that there aren’t some people who like having more relatable people on screen. My point is that there has to be some connection of these roles to reality, especially in an arena like action fury-fighting movies where there must be some degree of believability to the casting. If that isn’t the case, then you might as well just make the piece a cartoon. You can get away with all of this and then some in cartoon form, but we tend not to think about the flexibility and connective tissue issues of cartoons the way we do with real flesh and blood characters.

When it comes to body image, we all have our own personal issues, I imagine. Who among us is perfectly satisfied with how we look in the mirror? One of the strangest phenomenon that both Kim and I have recognized is that pictures and videos taken of us years ago where we thought we looked horrible and generated a very negative body image, when looked at today in a more mature and clearer light of day, really don’t look as bad as we remember them. Needless to say there are hairdos and weird period-specific wardrobe issues that never age well, but when it comes to body image issues, the chances are you weren’t half as awful as you thought you were or perhaps you have gained some compassion for yourself and become more tolerant of the shortcomings that you used to think were life-altering.

The operative word seems to be image. In this context it means the overall impression that is given to the world about you. This image can depend on your appearance, behavior, and even your communication skills. Thus, a well-presented image puts your best foot forward and begins the process of showcasing who you are or want the rest of the world to see you as. I guess what that means is that Ms. Howard wants the world to see her as an action figure and yet she does not want to do what countless other action stars do to prepare themselves for such roles. So instead, either by choice or some interesting preference by the producers of the film that are making a social commentary play (I am not convinced nobody noticed this disparity with tradition since everyone in my group…even the most socially conscious of the crowd…admittedly to noticing), Ms. Howard just went on the sound stage and green screen stage as Mother Nature has endowed and developed her in a physical sense. I am prepared to say that this is not a bad experiment, perhaps even a noble experiment, but I also predict that it will not be a successful one. My guess is that we will go back to seeing well-muscled and sinewy action stars in the future and perhaps it is because secretly it is the body image we all wish we had and want to go to the movies to fantasize about. Isn’t that a big reason why we go the movies?