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halfamoonThe many moods of Jane Craig
Broadcast News, 1987
Written and directed by James L Brooks
When we first meet Jane, in the introduction of the film, she is a ten-year-old quietly writing a letter to her pen pal who screams when her father makes his presence known in her doorway. The caption “Future Network News Producer” appears on the screen. She takes offense when her father refers to her as obsessive, and then turns the word over in her mind after he leaves. She confronts her father moments later with the definition of the word, explains to him that she can't be considered obsessive, and asks him to be more precise. It's a fun scene that runs the gamut of emotion- happiness with what she's initially doing, fright when her father startles her, irritation at his words, confrontational, and finally confident and self-assured at the end.
But Jane is right, she's not obsessive. She can be intense and has a pretty strict code when it comes to how she expects the news to be. (Though the movie was made in 1987, it did predict that the news would move more toward entertainment than actual news, something that would not have made Jane happy at all.)
The movie itself is a romantic comedy centered around a Washington D.C. news bureau and features Holly Hunter as Jane Craig, a news producer. She interacts most with Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), a reporter who is Jane's best friend, and Tom Grunich (William Hurt), anchorman and new hire to the bureau who is everything Jane despises professionally, but she's also personally attracted to him.
Jane is the type of person who feels everything very strongly, whether she's proud of Tom's accomplishments, happy after capturing a good story, weeping exhaustedly after said story is put to bed and all the emotion just has to get out, lusting after Tom, yelling at Aaron, laughing at something Aaron has said, feeling dismay when she finds out Tom crossed one of her lines, and finally content at how her life has turned out.
Throughout the film, Jane gets in and out of various cabs, always giving precise directions as to how they need to go. Towards the end of the movie, when she's devastated and fighting tears in the back seat of a taxi from the airport, she initially tells the driver to “go any way you want.” The camera settles on her for a moment and you can see the emotions play out on her face and when she says, “But New York Avenue is faster,” you can see she's going to be okay.
Jane is a terrific character and Hunter plays the role to perfection, never hiding emotion from the audience. Here is one scene that, while she's mostly reactionary, really showcases her moods:
All in all, it's a great performance in a wonderful movie. Check it out if you can.
Broadcast News, 1987
Written and directed by James L Brooks
When we first meet Jane, in the introduction of the film, she is a ten-year-old quietly writing a letter to her pen pal who screams when her father makes his presence known in her doorway. The caption “Future Network News Producer” appears on the screen. She takes offense when her father refers to her as obsessive, and then turns the word over in her mind after he leaves. She confronts her father moments later with the definition of the word, explains to him that she can't be considered obsessive, and asks him to be more precise. It's a fun scene that runs the gamut of emotion- happiness with what she's initially doing, fright when her father startles her, irritation at his words, confrontational, and finally confident and self-assured at the end.
But Jane is right, she's not obsessive. She can be intense and has a pretty strict code when it comes to how she expects the news to be. (Though the movie was made in 1987, it did predict that the news would move more toward entertainment than actual news, something that would not have made Jane happy at all.)
The movie itself is a romantic comedy centered around a Washington D.C. news bureau and features Holly Hunter as Jane Craig, a news producer. She interacts most with Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), a reporter who is Jane's best friend, and Tom Grunich (William Hurt), anchorman and new hire to the bureau who is everything Jane despises professionally, but she's also personally attracted to him.
Jane is the type of person who feels everything very strongly, whether she's proud of Tom's accomplishments, happy after capturing a good story, weeping exhaustedly after said story is put to bed and all the emotion just has to get out, lusting after Tom, yelling at Aaron, laughing at something Aaron has said, feeling dismay when she finds out Tom crossed one of her lines, and finally content at how her life has turned out.
Throughout the film, Jane gets in and out of various cabs, always giving precise directions as to how they need to go. Towards the end of the movie, when she's devastated and fighting tears in the back seat of a taxi from the airport, she initially tells the driver to “go any way you want.” The camera settles on her for a moment and you can see the emotions play out on her face and when she says, “But New York Avenue is faster,” you can see she's going to be okay.
Jane is a terrific character and Hunter plays the role to perfection, never hiding emotion from the audience. Here is one scene that, while she's mostly reactionary, really showcases her moods:
All in all, it's a great performance in a wonderful movie. Check it out if you can.
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