In Character: Melanie Lynskey

I’m not sure when my profound fascination with Melanie Lynskey took hold. But right around the time I saw her dance on stage with perfect sadness in Sam Mendes’ Away We Go, I knew this was an actress worth seeking out. Since that film, I’ve made it a point to see anything Lynskey appears in. And here’s what I’ve learned: no matter how small the performance, there’s no film Lynskey cannot elevate. No script she cannot heighten. No role she cannot perfect. I truly think she’s one of the best, most underrated talents working in movies today. Here’s why.

Five Essential Roles

Away We Go (2009)

Munch Garnett

It isn’t too often you can say an actor’s best moment in a film is achieved while spinning around a stripper’s pole, but such is the power of Melanie Lynskey. Late in Away We Go, Burt and Maya (John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph) travel to Montreal to visit college friends, Munch and Tom (Chris Messina). Soon into catching up, Burt and Maya realize that Munch and Tom’s life is one they want to emulate. Munch and Tom are so clearly happy with their lives – they love their many adopted children, they love each other – they simply love to love. But there’s more.

When the group ends up at a bar that encourages clothed audience pole dancing, Munch takes to the stage and delivers a melancholic dance of pure devastation. While she dances, Tom explains to Burt than Munch has just suffered her fifth miscarriage, and will likely never be able to give birth. Lynskey’s work in this film is given a heavy assist by Messina (another actor I need to feature in this column), but it’s her face that kills me.

The Informant! (2009)

Ginger Whitacre

There’s a moment late in Steven Soderbergh’s perfect black comedy, The Informant! in which Ginger Whitacre figures it all out. She finally realizes that her charming, affable husband, Mark, has lied and cheated himself into a corner. His whistleblowing, his embezzlement scheme, his bipolar disorder – it’s all brought to fruition in irrefutable ways, and Ginger can’t believe she’s been duped so convincingly.

Ginger is the type of character that the audience wants to shake and scream in an effort to open her eyes. But she’s blinded. She’s blinded by her husband’s wealth, his kindness, his deceit, and watching her discover the truth proves to be one of the film’s most heart wrenching moments.

Up in the Air (2009)

Julie Bingham

Popping up briefly as George Clooney’s soon-to-be-wed sister in Up in the Air, Lynskey does what all great character actors do with the time they’re given: steal the scene and move on.

Two moments of Lynskey’s work as Julie speak to me. I love the genuine tenderness Julie has toward Clooney’s elusive character, Ryan, when they are reunited at Julie’s rehearsal dinner. Ryan appears thrilled to see her, of which Julie’s warm embrace speaks similarly. Secondly is the scene when Ryan asks Julie if she’d like him to walk her down the aisle. The look on Lynskey’s face just destroys me. She wants to say yes, but has promised the duty to someone else. She wants to cry, but fights to stay strong. She wants to lash out, but acknowledges that it’s a kind gesture. Although this all happens in five seconds, it stays with me much longer.

Win Win (2011)

Cindy

Cindy is a damn tough character to play. We hear a lot about her before we actually see her. We hear of her drug dependency, we hear about how she abandoned her son, we hear any number of negative things, and when we finally meet her, we’re prepared not to like her. When she shows up, it’s clear that she has little interest in reconnecting with her teenage son, and every interest in cashing in on her father’s generous estate.

She’s a woman motivated by greed, clouded by the timid charm Lynskey has long since perfected. What makes this performance such a difficult one is that, by the end, director Tom McCarthy wants you to sympathize with Cindy. He wants you to understand and see it from her side. In lesser hands, that’d be near impossible, but with Lynskey’s remorseful face guiding the way, sympathize do we ever.

Hello I Must Be Going (2012)

Amy

The roles I’ve already discussed in this post make mention of Lynskey’s uncannily ability to steal a scene. Hello I Must Be Going is different. Because Lynskey is the star of this indie gem, she literally carries the movie throughout its duration. Amy is a middle-aged woman down and out by her divorce, living expense-free in the home of her rich parents. She’s the kind of character who eats chips for breakfast, watches TV all day, never removes her sweatpants, refuses to leave the house, and so on. But once a (much) younger man helps her get her groove back, Amy convincingly evolves into a confident woman. Until, of course, she falls down again. Back up. Down. Repeat.

This is a formula we’ve seen plenty of times, but I don’t recall having as much fun with it as I did here. Melanie Lynskey has been acting steadily for nearly 20 years, but damn if Hello I Must Be Going doesn’t feature a true breakthrough performance.

The Best of the Best

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Pauline Parker

Although I am a great admirer of all of Melanie Lynskey’s work, for me, picking her best performance was a no brainer. For her first performance on screen, Lynskey played the real life Pauline Parker with such intensity, that I am still unsettled by it. As Pauline, there’s a blankness to Lynskey’s eyes that is utterly horrifying. And when her blankness is absent, it is replaced by manic joy, which is equally eerie.

In 1950s New Zealand, Pauline forged an obsessive friendship with Juliet Hulme, which resulted in the two of them planning and executing the murder of Pauline’s mother. Now, much like Lynskey’s portrayal of a woman rediscovering life via a younger man in Hello I Must Be Going, the Evil Child role is something we’ve all seen before. The beauty (and profound dread) of Lynskey’s work in Heavenly Creatures is rooted in how deceptive Pauline is. Masked almost unrecognizably by youth (Lynskey was 16 years old when the movie was filmed), the actress plays the doomed Pauline as a young woman with no outs. In her warped world, the only way to keep the dream alive is to do something awful. We shouldn’t want to follow her, but are compelled to all the same.

“It’s a three-act story with a tragic end,” Pauline describes of her desire to commit matricide.

Yeah, you can say that again.

Other Notable Roles

As Aunt Helen in Perks of Being a Wallflower

Detroit Rock City (1999)

Coyote Ugly (2000)

Abandon (2002)

Sweet Home Alabama (2003)

The Shield (2003)

Two and a Half Men (2003-present)

Shattered Glass (2003)

Flags of our Fathers (2006)

Leaves of Grass (2009)

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)