I was thinking recently that there seems to be a pattern over Sarah
Polley's career of getting pummeled in her movies. It seems like her
characters are always getting subjected to physical harm. I know
that this is pretty standard for the drama genre but a purusal of her
roles over the years shows she's taken more abuse than Jackie Chan.
She's been subjected to terminal diseases, car accidents that left
her hurled in a ditch, bus crashes that left her paralyzed, plane
crashes, been shot a couple of times, undergone horrific surgeries
straight out of a David Croninberg movie, been a survivor of war
crimes and a not-so-much survivor of flesh eating zombies. It is
also worth noting that the roles she has famously turned down like
Julia Stiles in 'Bourne Identity' and Kate Hudson in 'Almost Famous'
never had so much as a harsh word hurled at them(maybe that's why she
didn't take them) and since her next role in 'Splice' is as a
scientist monkeying with nature and playing god by creating a hideous
monster it does not look like her prospects are looking much better.
It just made me wonder did a casting agent somewhere down the line
decide that one of her strengths as an actress was being subjected to
awful harm or does she choose these roles because she is a
masochist? I can't remember the last time a Sandra Bullock or Reese
Witherspoon even broke a nail on screen. And seriously it's like 3
out of every 4 movies where this happens to her. At least she got to
dish out some whoopings for a change in 'Weight of Water' and 'Dawn
of the Dead'. Just an observation. It would be nice to see her in a
role where she lives happily with a soft puppy dog and the sun is
shining and she wins the lottery or something. Give the poor gal a
break.