Rooney Mara is the Marion Cotillard of late September: previously not very well-known, suddenly all over the radar. And both have fancy names.
But we really must set nomenclature aside and focus on Mara’s potential casting in Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy. Why? It’s great news, that’s why. Rooney Mara is a trooper. Oldboy is an ambitious project. Spike Lee is…well, you know how Spike Lee is. And Josh Brolin to star, with a probable Christian Bale to play the villain? When will the great news end?! …There, I guess. That’s it. Still, good volley.
Mara has been working her way up to notoriety with starring and supporting roles in smaller films like Dare, The Winning Season, Friends (with Benefits) (not the one you saw; there are actually a ton of things with that title), and Tanner Hall. She upped the ante a smidge with films like Youth in Revolt and A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, her true breakout role was in The Social Network, which, despite only being largely a one-scene character, involved about four thousand lines of dialogue. And her performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo promises nothing but exponential glory.
So we can root for her involvement in Oldboy: the story of a man (Brolin) who is kidnapped and held captive for fifteen years for no apparent reason; once released, the man has a limited time to find, understand the motives of, and ultimately take revenge on his captor (Bale, we hope). Mara’s potential part is that of the female lead, presumably the man’s daughter (who plays a large role in the story). The film is an adaptation of a 2003 South Korean movie written and directed by Chan-Wook Park.
