the many faces of Meryl Streep

So I might be the first one to say this but I will go out on that limb… Meryl Streep is an incredible actress. While this statement is almost to the point of cliché, she comes out time and time again and proves it. This summer she has two movies in which she stars and plays two characters that are polar opposites.
In A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, the new film from film legend Robert Altman, Streep plays Yolanda Johnson, a folk singer who, along with her sister, performs on a local radio show. She is sweet, caring, a little silly and eccentric and is able to showcase a talent for singing. The banter between her and her sister (played by Lily Tomlin) is rapid fire and feels real and as natural as can be. I know that Garrison Keillor wrote the script, but you could never tell with the way that these two bounce the dialogue off each other. In an instance, you can feel the history between the two.
The relationship with her daughter (played by Lindsay Lohan) is the other side of her character. While Yolanda tries and tries to understand her daughter to no avail, there is never any doubt of the love she has for her. Meryl is as sweet as sweet can be in A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, but is never over the top. It is a joy to just sit back and have her around, even if it is for a brief two hours.

In THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, Streep plays Miranda Priestly, the editor of a Vogue-like magazine. Miranda is as close as you can get to the devil incarnate. As Andy (Anne Hathaway) gets the job as Miranda’s second assistant, we see just how horrible a person can be. She is career driven and treats everyone around her as garbage or even worse. She is pure evil.
The other side that Streep brings to Miranda is a reluctant vulnerable side that she refuses to let anyone see. If she ever did, it might compromise her position of power. Despite her actions and by the fact that everything she does is evil, we manage to develop a caring for her throughout the film and at times understand her or feel a little sorry for her. This is entirely a credit to the wonderful performance of Streep.
She can play anything and we all know that, but this summer is a perfect example of that. Released a month apart, Meryl Streep plays pure kindness in one film then pure evil in another and manages to make them both real and engaging. Yeah… she’s not that bad.