MEAN GIRL SHINES
Julia Roberts unleashes her inner snark on Amazon’s Homecoming,
“Shut your wet little mouth, turn around and go back to your toys.”
That’s the order Heidi (Julia Roberts) barks at her colleague Craig (Alex Karpovsky) when things start to spiral downward at the Homecoming Treatment Support Centre. Allegedly, Heidi is a therapist and the centre is helping veterans transition back to civilian life. But Heidi’s boss, Colin (Bobby Cannavale), has more nefarious plans for his clients. And when Heidi catches on, she doesn’t always behave nobly.
Homecoming (debuting Friday on Amazon Prime Video), based on the fascinating podcast created by Micah Bloomberg and Eli Horowitz, is Roberts’ first foray on the small screen. She used her clout to insist that Bloomberg and Horowitz write, and that Sam Esmail (who created Mr. Robot) direct, every episode. That’s unusual in television but then again, she’s Julia Roberts.
Full disclosure: I interviewed Roberts twice near the beginning of her career and she did not like me — at least in part, I’d wager, because I pointed out the flintiness I felt behind her big smile. It was her brand to be a sweetheart — the desirable one in romantic comedies; the vulnerable one in dramas — but I don’t think it’s her true nature.
I think she’s best when her inner mean girl shines through. When she snarks, “Bite me, Krispy Kreme,” to a colleague in Erin Brockovich. When she snaps, “We did all the things people do when they have sex,” to silence her cuckolded husband (Clive Owen) in Closer. Her imperiousness in Charlie Wilson’s War, her lack of empathy in August: Osage County. Her darker roles are the best of her career and her nastier, more compromised moments lead to her most interesting choices.
In Homecoming, when Heidi smiles, more often than not she’s forcing herself to. That feels real to me — as if Roberts herself does that a lot. One of the series’ themes is how unknown we can be to ourselves; another is how we can’t ever be truly known by another person; and yet another is how often we have to pretend to be nice in order to hide our selfinterest. When Roberts goes to those places, I feel her authen- ticity.
The part of Homecoming that works least well for me is the relationship Heidi develops with an attractive client, Walter, played by rising Canadian star Stephan James ( Race). James is certainly swoonworthy, but I don’t feel chemistry between Roberts and him. I think she’s best when she plays off actors who are as steely (and somewhat selfregarding) as she is: Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, George Clooney in the Oceans films.
In this, her real chemistry is with Cannavale (who’s made a career of playing ungentlemanly types) and with Sissy Spacek, who plays Heidi’s mother (their characters’ mutual exasperation is a treat).
To be clear, none of this is a dis to Roberts. She is a star for a reason; however you feel about her, you can’t not watch her. But I hope she keeps pushing against her edges and showing us the frays.
I hope that she goes, as the series says, “as close to her real self as you can be in front of another person.”
I want her to play Frances McDormand’s roles or Tilda Swinton’s. We’ve seen the sweetheart. Let’s see more of the whole woman.
Johanna Schneller is a Toronto-based pop culture writer and a freelance contributor for the Star. Outside the Box is a weekly column about television’s impact on culture. Follow her on Twitter: @JoSchneller