Julia Stiles became star thanks to light-hearted teen films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance. Path to her stardom was, however, set by earlier, much darker and riskier role in Wicked, 1998 thriller directed by Michael Sternberg. In the film Stiles plays Ellie Christianson, 14-year old girl who lives with her parents in affluent neighbourhood, more or less isolated from the rest of the world. She feels constrained and the only reason why she hasn’t run away from home is her deep devotion to father Ben (played by William R. Moses). Her mother Karen (played by Chelsea Field) cheats Ben with virile neighbour Lawson Smith (played by Patrick Muldoon) and contemplates leaving home and taking Ellie and her four years younger sister Inger (played by Vera Zima) away. Before she does it, someone murders her. Ellie uses that as an opportunity to become head of the household and takes all of her mother’s duties, which, according to her, includes even sharing bed with her widowed father. Ben, who is having affair with governess Lena Anderson (played by Louise Myrback), is horrified with idea, but this isn’t his only problem. Police detective Boland (played by Ray Parks) is convinced that Karen’s murder isn’t the work of burglar or random stranger and begins to investigate her family members.
Wicked is a film that could bring both pleasant and unpleasant surprises to the audience. The former include morbidly unusual plot, eccentric characters that would be too much even for films of David Lynch and scriptwriter Eric Weiss bravely tackling motives of incest and underage sex. Unpleasant surprises come in the form of awfully predictable plot resolution and irritating musical score by Cliff Martinez. Julia Stiles is brilliant in the demanding role of villainous teenager, while veteran character actor Michael Parks bring a breath of fresh air as cynical detective. Their efforts, however, aren’t enough to generally improve impression of this film. Critics at Sundance Film Festival, however, thought otherwise and Stiles later won Best Actress Award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film nevertheless failed to get theatrical distribution and, following disputes over final cut and Martinez’s score, was released direct-to-video three years later. That might have been blessing in disguise for Stiles. If Wicked had reached theatres, her risky and unpleasant role might have resulted in typecasting or too much career-wrecking controversy, like in the case of Dominique Swain with Lolita. This way, Stiles, unlike many promising actresses, was allowed to continue career unburdened by her early and, to a degree, justifiably obscure film.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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