While David Cronenberg’s Maps To The Stars polarized critics during its festival run, the performance of its leading lady cannot be denied. As a washed-up actress desperate to regain the fame she once had, Julianne Moore went above and beyond. In a role that other actresses might have deemed alienating, or just too provocative, she shone – like a star (ahem) – in one of her finest performances in recent years. She even snagged the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Maps To The Stars picks up the story of Moore’s older thespian in the process of signing on to star in a remake of a film made famous by her mother. Inevitably, that’s cause for concern – what if she flails in the role her mother excelled in? To assuage her fears, she enlists a personal assistant (Mia Wasikowska) and then… well, everything goes nuts.
The fading starlet shows no sign of slowing down her eager return to the spotlight in this latest clip. Receiving a massage from her personal masseuse (John Cusack) she wanders into a daytime reverie, invoked by their rather suggestive patter.
Check it out below, along with the plot summary, and let us know if you’re looking forward to Maps To The Stars in the comments section.
With this tale of a secret-filled Hollywood family on the verge of implosion, award-winning director David Cronenberg forges both a wicked social satire and a very human ghost story from our celebrity-obsessed culture. From a screenplay by acclaimed author, screenwriter and West Coast chronicler Bruce Wagner, and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams and Sarah Gadon, MAPS TO THE STARS tours the seductive allure and the tender, darkly comic underbelly of contemporary success.