I'm old enough to remember a time when Elle Fanning was just Dakota Fanning's adorable little sister. I think we may have arrived at a time when Dakota is known as Elle's sister. Elle has done some other really good work. But she really comes into her own, and I mean into her own, with The Great. This superbly written comedy based very loosely and hilariously on the life of Catherine the Great has Elle playing her as a young woman/girl who first comes from Germany to find herself the wife of Russian Czar Peter, played with gut laughing vacuity and yet, oddly charm, by Nicholas Hoult. Catherine is a bright and well educated woman who is faced with a Russian court that is, well, neither. And from there the comedy ensues. And, while the entire cast is brilliant, the show hinges on Elle Fanning's ability to be funny. And does she ever deliver. Her timing and her performance are note perfect. I've seen her handle drama extremely well. But comedy is a different animal. It is actually very hard for an attractive person to be funny because they're just not funny to look at and we have a weird tendency to take attractive people seriously. And Elle Fanning has grown to be a very beautiful young woman. It seems odd and unfair to say that a beautiful person has anything to overcome but, when it comes to playing comedy, they really do. Comedy, to do it well, as any actor would tell you, is actually very difficult. It requires timing and pathos and just the right balance between energy and constraint. And Elle Fanning, at this young age, shows herself to be a master at it. The show itself is brilliant. Fall off your seat funny. Not titter funny but legitimately hilarious. You'd be a fool not to watch it. Or a member of the show's version of the Russian court.
Review of The Great
