Maybe there's a sliver of truth in all those "Oscar curse" theories after all.
Six years ago, Renee Zellweger took home a best supporting actress Academy Award for "Cold Mountain," in which she gave a memorably feisty performance as the tough farmwoman who teaches Civil War survival skills to lady of the manor Nicole Kidman.
Since then, Zellweger has stayed busy, but her fans have stayed home. Even such seemingly sure-fire projects as "Cinderella Man" (with Russell Crowe) and "Leatherheads" (with George Clooney) underperformed, and two of her best-reviewed vehicles, "Miss Potter" and "My One and Only," barely got released at all.
Then there was "Case 39," which is quietly slipping into theaters three years after it was shot (the film bears a 2007 copyright date). Any mystery as to why it's been on the shelf for so long will be quickly cleared up once you see this woebegone would-be thriller, which generates far more chuckles than chills.
Sporting a blonde ponytail and a shapeless white blouse that oozes out from beneath her sweater vest, Zellweger brings a pained earnestness to the role of Emily Jenkins, a social worker with a heart of gold and a desk full of heartaches. "I'm buried here!" she wails as her boss (Adrian Lester) tosses one more file at her; she has 38 active cases, but our Em can't turn away from the sad story of little Lily Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland), whose mean mom and dad seem to be trying to do her in.
"This little girl heard her parents say they were gonna send her to Hell," Emily huffs. She sneaks around the Sullivan house and notices the parents have a Bible in their bedroom and a crucifix on the wall; that's horror movie shorthand that Emily must be in Nuttyville.
When the Sullivans (Callum Keith Rennie and Kerry O'Malley) do a full-on Hansel and Gretel, forcing Lily into an oven and trying to bake her to a crisp, the patented Zellweger Death Squint goes into full effect. Not only does Emily rescue Lily, she petitions the court to let her keep the child until a foster family can be found.
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