A typical Winona Ryder film?

[the.looking.glass]

What do you think is a typical Winona Ryder film?

Do you think she has any trademarks?

I've noted that her character always wears dark, earthy colours (black, brown, navy, dark green, red) and that her characters frequently write letters, in journals or for as a profession.

[Gary]

She's done a number of "period" movies - like Little Women, Age Of Innocence, The Crucible, even Dracula can be considered one. Other than that I have a hard time thinking of a typical kind of film. She's done a pretty wide variety of genres.

[Waltzed Wryter]

I would say Ms. Ryder has no one typical role. The only thing close would be that romantic writer in a period dress. Now, how about that type of character being linked by another modern day descendant character (same Winona, nearly different everything, of course) in a period/modern day romantic dramedy titled "Of Time and Space" or something other. As the story proceeds they both communicate through a magical journal belonging to one of Shakespeare's mistresses (I don't know, it just came to me) and they learn things from one another with their current relationships and then they finally meet each other briefly at a temporary portal in the end.

hmm...well, you know...some things have a way of staying...

[Don]

I'd say her typical film is quirky off-beat and different. She hasn't done very much main stream stuff.

Many of her early characters were people who didn't fit in, or at least weren't comfortable with regular society. Veronica from Heathers killed off her high school clique, Lydia (Beetlejuice) was a goth, Dinky (Welcome Home Roxy Carmicheal) was friends with animals and dreaming of escape, Charlotte (Mermaids) was a Jewish girl who wanted to be a Catholic nun and Susannah (Girl, Interrupted) fled to the nut house.

May (The Age of Innocence), on the other hand, was very much a part of, if not trapped by her society. Michelle Pffeifer's character, Countess Olenska ?  was the outcast, with Daniel Day Lewis oscillating between the two.

Before 2000 a lot of her characters were teenage angst, coming of age type roles. When she became too old to play that kind of thing, she looked for new roles. She tried the romantic comedy thing with Richard Gere in 'Autumn in New York', but it didn't really work for her. She's continued to do a lot of comedy since 2000. 'Mr Deeds' was a mainstream Adam Sandler flick, while 'The Ten' was very un-mainstream and more typical. Recently she is heading back towards drama with 'The Last Word'.

If you had to take one film it would be 'Girl Interrupted.' It is one of her best, and she worked hard to get it made. It was also an important film for Angelina Jolie, who won a best supporting actrees Oscar for it. Winona's fans think she should have won an Oscar too.

You might also look at Beetlejuice or Heathers as an example of one of her comedy roles. Girl Interrupted is definitely drama.

If you are looking for a recent film then 'Sex and Death 101' makes an interesting contrast to 'Heathers'. They both have the same people behind them and are about similar themes.

The bottom line is that she has had a long and complex career.

[Don]

She might be good playing a spy....somebody who has to pretend to be different people at the same time.