Evan Rachel Wood Goes Retro

But not in the way you think.

So we finished Mildred Pierce the the other night. We phrase it that way (rather than saying, "We watched the end of ...") because it truly felt like work to get through it. In fact, the further we get away from it the more we get a little annoyed that we invested the time in it. A bare-bones story scraped out over 6+ hours when it could have been told in less than two. An extremely mannered performance on the part of Kate Winslet; so much so that every time she furrowed her brow or walked mechanically through a scene, we kept wondering what the point to her kabuki was. It throws all naturalism right out the window, which would have been fine if the production was stylized in some way. It wasn't. It was a long, slow slog of Mildred looking out windows or walking down hallways endlessly. We had high hopes that the story would kick into gear when ERW entered it, but she met Kate's weirdly mannered performance with one of her own. Put the two of them together and it looked (and sounded) like a little girl playing with two dolls. The only reason to watch it is for Melissa Leo's warm, crackling performance and for the few scenes where Mare Winningham gets to lose herself in the role of '30s wisecracking waitress. Other than that, there's no point to it. It's over 6 hours of woman-shaming story; a return to the days when audiences expect to see a female character punished for ambition or sexuality. To be perfectly blunt, we have no idea why anyone made the attempt. It's far too dated a story to be told in a straightforward manner and the book it's based on is no great work of literature. It would have been long forgotten if it hadn't been made into a memorable (and we'll say it: superior) motion picture. We were going to write up a review, but the above is all we have to say about it. We were excited for months about this mini-series; struggled mightily to like it for the first 4 hours and somewhere halfway through hour 5, we threw in the towel. We hated it.

Ahh, whatevs. Let's look at dresses.

Evan Rachel Wood attends the New York Premiere of "The Conspirator" in Gucci.

Gucci Fall 2011 Collection
Model: Zuzanna Bijoch

J'ADORE. We don't love the hair, but everything from the forehead down looks fantastic. When you hear her name and the word "retro," a certain '40s/'50s-inspired burlesque-y vibe comes to mind. It's nice to see she can do other decades as well. Here, it's 1979 and Evan's out for a night on the town after a day in the office. We wish the medallion around her neck had more oomph to it, but that and the hair are the only minor complaints. Love the voluminous sleeves and the kickass boots.

Evan Rachel Wood attends the Washington, DC premiere
of "The Conspirator" in Jill Stuart.

Jill Stuart Fall 2011 Collection
Model: Sui He

It's 1982 and morning in America! The after-work parties are over and Evan got a promotion, which has her tumbling out of bed and stumbling to the kitchen to pour herself a cup of ambition every morning. She is what they like to call "put together" here. Everything just so without looking too just so, if that makes any sense. Love the shoes. Sure, it's a little secretarial, but it's got a wit to it that prevents it from being literal. We like that she can show up to two events mere days apart, looking so radically different. Girl's got some style chops to her, it seems.


[Photo Credit: getty, wireimage, style.com]


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Labels: Evan Rachel Wood, Fashion, Gucci, Jill Stuart, Red Carpet