Internet Movie Database
January 3, 2003
Movie of the Day : Romeo is Bleeding
Lena Olin burst into the American movie consciousness wearing a bowler hat, a sexy smile and not much else in 1988's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. She was the epitome of European sensuality and beauty, and she radiated that same earthy sexuality through her next two American films, the acclaimed Enemies: A Love Story (for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination) and the handsome flop, Havana, in which she re-enacted Casablanca in Cuba with Robert Redford. Who knew, though, that the Swedish actress who trained with Ingmar Bergman on the stage -- and who was considered a contemporary Ingrid Bergman -- would emerge as one of the most memorable and deadly femme fatales in recent memory? Romeo Is Bleeding is a dark, mean little movie about a corrupt New York cop (Gary Oldman, back when he was still sexy) who tangles with Mona Demarkov (Olin), a vicious Russian assassin who would give the Terminator a run for his money. Ruthless as hell, Mona won't let handcuffs, bullets, or amputated body parts stand in the way of her freedom; she's like Double Indemnity's Phyllis Dietrichson outfitted with an arsenal and skimpy underwear. Olin gleefully laughs her way through the movie -- Mona is a deeply perverse sadist above all -- which culminates in a phenomenal action scene involving the two leads, a car, a pair of handcuffs, and the most lethal of weapons: Olin's lovely legs. Romeo Is Bleeding wasn't a big hit, but it forever changed Hollywood's perception of the Swedish beauty, who married Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom the year after Romeo came out and kept a low profile throughout the '90s. Now, however, you can catch Olin as an older and wiser but no less deadly version of Mona in the hit TV show Alias, where she plays the KGB-trained mother of heroine Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) and continues to radiate the lethal power that Romeo Is Bleeding first unleashed.
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