“Memories are just moments that refuse to be ordinary.”
The loss of Diane Keaton last month is still one that’s incredibly hard to process. I’m sure this is the case for many a cinephile. In this day and age, when people are living longer, 79 feels too young to die, especially if that person was Diane Keaton. It’s been incredibly moving to see all the tributes pour in from Keaton’s many collaborators and various celebrity friends, not to mention the non-industry people she met every day and instantly befriended.
What’s also been soothing is reflecting on the body of work Keaton left behind. The actress was a true renaissance woman when it came to her craft, going behind the camera to produce and direct a multitude of projects. Away from the industry, the actress was an acclaimed author, designer, photographer, restorer of old California architecture, and even a successful winemaker. Each project she took on had her unique artistic touch that was fueled by a childlike curiosity Keaton carried with her in every phase of her life.
But it’s the acting that most will associate with Diane Keaton, and rightfully so. Between serving as the female lead of The Godfather series and being Woody Allen’s muse, the 70s were certainly her decade. Winning the Oscar on her first nomination for Annie Hall was a triumph and continues to stand as one of the greatest victories in that category to date. Her work in that film remains one of the most perfect marriages between character and actress.
The acclaim continued for Keaton throughout the 80s and 90s, thanks to a string of winning performances in a variety of films that struck different types of chords with audiences. She was hypnotic as real-life Activist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty’s 1981 epic Reds (for which she was Oscar-nominated), and shared screentime with two of her greatest contemporaries, Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek, in the dark comedy Crimes of the Heart. The actress proceeded to cap off the decade with Baby Boom, a delightful comedy that doubled as a comment on single motherhood in the 1980s. Her first collaboration with Nancy Meyers, Baby Boom, was Keaton’s show and Keaton’s alone, and it only worked because of her.
Reuniting with Meyers for Father of the Bride parts I and II resulted in yet another memorable team-up with an equally great on-screen collaborator, Steve Martin. The role may have been classified as just the wife, but the two box-office hits allowed Keaton to show a softer, more mature side to her persona than past efforts had allowed. Her return to the world of Allen in 1993 with Manhattan Murder Mystery showed one of the great movie partnerships of the 70s picking up right where they left off. She gave what may have been her most devastating turn as a woman struck with leukemia opposite Meryl Streep in the drama Marvin’s Room (again Oscar-nominated) before finding box-office gold at the age of 50 alongside Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in the hilarious statement-making comedy The First Wives Club.
The actress’s brilliant Oscar-nominated turn in the surprise 2003 hit Something’s Gotta Give (her fourth collaboration with Meyers) ensured that Keaton’s leading lady days were nowhere near done, and she continued to find work for the next 20-plus years. But while the quality of her performances hadn’t dipped, the quality of some of her films had. Titles like Mama’s Boy, Smother, and last year’s Summer Camp all felt like a waste of Keaton’s always dependable talents. Meanwhile, projects of promise such as Darling Companion, And So It Goes, and Maybe I Do saw her collaborating with filmmakers like Lawrence Kasdan and Rob Reiner as well as high-caliber costars including Susan Sarandon, Michael Douglas and Richard Gere in a collection of movies that went nowhere. It was a far cry from the glory days of an actress who was once hailed as her generation’s Katherine Hepburn.
But Keaton’s post-Something’s Gotta Give era wasn’t totally full of duds. In fact, there were more than a few highlights for the actress in the last 20 years of her career, all of which successfully played to her strengths and reminded audiences about why they fell in love with Diane to begin with. In honor of a genuine cinematic icon, here are seven outstanding Diane Keaton performances from the past two decades that show how her magic as an actress never diminished.
Mad Money
The casting of Keaton alongside Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes probably seemed like a headscratcher to some, but the three actresses shared some really great chemistry in Thelma & Louise scribe Callie Khouri’s little-seen comedy. Released just before the crash of 2008, Mad Money tells the story of a trio of Federal Reserve employees who decide to make off with a bunch of cash about to be taken out of circulation as a last resort when times get tough. Mad Money is your typical standard comfort comedy, the kind that could exist in any era with any combination of female stars and work just as well. But it’s late 2000s setting does offer up a dose of social commentary, and the laughs are more than present, thanks in large part to Keaton’s comedic prowess.
Hampstead
Keaton enjoyed one of her best latter day movie romances with this 2017 romantic comedy about a woman (Keaton) struggling to move on following her husband’s death some years earlier. One day, she encounters a gruff man (Brendan Gleeson), who has been living in a shack in London’s Hampstead Heath. Again, one wouldn’t think to pair actors as opposite as Keaton and Gleeson together, but the two make a great team, especially in Hampstead‘s latter half, which sees the unconventional pair fall in love. Besides the delight at seeing these two play opposite each other, Hampstead‘s core theme of finding purpose in your life when you feel your best days are behind you provides the kind of inspirational uplift only movies such as these can provide.
Morning Glory
With Morning Glory, Keaton hit paydirt when it came to the character of Colleen, the morning anchor of a morning show stuck in last place. The 2010 comedy starred Rachel McAdams as an up-and-coming TV producer whose newest job is to help revive the dismal ratings of the failing program. With a cast that also includes Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, and Harrison Ford as the gruff, seasoned newsman brought in to host opposite Colleen, Keaton could have easily gotten lost in the shuffle. Yet the actress’s aforementioned legendary knack for comedy wouldn’t have let that happen. Keaton is easily the highlight of Morning Glory, scoring laugh after laugh in every scene. So praised was her performance that more than a few critics thought Keaton more adept at the gig than some of the real-life counterparts she’d modeled the character after.
Finding Dory
Keaton never did much voice work in her estimable career, let alone any family movies. Yet her vocal work in 2016’s mega-successful Finding Dory was as delightful as you would expect it to be. As Jenny, Dory’s mother, Keaton exuded warmth and love in ways only she could. There was a real nurturing quality to the actress’s delivery; a sense that the world outside may be big and scary, but that it was worth exploring as long as you kept on swimming. Jenny’s time in the film isn’t especially long, but she makes enough of an impression for us to get a sense of the kind of supporting, loving world Dory comes from. Incidentally, behind-the-scenes footage of Keaton recording her lines is available to watch on YouTube. Needless to say, watching her genuine commitment to the role is just glorious.
The Young Pope
The teaming up of Keaton and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino sounds more like a cinephile’s random pairing than actual reality. Yet, it did become a reality when the actress took on her only series role with the director’s take on the papacy in 2016’s The Young Pope. Keaton fits into Sorrentino’s world so beautifully as Sister Mary, a nun who helped raise young Lenny Balardo (Jude Law) in an orphanage, only to see him grow up to be elected Pope. Keaton matches the level of satire Sorrentino is going for, and it’s great to see her back in the Italian cinematic backdrop after so many years away. The role was a welcome change of pace for fans of the actress and a reminder of how adept she is at drama, especially in a juicy “power behind the throne” turn like the one she gives here.
5 Flights Up
If ever there was a latter-day turn from Keaton that could be called underrated, it’s her lovely work in this dramedy about a longtime married couple (Keaton and Morgan Freeman) who decide to sell their Brooklyn apartment for a place that’s better suited to their new phase of life. 5 Flights Up is an enriching slice-of-life tale that has two great actors (in their first and only pairing) engaging in some delightful banter from director Richard Loncraine. The film’s themes of reminiscing about the past as the future comes around the corner and finding a renewed sense of vigor and appreciation for the life that’s been built are illustrated so tenderly by Keaton and Freeman’s enchanting chemistry and a pair of subtly poignant performances.
The Family Stone
It’s hard to think of a role that was a better fit for Keaton than that of Sybil, the slightly bohemian matriarch of a family who must contend with things as best she can when her eldest son (Dermot Mulroney) brings his type-A fiancée (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for the holidays. The Family Stone was the perfect role for the actress following her Something’s Gotta Give success. Sybil is open, witty, and in the tradition of a lot of mothers, never shy about speaking her mind. So much of the role has the character telling her children what they need to hear, whether they like it or not, and each of those scenes stands out due to the warmth and empathy Keaton was always so great at. The Family Stone was proclaimed a future Christmas classic when it first came out in 2005, and now 20 years on, it remains just that, thanks in large part to Keaton’s incredible performance.
The connection I’ve always had to Diane Keaton has largely to do with my dad. One of the earliest memories of going to the movies with him was to see Father of the Bride in 1991. It was my introduction to the actress, whom my dad professed to have a crush on. Over the years, he and I saw plenty of her movies together, including Manhattan Murder Mystery, Father of the Bride Part II, The First Wives Club, The Other Sister, Town & Country, Something’s Gotta Give, The Family Stone, and Morning Glory. For a father and son who loved each other but seldom agreed on anything, Diane Keaton was a unifying element; always there and always a delight. She was our special safe place.
In late 2020, my dad and I watched our last Diane Keaton movie together when Francis Ford Coppola released his recut version of The Godfather: Part III, which we both naturally loved. Two and a half years later, my father passed away, also in his late 70s. Late last year, the actress released a holiday single out of nowhere titled “First Christmas,” in which she sang beautifully about what the first Christmas following a loved one’s death feels like. After falling in love with the song, I commented on her official IG page, telling her how much of a fan my dad was and that even though it wasn’t the first Christmas without him, it still felt like the first. She responded with a white heart. Classic Diane Keaton.
