In a cinema culture that both worships and exploits female youth, few monsters engender more fear than the inconveniently visible older woman. From What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? through The Substance, nothing scares the patriarchy like ladies of a certain age who refuse to fade away. But even among them, Aunt Gladys stands defiantly apart.
Sure, her garish getup may have inspired more Halloween costumes than anyone since the Babadook. But Gladys likes the way she looks. She knows she’s rockin’ those bangs. People talk about her outfits? Well, they should. They say her makeup makes her look like a clown? Hey, who’s laughing now, sweetie? And making her real, while keeping her really terrifying, goes to the heart of Amy Madigan’s genius as an actress.
Diving deep into who a person really is, without getting distracted by how others see her, has been, is how Madigan has built a career of fully lived-in, completely singular characters. (For just an idea of how wide those performances range, this year Madigan gave us not only Weapons but Rebuilding, in which she plays the stoic matriarch of a red-white-and-blue American family.) She does it again here.
Gladys is, inarguably, the villain of this piece; she’s a kidnapper and a murderer, not to mention some sort of magical vampire. But few villains ever think they’re villains, and Madigan gives Gladys both cold confidence and a completely rational justification. After all, she’s not doing this to stay young; she’s doing this to stay alive. It’s simply self-preservation.
Weapons requires a tricky performance from Madigan; she’s simultaneously playing a role and playing a character who’s playing a role — the eccentric but apparently harmless visitor who swears she wouldn’t think of causing any trouble. A living hall of mirrors, she’s a deceiver whose lies have to be apparent to the audience, while still plausibly fooling her victims. It’s a multilayered bit of work, but Madigan expertly holds it all together. Right up until the moment that Gladys, herself, literally comes apart.