Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren plays Cara Dutton in 1923 and Maeve Harrigan in MobLand. Her career spans the Royal Shakespeare Company, major film roles and television work including Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. She won the Academy Award for playing Elizabeth II in The Queen and returned to the role on stage in The Audience.

Cara is an excellent use of her precision. Mirren can make a sentence sound hospitable or final with a very small change in delivery. She gives the household a practical authority that does not depend on matching Jacob's volume or manner.

I enjoy the history she and Harrison Ford suggest together. The affection is there, but so is the knowledge of exactly how the other person can be difficult. It makes the marriage feel occupied rather than posed for a grand family portrait.

Cara's concern for the people around her is also what makes her resolve persuasive. Mirren leaves room for both, instead of treating warmth and strength as separate settings. She is central to why 1923 works as family drama as well as a large-scale Western.