Her? - Isabelle Huppert and 'Elle'

You don't come to actress Isabelle Huppert's films expecting warmth. And she doesn't fail to deliver her own signature brand of ice-cold stares, chilly conversations, and an almost bored looking sense of dismissal in Elle, the latest film by provocateur director Paul Verhoeven.

Huppert has played shades of this type of role before: the brutal, desperate title character in The Piano Teacher, and the off-kilter, incestuous widow in Ma Mere; she almost begs you to try and like her heroines while simultaneously not caring one bit if you don't.

The oddness of the role of Michele, the titular character in Elle, is the universal praise the role is getting this award season. She has played remote, damaged women before in film, with the usual critical darling praise, but now her hard work is finally showing in the big leagues of American mainstream award recognition, in spots usually saved for Natalie Portman and Jennifer Lawrence.

Huppert won the Golden Globe award last month for Best Actress for this role, and now has an Oscar nomination (her first) for the same. Winning the Golden Globe was the only time I've ever seen Huppert onscreen seem happy, smiley, and sweet.

So, the main question: Is she deserving of the award? Simple answer: Yes. Is the movie any good? Complex answer: Kind of. Verhoeven is known for his black humor, wink-wink naughty side (Showgirls, Basic Instinct) and his political satire/shoot-em-up action side (Robocop, Starship Troopers). This movie might oddly fall somewhere in between, a crime thriller with some gratuitous titillation.

I don't want to reveal a lot of the plot because it all seems to be spoiler-centric, but Huppert's Michele plays a wealthy video game company CEO who is raped/attacked in a home invasion. She's trying to find out the identity of the attacker, and seek revenge, through her own means. Verhoeven tends to overlay his movies with too many characters and subplots, and red herring, go-nowhere twists. Elle is no exception.

Verhoeven also loves his non sequiturs and over-the-top, deliciously crass dialogue. Though not a rip-roaring, quotefest like Showgirls, I caught myself rolling my eyes more than once through the film and the silly and trashy lines that pepper the film.

Is Huppert's performance award-winning? Let's just say (or pretend, rather) that the Golden Globe win and Oscar nom are for her entire multi-decade career of playing sullen, remote, troubled women and not just for Michele in Elle. Let's add Erika in The Piano Teacher, Augustine in 8 Women, Anne in Time of the Wolf, Maria in White Material. She plays 'fractured' like no one else.