Before she was Mrs. Tom Cruise, when Dawson’s Creek was her place of residence, Katie Holmes was still a total sweetheart. Her “aw-shucks” demeanor and girl-next-door good looks were a charming point of contrast to so many synthetically-enhanced Hollywood beauties, and she’s managed to deliver a couple of arresting performances in films like Doug Liman’s “Go,” “Pieces of April” and the magnificent “Wonder Boys.” So when one thinks of Holmes, one does not think of a homicidal homebody bent on revenge while wearing Sunday school clothes. Yet that’s exactly what the trailer for “Miss Meadows,” the offbeat new film from Karen Leigh Hopkins (“Because I Said So”) delivers. So… if you really wanted to see Katie Holmes slipping into “Dirty Harry” mode… you’re in luck.
The trailer opts for a wobbly, morally neutral tone: we open on a distractingly cartoonish pastiche of suburban Americana, with Holmes’ namesake character as our tour guide. A perpetually cheery schoolteacher, clad in floral print dresses and spouting platitudes. When a grizzled creep seemingly rolls up on her (presumably from another dirtier, smellier town nearby), she wastes little time in brandishing a hand cannon from her purse and blasting the dude away. Things get bloodier and weirder from here on out and at this point, the tone veers from the acrid black comedy of something like John Waters’ films to something downright horrific. It’s difficult to know what kind of a film this will be from the trailer, but it’s safe to say Holmes has never quite inhabited a role like this before. Truthfully, we’re not sure what to make of this brazen, unholy marriage of white picket fences and high-grade artillery but the results are… something. Check out for yourself in the trailer below:
Entertainment One will give "Miss Meadows" a limited domestic release on November 14th. [First Showing]
