Meryl Streep · 1979 · Signature Roles
Jill is Woody Allen’s ex-wife in Manhattan, and she appears in only a few scenes.
Jill is Woody Allen’s ex-wife in Manhattan, and she appears in only a few scenes. Meryl Streep makes each one count. Jill is writing a tell-all book about their marriage, she is raising their son, and she delivers her lines with a dry, amused clarity that punctures every self-pitying speech around her.
Streep’s gift for comedy is often overshadowed by her dramatic reputation, but Manhattan is a reminder: her timing is exact, her reactions are funnier than most actors’ lines, and she never plays for laughs at a character’s expense. Jill is not a caricature of an ex-wife. She is a woman who has moved on, and who finds her former husband’s angst faintly ridiculous.
It is a small role, and a perfect one — proof that Streep could dominate a film without carrying it.