Sofía Vergara in ‘Griselda’.Photo:Netflix
Netflix
Sofía Vergara, as beautifully exotic as a bird of paradise, was an invaluable — and very funny — member of ABC’sModern Familyensemble for 11 seasons.
Now, in the Netflix limited seriesGriselda,she plays notorious drug lordGriselda Blanco— a role that puts her front and center in a major dramatic vehicle. There’s no ensemble here, just Vergara and a disposable bunch of minions and victims. She’s terrific.
Vergara wears a prosthetic nose that gives her a vaguely leonine look, but she doesn’t resemblethe real Griselda, who built up and ran a Miami-based cartel in the 1970s and 1980s and was killed in her native Colombia in 2012. (Judging from photographs, the real Griselda had a tough, vivid garishness that might have served her well as the heroine of a John Waters movie.)
At odd moments, instead, Vergara suggestsLuann de LessepsfromThe Real Housewives of New York City.
Vergara’s performance is an irresistible star turn that never sacrifices an almost- retro sense of glamour, no matter how many hit jobs Griselda orders. Using a cigarette as an elegant prop, Vergara could be in an old black-and-white Hollywood production. You can imagine her standing on a balcony, half listening to a cocktail being shaken in the room behind her while a band plays a rumba below.
Vergara, as Griselda, doesn’t beat around the bush.Courtesy of Netflix
Courtesy of Netflix
Griseldais essentially a romantic fantasy with cocaine and corpses —Scarfacewithout the scars.
Of the supporting players, Alberto Guerra, as a hitman who becomes Griselda’s husband, and Martín Rodríguez, as one of her henchman, come closest to making some sort of dramatic impression, but they have a way of sidling out of view and vanishing into the shadows, like well-trained butlers. Everyone here serves to showcase Vergara.
And why not? Her sexual physicality is magnetic and seductive — and unflagging across six episodes.
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Griseldais now streaming on Netflix.
source: people.com
