There’s something about the anxious angel of the '80s, Winona

28 August 2016 - 02:00 By REBECCA DAVIS

Rebecca Davis is thrilled that Winona Ryder, the wide-eyed elf of the ’80s, is back on tellyRemember Winona Ryder? Elfin-faced actress of the late '80s and '90s? Girl, Interrupted? Engaged to Johnny Depp before he started klapping women? OK, fine, yes: also the mega-rich celebrity caught on CCTV cameras shoplifting $6,000 worth of accessories from Saks Fifth Avenue in 2000.But guys, we don't talk about that any more. Winona has paid her dues. She's stayed out of the public eye for over a decade - probably not entirely by choice. She went away and explored her burning interest in constitutional law, linguistics and etymology. (For real.) She spent six days living up a tree because some guru told her to. Now she's back - and I couldn't be happier.The vehicle in which Ryder is travelling back to mainstream audiences is new Netflix series Stranger Things, set in the '80s. It's a piece of casting so knowing and cute that it almost makes your teeth ache: who better to star in a 1980s period piece than 1980s manic-pixie-dreamgirl Ryder?But if you're expecting to see Ryder in the form in which you left her, it's worth remembering that the pixie is not 17 any more - the age at which she had her breakout role in cult classic Heathers. She's now 44.Though largely physically untransformed, give or take a few facial lines, her age means one thing and one thing only in Hollywood logic. She now has to play a mom.It's kinda surreal to think of Winona Ryder playing a mother, but like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives. Don't worry, though: we're not talking some Stepford Wives-type character.The role that she takes on in Stranger Things is Ryder at peak agitation, doing the hyper-nervous shtick she mastered so well during her film career.Here she has good reason to be anxious. Ryder's character has a son who has suddenly vanished from small-town America in mysterious circumstances. We have reason to believe that a sinister Department of Energy headquarters nearby may be involved. Those okes are definitely up to no good. They make Eskom's top brass look like the Twelve Apostles.Stranger Things does an excellent job of racking up genuine suspense. I have concerns about shows built around one central mystery, however. It's what I like to term Lost Syndrome, in reference to the 2000s show which carried everyone along for six seasons, panting for answers which could only ever disappoint.In a way, though, the mere existence of the series has already answered one of the greatest riddles out there: can Winona Ryder convincingly play an adult woman living in the world? Yes, yes she can. Winona, all grown up: stranger things have happened...

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