Mommie, peerless

Domestic goddess: Joan Allen, pictured in Yes, has mastered maternal portrayals. Photo by Aleksei Rodionov
DON'T CALL IT typecasting. Sure, this year's Peter J. Owens Award recipient often plays mothers, but Joan Allen is no Donna Reed. A Tony Award-winning Broadway veteran, Allen is an elegant blond who could have landed gigs with Hitchcock if she'd been born a generation earlier. She has a tremendous acting range, as the diversity of her nondomestic roles attests: a blind woman who unknowingly befriends a serial killer (Manhunter); a senator whose chance to be vice president is jeopardized by D.C. dirt-diggers (The Contender); a sinister, ever so campy medieval priestess (the made-for-TV Mists of Avalon); and a tightly wound government operative who goes Matt Damon hunting in The Bourne Supremacy.

Allen's festival appearance – she'll be interviewed onstage by director Sally Potter – is followed by a screening of Potter's Yes, which stars Allen as "She," a married scientist who embarks on a continent-spanning affair with "He," a surgeon turned cook. While it's good to see Allen dipping into artier fare, her maternal instincts remain razor sharp, as anyone who saw this year's The Upside of Anger can attest. Allen's performance as a boozing, bitter, suddenly single mother of four daughters was searing enough to incite early-season Oscar talk. (She also made an impression in the recent Off the Map, as a hippie mom who gardens in the buff.) But if Anger represents the most deliciously showy stop on Allen's mommy track, these highlights also deserve a second look. Admit it, you totally forgot she was in Face/Off, didn't you?

Mad Love (1995) Allen plays the mother of high schooler Drew Barrymore, whose extended road trip with boyfriend Chris O'Donnell screeches to a halt when Drew's giggly, free-spirited nature peels back to reveal the mental patient within. In her brief screen time, Allen convincingly worries. Side note: this Seattle-set film is eclipsed only by Singles in its attempt to capitalize on the city's "grunge" zeitgeist.

Nixon (1995) Allen got her first Oscar nom – Best Supporting Actress – for playing First Lady Pat Nixon (mom to Tricia and Julie) in Oliver Stone's Tricky Dick biopic. Injustice was later served when she lost to Mighty Aphrodite's Mira Sorvino.

The Crucible (1996) The cast of this Arthur Miller adaptation included Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder (a former Peter J. Owens Award recipient herself), but only Allen – as Elizabeth Proctor, who was minding her own wife-and-mother business until witch fever gripped Salem – got the nod from Oscar (she lost to The English Patient's Juliette Binoche).

The Ice Storm (1997) Long before his Hulk debacle, Ang Lee directed this tale of 1970s suburban discord, which offered meaty roles for both kid (a pre-Dawson's Creek Katie Holmes among them) and adult characters. Allen parents Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci when she's not shoplifting or being wife-swapped.

Face/Off (1997) OK, I forgot Allen was in this too. Her daughter is Dominique "Lolita" Swain; her husband is good guy John Travolta until he switches faces with bad guy Nicolas Cage.

Pleasantville (1998) In this comic fantasy, a 1950s sitcom is infiltrated by a pair of 1990s teens who are suddenly zapped into its black-and-white world. Allen's timid housewife learns to show her true colors, literally, but not before applying gray makeup so she'll blend in with the other townsfolk. Maguire plays her son (again).

The Notebook (2004) In a small but pivotal role, Allen plays a rich-bitch Southern belle who tears asunder her teen daughter's summer romance with a working-class fella. A scene late in the film where Allen's character recalls her own doomed first love is more genuinely felt than many of the film's other, more overtly tear-jerking moments.

Cheryl Eddy

'An Evening with Joan Allen,' including an interview and a screening of Yes, takes place April 29, 7:30 p.m., Castro.