A truly great performance is difficult to achieve. The television is rife with fascinating characters, imaginary people strengthened by smart writing, excellent costume design, and narrative tricks designed to make us fall in love with them. However, exceptional performances have always demanded more. In order to create a performance that is more than the sum of its brilliant parts, they require their performers to go above and beyond what is written on the paper or on the screen. In the final season of Ozark, no performer demonstrated this excellence better than Julia Garner.
As soon as Ruth Langmore appeared on film, she was a formidable force. What was not to love in a little, deadly young woman who could confidently deliver the statement “I don’t know s*** about fuck”? But as Ozark matured as a television series, so did Garner’s portrayal of Ruth.
Ruth’s underlying concerns were revealed in Season 2 courtesy to Cade Langmore (Trevor Long), the demanding father whose favor she could never attain. The third season provided a silver lining for our feisty money launderer. Ben (Tom Pelphrey) wore down her strong façade, and as Ruth fell in love, we saw a softer side of this obstinate woman. Garner gracefully represented these dramatic character alterations. Ruth was always recognizable, even when she was at her most naive or neurotic. However, it was only because of Ruth’s sadness that Garner was able to offer a performance that was a notch beyond this show’s excellence.
Ruth’s (Charlie Tahan) grief over Wyatt’s (Charlie Tahan) passing was not only believable. It seemed almost divine in the ancient Greek sense of the word. It was an unavoidable statement of mutual annihilation, comparable to the roar heard at the start of an avalanche. Ruth’s muscles shook as she screamed in Marty’s (Jason Bateman) face at the conclusion of “Sanctified,” “If you want to stop me, you’re going to have to f***ing murder me!” This is not only one of the top performances of the year, but also one of the best screamed lines of all time.
Ruth and Garner did not stop there, though. Throughout “The Cousin of Death,” Ruth wallowed, aimlessly wandering the streets of Chicago in a desperate attempt to kill the guy who had murdered her cousin. It was an episode that could easily have been characterized by rage or grief, two emotions that this character and actor are familiar with. Instead, Garner imbued Ruth’s hunt with the considerably more elusive boredom. Ruth was characterized by apathy even as she squeezed the trigger that would terminate Javi’s (Alfonso Herrera) and her own lives. Ruth, who was no longer tied to life in any meaningful manner, could not appear to comprehend why she had to kill Javi. However, she had to do it.
Ruth only becomes herself again in the final moments of Ozark, which is an excellent choice for such a horrific drama. In “A Hard Way to Go,” the Byrdes give up and sell Ruth for the safety of their family. In the episodes before this conclusion, Ruth was a shell of her former self, agreeing half-heartedly to outlandish schemes and prone to spasms of nostalgia. However, as Camila (Verónica Falcón) raised her gun to take one more life, the Ruth we fell in love with reemerged. Her last words? “Well? “Are you going to f***ing do this or what?” Ruth, foul-mouthed as ever, greeted death as an old friend in her final moments. Isn’t that magnificent?
Obviously, Garner’s great performance was never isolated. Ruth would not have felt so dynamic if she had not been in continual contrast to Jason Bateman, Hollywood’s most straight-edge everyman. Similarly, without Laura Linney’s undervalued portrayal of the effortlessly deceptive Wendy, her ludicrous schemes and countless betrayals would have felt much more menacing. At its foundation, Ozark has always been a solid ensemble drama. Still, it was Garner who kept us on the edge of our seats and shouting.
Ruth Langmore became more than simply a television character. She was a living meme and a poster child for the peculiar forms grief can take. She ultimately became a cautionary story, another victim of the whims and errors of the wealthy. It is difficult to distinguish a performance from its show, particularly when the program in question is as consistently excellent and award-winning as this one. In the final season of Ozark, Julia Garner did just that.
»In ‘Ozark,’ Julia Garner gave the best performance of 2022«