To be a strong woman, one has to know how to kick butt with the high kick of a Vegas dancer, wisecrack menacingly and wriggle seductively with the look-at-me panache of a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.
That would be the wisdom espoused by the Hollywood blockbuster -- movies of the "Charlie's Angels" and "Transformers" variety.
Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer subscribes to a more complicated, multidimensional vision of female strength, which the actress is bringing to her first Hollywood would-be blockbuster, Ron Howard's "Angels & Demons," opening Friday.
The 39-year-old, sometimes referred to in the press as the Julia Roberts of Israel, first burst into American consciousness four years ago as the luminously beautiful pregnant wife of the Israeli terrorist-hunter portrayed by Eric Bana in Steven Spielberg's "Munich," then turned around to play a fierce, seductive terrorist herself in the fun "Rashomon"-type thriller "Vantage Point."
Now Zurer steps up as Tom Hanks' brainy cohort in the follow-up to Howard's "The Da Vinci Code." This ruthlessly efficient, beautifully designed film could also be called "24, the Papal Edition," down to the time-stamps that appear on-screen every 10 minutes or so. Again, Hanks dons the role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, albeit with fewer pounds and better hair than last time.
Zurer takes on the truth-seeking Italian physicist Vittoria Vetra. The plot revolves around a secret society of vengeful intellectuals, the Illuminati, who want to get back at the science-scorning Catholic Church of history by killing cardinals every hour on the hour and planting under Vatican City an explosive canister of anti-matter, which Langdon must find and dispose of within 24 hours with Vetra's help.
According to Howard, Zurer beat out eight other actresses who also had screen-tested with Hanks. "There's something very unself-conscious and honest and earthy about Ayelet," says Howard, "and yet she has the capacity to deal with the scientific jargon in a way that felt honest and she felt comfortable with it."
Trying to explain the exact nature of anti-matter -- a real phenomenon produced in CERN, a laboratory in Switzerland -- is not for the physics-challenged. "Don't read about it," Zurer offers helpfully. "There are certain people like me who can't read and understand at the same time. If you go to YouTube and see it online, you'd understand. It's somehow easier to understand when you have a painting." Make that "a visual," but English is not Zurer's first language.
