David Edelstein's Enduring Fixation On Keira Knightley's Jaw, Documented

David Edelstein’s Enduring Fixation On Keira Knightley’s Jaw, Documented

by Peter Martinowski

• “But it’s hard to hate her too much when she wriggles into a fetching halter, paints herself green, and picks up a bow and arrow, determinedly setting that long fish jaw.” — Review of King Arthur, July 7, 2004

• “… Domino is perpetual motion in a vacuum. It’s not the fault of This Year’s White Girl, young Keira Knightley, who sticks out her long jaw…” — Review of Domino, Oct. 13, 2005

• “…working that long jaw like an impudent guppy…” — Review of Pride & Prejudice, Nov. 11, 2005

• “Keira Knightley’s magic inflatable jaw!” — Review of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, July 6, 2006

• “Knightley, a heroine with gumption whose thrusting jaw takes her out of the insipid-ingenue class. She’s like some kind of fish herself…” — ibid.

• “… played by Keira Knightley with her long neck and strong jaw…” — Review of The Duchess, Sept. 14, 2008

• “Sabina is played by Keira Knightley in a style that would seem over-the-top from across the Roman Coliseum, let alone in close-up spitting out her Slavic consonants and overworking her long jaw.” — Review of A Dangerous Method, Dec. 2, 2011

• “She’s played by Keira Knightley in a style that would seem big from the third balcony, spitting out her consonants and working her long jaw so hard it hurts to look at her.” — Another review of A Dangerous Method, Dec. 2, 2011

• “… she has a terminal case of lockjaw…” — Review of Seeking Friend for the End of the World, June 21, 2012

• “… she squints her eyes and works her big jaw, her fanged upper teeth threatening to swallow the camera.” — Review of Anna Karenina, Nov. 11, 2012

Peter Martinowski lives in New York.