Editing Meryl Streep (section)

===1990s: Commercial fluctuations===
Biographer Karen Hollinger described the early 1990s as a downturn in the popularity of Streep's films, attributing this partly to a critical perception that her comedies had been an attempt to convey a lighter image following several serious, but commercially unsuccessful, dramas, and, more significantly, to the lack of options available to an actress in her forties.{{Sfn|Hollinger|2006|p=78}} Streep commented that she had limited her options by her preference to work in Los Angeles, close to her family,{{Sfn|Hollinger|2006|p=78}} a situation that she had anticipated in a 1981 interview when she commented, "By the time an actress hits her mid-forties, no one's interested in her anymore. And if you want to fit a couple of babies into that schedule as well, you've got to pick your parts with great care."<ref name="NewYorkMagazineSep1981" /> At the [[Screen Actor's Guild]] National Women's Conference in 1990, Streep keynoted the first national event, emphasizing the decline in women's work opportunities, pay parity, and role models within the film industry.<ref name="SAG timeline">{{cite web |title=SAG History – SAG Timeline |url=http://www.sag.org/content/womens-committee |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125115603/http://www.sag.org/content/womens-committee |archive-date=January 25, 2012 |access-date=July 15, 2013}}</ref> She criticized the film industry for downplaying the importance of women both on screen and off.{{sfn|Eberwein|2010|p=221}}

[[File:Meryl in 1990.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Streep at the [[32nd Grammy Awards]] in 1990]]

After roles in the comedy-drama ''[[Postcards from the Edge (film)|Postcards from the Edge]]'' (1990), and the comedy-fantasy ''[[Defending Your Life]]'' (1991), Streep starred with [[Goldie Hawn]] in the farcical black comedy, ''[[Death Becomes Her]]'' (1992), with [[Bruce Willis]] as their co-star. Streep persuaded writer [[David Koepp]] to re-write several of the scenes, particularly the one in which her character has an affair with a younger man, which she believed was "unrealistically male" in its conception. The seven-month shoot was the longest of Streep's career, during which she got into character by "thinking about being slightly pissed off all of the time".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|pp=100, 103}} Due to Streep's allergies to numerous cosmetics, special prosthetics had to be designed to age her by ten years to look 54, although Streep believed that they made her look nearer 70.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=103}} Longworth considers ''Death Becomes Her'' to have been "the most physical performance Streep had yet committed to screen, all broad weeping, smirking, and eye-rolling".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=100}} Although it was a commercial success, earning $15.1 million in just five days, Streep's contribution to comedy was generally not taken well by critics.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=107}} ''Time''{{'}}s Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep's "wicked-witch routine" but dismissed the film as "''She-Devil'' with a make-over" and one which "hates women".<ref>{{cite news |last=Corliss |first=Richard |title=Beverly Hills Corpse, "Death Becomes Her" review |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976129,00.html |magazine=Time |date=August 3, 1992 |access-date=June 7, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090904022133/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,976129,00.html |archive-date=September 4, 2009 }}</ref>{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=107}} Streep later admitted to having disliked filming the scenes involving heavy special effects, and vowed never to work again on a film with heavy special effects.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://ew.com/article/2000/03/24/meryl-streep-meryl-streep/ |date=March 24, 2000 |title=Depth Becomes Her |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |access-date=January 25, 2007 |archive-date=October 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014083616/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,275733_4,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Streep appeared with [[Jeremy Irons]], [[Glenn Close]] and [[Winona Ryder]] in ''[[The House of the Spirits (film)|The House of the Spirits]]'' (1993), set in Chile during [[Augusto Pinochet]]'s dictatorship. The film was not well received by critics.<ref name="the_house_of_the_spirits">{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_house_of_the_spirits/|title=''The House of the Spirits''|publisher=[[Flixster]]|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|date=September 20, 2011 |access-date=April 9, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150330215521/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_house_of_the_spirits/|archive-date=March 30, 2015}}</ref> [[Anthony Lane]] of ''[[The New Yorker]]'' wrote: "This is really quite an achievement. It brings together Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, [[Antonio Banderas]], and [[Vanessa Redgrave]] and insures that, without exception, they all give their worst performances ever".<ref name="the_house_of_the_spirits"/> The following year, Streep starred in ''[[The River Wild]]'', as the mother of children on a whitewater rafting trip who encounter two violent criminals ([[Kevin Bacon]] and [[John C. Reilly]]) in the wilderness. Though critical reaction was generally mixed, [[Peter Travers]] of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' found her to be "strong, sassy and looser than she has ever been onscreen".<ref>{{cite news|first=Peter|last=Travers|title=The River Wild|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-river-wild-19940930|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|publisher=Wenner Media LLC|location=New York City|date=September 20, 1994|access-date=May 5, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505072025/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/the-river-wild-19940930|archive-date=May 5, 2015}}</ref>

Streep's most successful film of the decade was the romantic drama ''[[The Bridges of Madison County (film)|The Bridges of Madison County]]'' (1995) directed by [[Clint Eastwood]], who adapted the film from [[Robert James Waller]]'s [[The Bridges of Madison County|novel of the same name]].{{Sfn|McGilligan|1999|p=492}} It relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for ''[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]'', who has a love affair with a middle-aged Italian farm wife Francesca (Streep). Though Streep disliked the novel it was based on, she found the script to be a special opportunity for an actress her age.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|pp=111–112}} She gained weight for the part and dressed differently from the character in the book to emulate voluptuous Italian film stars such as [[Sophia Loren]]. Both Loren and [[Anna Magnani]] were an influence in her portrayal, and Streep viewed [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]]'s ''[[Mamma Roma]]'' (1962) prior to filming.{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=115}} The film was a box office hit and grossed over $70 million in the United States.{{Sfn|McGilligan|1999|p=503}} The film, unlike the novel, was warmly received by critics. [[Janet Maslin]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote that Eastwood had managed to create "a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller's self-congratulatory overkill", while [[Joe Morgenstern]] of ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' described it as "one of the most pleasurable films in recent memory".{{Sfn|McGilligan|1999|p=503}} Longworth believes that Streep's performance was "crucial to transforming what could have been a weak soap opera into a vibrant work of historical fiction implicitly critiquing postwar America's stifling culture of domesticity".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=16}} She considers it to have been the role in which Streep became "arguably the first middle-aged actress to be taken seriously by Hollywood as a romantic heroine".{{sfn|Longworth|2013|p=117}}

Streep played the estranged sister of Bessie ([[Diane Keaton]]), a woman battling [[leukemia]], in ''[[Marvin's Room (film)|Marvin's Room]]'' (1996), an adaptation of [[Marvin's Room (play)|the play]] by [[Scott McPherson]]. Streep recommended Keaton for the role.{{Sfn|Mitchell|2001|p=139}} [[Roger Ebert]] stated that, "Streep and Keaton, in their different styles, find ways to make Lee and Bessie into much more than the expression of their problems."<ref>{{cite web|first=Roger|last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970110/REVIEWS/701100302/1023|title=Review- Marvin's Room|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]]|location=Chicago, Illinois|date=January 10, 1997|access-date=March 25, 2006|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060110152119/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19970110%2FREVIEWS%2F701100302%2F1023|archive-date=January 10, 2006}}</ref> The film was well received, and Streep earned another Golden Globe nomination for her performance.<ref name=GoldenGlobes />

Streep's performance in ''[[...First Do No Harm]]'' (1997) garnered her a second [[Primetime Emmy Award|Emmy Award]] nomination for [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie|Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie]]. In 1998, Streep first appeared opposite [[Michael Gambon]] and [[Catherine McCormack]] in [[Pat O'Connor (director)|Pat O'Connor]]'s ''[[Dancing at Lughnasa (film)|Dancing at Lughnasa]]'', another [[Dancing at Lughnasa|Broadway adaptation]], which was entered into the [[Venice Film Festival]] in its year of release.{{sfn|Allon|Cullen|Patterson|2001|p=255}} [[Janet Maslin]] of ''The New York Times'' remarked that "Meryl Streep has made many a grand acting gesture in her career, but the way she simply peers out a window in ''Dancing at Lughnasa'' ranks with the best. Everything the viewer need know about Kate Mundy, the woman she plays here, is written on that prim, lonely face and its flabbergasted gaze."<ref>{{cite news|first=Janet|last=Maslin|author-link=Janet Maslin|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B04E3DA1431F930A25752C1A96E958260|title=Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York City|date=November 13, 1998|access-date=July 2, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704073438/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B04E3DA1431F930A25752C1A96E958260|archive-date=July 4, 2015}}</ref> Later that year, she played a housewife dying of cancer in ''[[One True Thing]]''. The film met with positive reviews. [[Mick LaSalle]] in the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' declared, "After ''One True Thing'', critics who persist in the fiction that Streep is a cold and technical actress will need to get their heads examined. She is so instinctive and natural – so thoroughly in the moment and operating on flights of inspiration – that she's able to give us a woman who's at once wildly idiosyncratic and utterly believable."<ref>{{cite news|first=Mick|last=LaSalle|author-link=Mick LaSalle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/09/18/DD59798.DTL|title=Home Is a Beautiful 'Thing' / Streep shines in drama about ailing mother|newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]]|location=San Francisco, California|date=September 18, 1998|access-date=May 1, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413162840/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F1998%2F09%2F18%2FDD59798.DTL|archive-date=April 13, 2009}}</ref> ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' film critic [[Kenneth Turan]] noted that her role "is one of the least self-consciously dramatic and surface showy of her career," but she "adds a level of honesty and reality that makes [her performance] one of her most moving".<ref>{{cite news|first=Kenneth|last=Turan|author-link=Kenneth Turan|title=One True Thing|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|location=Los Angeles, California|date=September 18, 1998}}</ref>

Streep portrayed [[Roberta Guaspari]] in the music drama ''[[Music of the Heart]]'' (1999). Streep received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a [[Screen Actors Guild Award]] for her performance. Roger Ebert wrote: <blockquote>Meryl Streep is known for her mastery of accents; she may be the most versatile speaker in the movies. Here you might think she has no accent, unless you've heard her real speaking voice; then you realize that Guaspari's speaking style is no less a particular achievement than Streep's other accents. This is not Streep's voice, but someone else's – with a certain flat quality, as if later education and refinement came after a somewhat unsophisticated childhood.<ref>{{cite web|first=Roger|last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19991029/REVIEWS/910290302/1023|title=Music of the Heart Movie Review|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|publisher=[[Sun-Times Media Group]]|location=Chicago, Illinois|date=October 29, 1999|access-date=May 1, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928090907/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19991029%2FREVIEWS%2F910290302%2F1023|archive-date=September 28, 2012}}</ref></blockquote>