Streep’s first collaboration with both writer Nora Ephron and director Mike Nichols is this tough-minded biopic of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear power plant worker whose efforts to expose safety hazards in her industry may have led to her mysterious death. Streep plays Karen as an unlikely heroine — her family life is a mess, her attitude at work is cheeky, and she hasn’t been blessed with money or education. That her desperation gives way to a furious idealism comes as a surprise even to her. It’s an utterly fascinating, non-preachy turn, and it also marks one of the first times we got to hear Streep’s strong, clear singing voice (in a rendition of "Amazing Grace").
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