Surprised at quirky casting

Rating: 7/10 (16 April 2001)

I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. However, I don't understand why a foreign actress had to be recruited to play the leading role. I found myself very distracted by her accent which, while it was a reasonable facsimile of a "southern counties" accent nevertheless failed her occasionally. Perhaps, were I not British I would not be aware of this. Could the reason for her being in this role (in which, to be fair, she was otherwise excellent) was that American audiences need to know that someone with whom they are familiar (i.e., an American actress), "anchors" the movie?