Pretty Boys All in a Row

This holiday season I’ve only seen three movies and coincidentally, they share an interesting trait. Each features a handsome leading man whose good looks have served as his entry into starring roles and for the past few years, he’s attempted deeper roles to show he’s not just another pretty face.

The casting works the best for Keanu Reeves in the big-budget remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. He’s the perfect choice for the emotionless alien. Klaatu, originally essayed by the suave and dry Michael Rennie, has no human feelings. He’s a blank slate reborn in the body of a Himalayan mountain climber—at least I think that’s the deal. The screenplay was a bit confusing. Anyway, Klaatu has come to earth to study mankind, and he displays no nuances or reactions. In his most recent films, Reeves has lost the youthful spark and energy which first propelled him to the top box-office ranks. He was a yawn in the Matrix films and only showed a slight bit of joy as Diane Keaton’s younger boyfriend in Something’s Gotta Give. He made the most impact as the brooding villain in Kenneth Branagh’s screen version of Much Ado About Nothing. He didn’t say much but he smoldered with anger adequately. As Klaatu, he doesn’t have to convey a wide range of emotions—just intellectual curiosity which he can handle. By the way, why couldn’t Kathy Bates’ role have been the President, not just Secretary of Defense?

Tom Cruise has remained a top gun despite his limited limning ability and some goofy antics on Oprah’s couch. He did deserve an Oscar nomination for his nasty self-help guru in Magnolia. Other than that intense performance, Cruise has scraped by in big-budget flicks with the special effects doing a better job than him. He favors roles where his beauty is marred for at least part of the film, either by disfigurement (Vanilla Sky) or disguise (Minority Report, all of the Mission: Impossible films). In the current Valkryie, he sports an eye patch. He seems to be saying, “I’m such a good actor I can make myself ugly and I’ll still give a dazzling performance.” The extent of Cruise’s ability here is to raise his voice to indicate anger, nervousness, or frustration. He’s obliterated by British castmates Branagh, Eddie Izzard, Bill Nighy, and especially Tom Wilkinson. And Bryan Singer’s direction doesn’t pick up until halfway through the film when the bomb meant to eliminate Hitler goes off.  

Finally Brad Pitt has attempted the ultimate Oscar-bait role. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button calls for lots of make-up in a prestige picture (it’s based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, for God’s sake) with a running time of almost three hours. As a New Orleans orphan who ages in reverse, Pitt gets to do the Forrest Gump bit. He’s at the scene of every social development over the last century, plus he’s covered in latex. You can practically hear him thinking “My nomination’s in the bag.” But even after he grows young enough to only require a little grey at the temples, there is nothing to Pitt’s interior life of Benjamin. It doesn’t seem to matter to him that his African-American adopted mother (Taraji P. Henson) and the woman he loves (Cate Blanchett) are aging as he grows younger. Thus, I didn’t care what happened to anyone in the film. There was some nice Big Easy scenery and the shots of the foreign lands Benjamin visits are beautifully photographed but that’s not enough to sustain an entire film. I loved Blanchett’s old-lady deathbed scenes--in a camp appreciation of overacting, that is.

--David Sheward