The Frenzy On... Emile & Casey

..Gary Dretzka
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Doug Pratt
..Ray Pride

Hey Oscar, Don't Forget the Subtle Guys!

There are some kinds of performances that the Academy just doesn't nominate, the ones that hold pictures together but don't draw attention to themselves, the kind that seethe with quiet intensity bubbling underneath a façade of normal human behavior.

I'm reminded of Matt Damon's performance in The Good Shepherd last year, which got zero recognition from not only the Academy but from a wide swath of critics and reviewers. When I sat down to watch the film, I expected a good performance from Damon, but not the powerhouse work that he delivered. He doesn't play a mentally disabled person or a drunk or any other Academy-approved staples, nor does he chew the scenery and try to prove to every other actor that he owns the film. Instead Damon speaks slowly and softly and tries to be unflappable, allowing other actors the opportunity to dominate every scene because he is so confident in his own ability. In the end, Damon walks away as the one indelible actor and image that we get from that film and he didn't do it by shouting at the top of his lungs or crying hysterically.

With Oscar talk ramping up early this season, I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss two performances of this kind from the last year.

The first is Emile Hirsch as Chris McCandless in Into the Wild. The film is based on the true story of McCandless, a kid who graduated from Emory University and then burned his money, social security card, and anything that tied him to his past, setting out on the open road and renaming himself Alexander Supertramp. Hirsch's is one of the most intense yet soft performances that I have ever seen, a true feat of acting and instinct.

Emile Hirsch's past history as an actor is a muddled one, where he has been both the lead and the support. In the films in which he is the lead, like Alpha Dog or The Girl Next Door, he has kind of faded into the background, playing the roles too quietly or meekly as Justin Timberlake or Timothy Olyphant stole the movies from him. In The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, he was almost a non-entity as Kieran Culkin and Jena Malone (his future Into the Wild co-star) danced around him, showing their confidence while he floated through the film aimlessly.

He showed flashes of brilliance, however, in his portrayal of Jay Adams in Lords of Dogtown, a film which he single-handedly elevates from being more than a mediocrity. His performance is filled with wild energy and quiet desperation, his voice quivering while his eyes filled with anger. In the interactions with the other actors in that film, it seemed as if he and Heath Ledger were on a different level than everybody else and it finally became clear to me how much talent Hirsch really had and I couldn't help but wonder why I couldn't see it before. He had finally gotten a role which spoke to him and which he dove into head-first, taking risks with his speech and the way he moved his body like it was too small for him.

In Into the Wild, Hirsch simply is instead of relying on tricks of speech and movement. Hirsch's performance is not only realistic but naturalistic; the whole film rests on his back and he could have very easily been the least interesting character in a cast full of colorful ones. It would also have been very simple for him to fail in this performance and make Chris a spoiled brat that we don't understand. Just based on the story, I could have hated Chris for burning money and tooling around, hurting his family with his absence. But the way that Emile Hirsch embodies Chris makes us understand him with a simple look in his eyes, the way in which he says his lines and the soft way he has about him in his posture and his voice. The most difficult kind of performance to pull off is the kind in which the actor can't rest upon eccentricities and tics, instead having to actually create a real person.

It is paramount for the film to sympathize with Chris when we see the flashes of his parents (played by Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt) and sister (Jena Malone) falling apart with every day that they don't know where he is. We see moments where we understand why Chris could so easily let go of his parents, but not his sister. It's a testament to Hirsch that we sympathize with Chris' choice to stay out of contact, even with the people that care about him. Hirsch imbues Chris with a big heart that is noticeable in the tone of his voice as he meets various people on his journey, treating them with kindness not just in his words but in the way he stands near them and the way he talks softly to them.

There are two sections of the film where Chris is taken in by aging hippies (Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker) and these hippies are strange and funny and heartbroken. The characters, Jan and Rainey, could be so much more interesting on the page than Chris. Instead, because of Hirsch's performance, it is not about the lives of Jan and Rainey, but about how Chris reacts to their lives. We're more curious about how he feels about these people than about how they feel about him. The whole film we are trying to understand Chris and why he does what he does, but we get so lost in this performance that instead we see things through Chris.

Many people are talking about Hal Holbrook as a nominee for Best Supporting Actor and it would be incredibly deserved because his performance as Ron is a beautiful, quiet and touching one; a man who tries to save Chris from himself but without any kind of melodramatic flourish. Holbrook plays a simple, quiet, lonely man and makes him fully realized and rich in just twenty to twenty-five minutes of screen time. The true revelation for me, though, was watching Hirsch in his scenes with Holbrook, sparring with the old character actor and taking his punches as well as he gave him. That is the beauty of Hirsch's performance, because he doesn't need to talk or move in order to make us feel or understand what Chris is going through; Hirsch is so talented, that he can do it all with just a look in his eye.

The crucial part of Hirsch's performance is that a third of the film finds him alone in a bus in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. We simply just watch him move about, eating rice and leaves, wasting away and trying to survive, speaking few words and writing letters. It is truly a remarkable performer that can simply just live, eat, trying flay an elk in an under an hour and yet be completely captivating the entire time without an audience getting antsy. In fact, rather than be the most laborious, the scenes with Hirsch alone might be the most riveting portions of the film. More than anything, it is those moments in which Chris is alone in that bus or on a train or eating an apple that Hirsch should be noticed for. It is such a quietly dynamic and commanding performance that everybody in the industry should take notice because this film could have easily failed, falling prey to heavy-handedness and sometimes it does, but Hirsch is the glue that keeps the film together. Even when interacting with the other characters who are louder, sexier, more prone to hysterics, Hirsch is always the most interesting person on the screen.

If you haven't seen Into the Wild, then you should see it if only to be able to say later that you were there to see Emile Hirsch in his breakout performance. It would be like being able to say that you say Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the start of a brilliant career. I know that the Academy usually gives their nominations to showier performances and bigger names, but I really hope that they dole one out to Emile Hirsch for simply giving one of the best performances of the year.

The other performance and the other film that I believe deserves some recognition is Casey Affleck in Gone Baby Gone, directed by his brother Ben. I think that Casey Affleck's performance in the film is one of the best portrayal of a private eye since Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, even if the film isn't close to approaching the quality of that Polanski masterpiece. Private detectives in movies have become iconic figures, agents of movie audiences, always watching and always wary of what is to come lurking out of the shadows (or out of the movie screen). Private dicks have been representative of loneliness, depression and alcoholism and has been subverted so many times at this point, it's rare to see an original and unfettered approach to this genre.

Gone Baby Gone is miles beyond Mystic River for one reason: the lead performance by Casey Affleck is subtle and nuanced while the performances by Sean Penn and Tim Robbins in the other Dennis Lehane adaptation were so manic as to be ordinary and trite. What Affleck does is extraordinary simply because he doesn't fall into the pitfalls of overacting, instead reacting with quiet dignity and wisdom beyond his years, making him seem like the smartest guy in the room even when he's standing opposite Morgan Freeman or Ed Harris.

Affleck starred earlier this year in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and has also put in solid work in some poor movies like The Last Kiss and 200 Cigarettes. He had always been a kind of hyperactive presence in most of his movies, stumbling over his words like he couldn't wait to get them out of his mouth. But when he starred in The Last Kiss, it was as if a new Casey Affleck had appeared on the scene, one that finally understood that you don't have to speak the loudest to make the biggest impact on-screen. As a result, Affleck's performance in that film is the only reason to watch it, because it is the only true and real thing about that movie.

The story of Gone Baby Gone, for the uninitiated, is about the disappearance of a little girl from a blue-collar Boston neighborhood that is rampant with drug dealers, murderers, and pedophiles. The mother isn't very forthcoming with information, trying to protect herself rather than find her child. The police investigators are frustrated and so is the head of the missing children. The mother's brother and sister-in-law hire the boyfriend and girlfriend private detective team of Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennnaro (Affleck and Michelle Monaghan) to help find the missing girl. Patrick and Angie come up against liars and thieves at every turn, corruption and abuse all around them and the truth is hidden beneath layers of deceit.

There isn't a single scene in the film which you could point to and say, "this is why Casey Affleck should be nominated." It is the entirety of his performance, from beginning to end, where he slowly gathers information and that information changes him; but the change isn't obvious, it's a subtle one and it feels like a real one. In film, characters often change throughout the running time, becoming completely different people by the film's end and while it can be very satisfying to an audience, it isn't true to life. The transformation that Affleck goes through in this film is a tiny one, but that's what life is about: tiny little changes that happen over a long period of time and eventually they add up to who you are.

There is a moment in which Affleck makes a promise to Amy Ryan's mother character. Ryan completely dominates the scene until Affleck makes the choice to hesitate for a moment. That hesitation, that moment of worry that comes through in a small hiccup, gives us the entirety of the character in a heartbeat. This is a man who makes decisions swiftly and firmly, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't think them through or worry about the consequences of something as small as a promise to a grieving woman.

Or there is the moment at the very end of the film, in which Affleck's character stands in the doorway and stares at a character on the couch. Affleck's eyes as they stare endlessly as he speaks to another character and we see the shame that Affleck conveys with nothing but a gaze. It is small moments like this that make you wonder how far this actor can really go, when he can take a character like this and make him so fascinating and human and tragic.

When we change, we don't change everything about who we are; we are still us, but just a bit different and Affleck understands that in his portrayal of Patrick. It is because of this understanding that Casey Affleck should get a nomination for his performance in Gone Baby Gone. It couldn't be more different that the performances of past private detectives and it is astounding that Affleck could add something new to a tired genre.

So, in conclusion, I'd just like to say:

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Casey Affleck, Gone Baby Gone, Best Actor
Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild, Best Actor

- Noah Forrest
November 5, 2007

Other columns by Noah Forrest
10.02.07 - Jake Paltrow's The Good Night
09.27.07 - Cleaning House
09.20.07 - Top 10 To Date
09.13.07 - Film Vs Television
08.31.07 - Halloween Review
08.28.07 - Who Is The Next Scorsese?
08.21.07 - Fall Preview
08.14.07 - The Horrific State Of The Horror Film
08.10.07 - Reservations About Catherine Zeta-Jones
08.07.07 - Saving Steven Spielberg
07.30.07 - Skinheads in the Cinema & This Is England
07.28.07 - Siena Miller: Good or Evil?
07.26.07 - The Frenzy on the Wall

Noah Forrest is a 24 year old aspiring writer/filmmaker in New York City.

The opinions expressed in these columns are the writers and do not neccessarily reflect the opinions of Movie City News or any of its editors or other contributors.

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