Less-Is-More Club

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I have an 11 am appointment on the Upper East Side with A Single Man star Colin Firth. His performance in Tom Ford's widely-admired film has put him at the top of the Best Actor candidate heap, primarily because Firth channels so much feeling (crushing loss and sadness, a love of life's sensual stream, flickers of delight) with such a fine sense of subtlety and economy. And thinking about this has led, again, to compiling a list of the best extremely-low-key, less-is-more performances.

One of my all-time favorites is John Hurt's intense, hard-boiled performance in The Hit. Who else? Robert De Niro in Heat. Clive Owen's performance in Croupier. Jean Servais as Tony le Stephanois in Jules Dassin's Rififi. (I know -- I've posted about this recently before.) Lee Marvin's Walker in Point Blank isn't quite on Hurt's level (the part isn't written that way), but he slips in and out of a lost-and-melancholy mode. Michael Caine in Get Carter. Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. Peter Stormare in Fargo.

But these are mainy hard-boiled performances in crime films. Who, then, has travelled in the same silent still waters that Firth has? Waters stirred with a certain melancholy, sadness, resignation. lI know -- Paul Winfield in Mike's Murder. Who else? Okay, I'll put a point on it. Who has given the most affecting performances of somewhat older gay guys in movie history? Not that many, when you get down to it.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 6, 2009 at 5:35 AM

comment #1

scooterzz says ...

i'll assume that tom cruise and val kilmer in 'top gun' don't fit the age or subtlety requirement and suggest eric schweig in 'big eden'.....a really great, underplayed gay character in a film only logo watchers (in the wee hours of the morning) ever see.....

Posted by scooterzz at December 6, 2009 7:22 AM

comment #2

McClaneSveUs says ...

I think the Viggo Mortensen performance in "Eastern Promises," relies on the same physicality and burning intensity you're getting with Hurt there....

Also, Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain" (for my money, one of the best performances I've ever seen in terms of quiet, intense pain eating away)

And maybe Guy Pearce in "The Proposition," along with Ray Winstone too.

Posted by McClaneSveUs at December 6, 2009 8:17 AM

comment #3

berg says ...

I see what you mean about the Antonioni comparisons - of course there is the ending but also the constant sense of wanting to make the night last forever, wanting that last drink to become the first of many ....

Posted by berg at December 6, 2009 9:10 AM

comment #4