N.Y. Times critic Manohla Dargis on Robert Pattinson in Cosmopolis: “Nearly affectless at first, Mr. Pattinson makes a fine member of the Cronenbergian walking dead, with a glacial, blank beauty that brings to mind Deborah Kara Unger in the director’s version of J. G. Ballard’s Crash.”

Interjection: Over the decades I have seen many actors do very little in this or that part. Very little and sometimes “nothing”, and they do it very well for somehow they manage to suggest all sorts of internal currents and contemplations. I didn’t get a sense of anything going on inside Pattinson as I watched Cosmopolis.

Back to Dargis: “Mr. Pattinson can be a surprisingly animated presence (at least he was on ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,’ where he recently put in a game appearance), and he may be capable of greater nuance and depth than is usually asked of him.”

Interjection: Pattinson “may” be capable of this? In other words, all his directors so far have asked him to tone down the nuance and the depth?

Back to Dargis: “Certainly, with his transfixing mask and dead stare, [Pattinson] looks the part he plays here and delivers a physical performance that holds up to a battery of abuses, including [a] prostate exam and some anticlimactic tears.”