Maybe with this in mind, I was intrigued when I passed Spud in HMV's Bluewater branch, with a big picture of John Cleese on the cover. I took a chance.
Set in South Africa in 1990, Spud tells the story of a friendship between a late-developing scholarship student (played by the eerily talented Troye Sivan) and his alcoholic teacher (Cleese). Maybe as a result of adaptation decay from its novel source, or an over-reliance on the familiar tropes of the boarding school story and some slightly ropy performances from some of the secondary cast the film itself does not distinguish itself.
Sivan himself was excellent, but what was most memorable for me was Cleese's performance. While he often played a kind of straight man in the Monty Python sketches that made him famous, he is arguable better known for his more extreme characters including Basil Fawlty who everyone my age grew up watching. Elements of these characters creep in at the start, but as the film progresses and the character's mental state deteriorates he does some "proper acting".
Now, I am aware comedy acting is by no means easy, but it is very different from straight acting, and there are not many people who are good at both.
At the film's conclusion, then, when Cleese pulls out the stops and the result is an emotional punch in the stomach.
The first time this happened to me was in The Truman Show. Up until then Jim Carrey had made a career for himself gurning and shrieking on cue. Suffice to say, subtlety was not considered to be one of his strong points. Again, as the character shows his vulnerability and doubt I really warmed to him both as a character and an actor. He then proved he was an equally strong straight actor in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
More recently, after a period in relative obscurity having been one of the 80s top actors, Bill Murray reminded the world he was still open for business in Lost In Translation, followed by Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. There was something especially touching about his portrayal of a formally A-List TV adventurer reduced to a caricature of himself before gaining a kind of vindication.
It is hard to tell to what extent I am allowing my knowledge of the actors' other work influence my perception of their characters in these films. Maybe it is the fact that I see comedy acting as a kind of facade thrown up - regardless of how funny it may be it is a mask keeping the audience at arm's length - so when an actor emotionally bares himself and let's the audience see him at him most vulnerable, it feels somehow special.
I hadn't thought about this in quite this way before, but you're absolutely spot on. These comedic actors in straight roles were brilliant, partly because they're playing against type, and partly because you *know* that nervous energy is broiling just under the surface.
ReplyDeleteI wish Jim Carry had gone on to do more straigf roles, rather than sliding into B Movie obscurity. ESOTSM is one of my all time favourite films (just beautifully observed from start to finish and a wonderful mesh of pathos, comedy and inevitability) and TTS was also brilliant.
Bill Murray has had a better road I think and made some wiser choices; perhaps because he never really did 'wacky', rather more 'cynical', his transition to a straight actor has been more subtle.
I don't really like any Will Ferrel films apart from Anchorman and Stranger Than Fiction, his brand of humour just doesn't gel that well with mine.
Other actors that I thought were good in dramatic roles are Billy Connolly (Mrs Brown) and Robbie Williams in any straight role he does.
Thanks for this sam, definitely worth a read and food for thought.