Skip to main content

What Dreams May Come


Confession time. The comedic roles of Robin Williams are like nails on a chalk board to me. If someone wanted to to torture me, just a few minutes of Good Morning, Vietnam, Mork & Mindy, RV, or any of his stand-up routines would do the trick. The only exception to this would be Mrs. Doubtfire, a movie that just works. Having said that, I do appreciate the joy and laughter that Williams' manic persona brought to so many people.

For me, I loved Robin Williams the serious man. Here's where I think he sits atop the mountains of greatness, along with Brando, Stewart, Finch, DiCaprio, Braugher, Hanks and many others who were or are masters of their craft. In a serious role, I found Williams to be riveting. He won an Oscar (for 1997's Good Will Hunting), but could have been nominated (and won) for many more performances. He was that good.

Consider what was perhaps Williams' best, darkest role, that of suspected murderer Walter Finch in the American version of Insomnia. His co-star, Al Pacino, is a giant of the dramatic arts, yet it was Williams who stole the show. Solemn, creepy, terrifying. He owned that movie. What of Dr. Malcolm Sayer in Awakenings? The physician who helps bring catatonic patients out of their stupors, only to see them return to them later on, he was so depressingly brilliant in that role.

Last night, I re-watched Williams in the 1994 Bop Gun episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, wherein his on-screen wife is shot by a random thug. A young Jake Gyllenhaal plays his son. Williams plays the part to perfection, showcasing stages of shock, grief, anger and guilt. Kenneth Branagh even cast Robin in his superb adaptation of Hamlet. And he was perfect as Dr. Know, providing somber narration for Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

In The Birdcage, Robin Williams was the straight man (no pun intended) to Nathan Lane's over-the-top antics. Lane's character was in-your-face and most memorable, but it was Williams' uptight, serious character who compelled us more. The actor -- known for his comedy -- managed to convey so much, often with such subtleness, about the beleaguered Armand Goldman.

Obviously, I did not know Robin Williams, yet I feel as though we were seeing more of the real him (if such a a statement can be made without sounding assumptive) in these serious roles, the side of him that didn't feel the need to make you laugh every second. I've always been drawn to that side of a person, the part of them that is, perhaps, the most vulnerable.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing).  It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....
Post a Comment
Read more

Watching The Hours

A Twitter friend named Paula has asked for folks to submit ideas for a blog-a-thon about what we think will be the classic films of the future. In other words, what relatively recent movies (namely, from the 21st century), do we think will be considered classics in the decades to come, possibly airing on such venerable stations as Turner Classic Movies ? While a number of films come to mind for such a category, one in particular stood out from the rest, and thus is my entry for Paula's blog-a-thon.
5 comments
Read more

She's Madonna

Today we're going to talk about something very important. We're going to talk about Madonna. "Madge," as she's affectionately known around the gay scene, has been making music for over thirty years. I grew up with her songs, many of them pop classics. In recent years, it can be arguably said that her popularity has waned a bit. During the past decade, Madonna has put out seventeen singles. Of those, three have charted in the US Top 40. Ten Failed to chart at all on the Billboard Hot 100. We now have at least one possibility offered as to why Madge's chart power is waning: Ageism. At least, that's what Diplo (just, Diplo), a producer of some of the tracks off her latest album, thinks . I know it's difficult to be objective about something you've worked on -- whether you were the producer or the artist -- but, as a listener/fan, I have to say that Madonna's most recent work has simply not been that good. Still, we'll hear what ...
Post a Comment
Read more