By pure chance I have seen Gladiator and Walk The Line in the last few days. Although Joaquin Phoenix was nominated for Oscars for both roles, I correctly figured he would lose to Benicio Del Toro and Philip Seymour Hoffman respectively. However I have also had reason to catch both of these performances recently as well, and it strikes me that they were very much one note portrayals. I have come to the conclusion that Mr Phoenix has been stiffed and sincerely hope that he soon picks up an Oscar.
My only feeling about it is this: While watching Walk the Line, I was able to forget completely that I was watching actors portray real characters. Joaquin WAS Johnny to me, Reese WAS June. I was impressed with both their performances, and maybe part of that was knowing that they actually did the singing, as opposed to having had Johnny and June dubbed in.
I was very sad that Joaquin didn’t get an Oscar for that portrayal.
I thought his performance in *Gladiator * was way more one-note than Benicio’s.
“Ooh, I’m spoiled and decadent. Everybody vexes me. I’m vexed. My sister is so hot. Why won’t she sleep with me? I think I’ll have someone killed.”
Easily the worst performance in that movie.
Way overdue? He’s 32. I mean yeah, he’s overdue by Tatum O’Neal standards but it’s not like he doesn’t have plenty of time. Glenn Close, now there’s someone who’s overdue.
Agreed. And much as I find his performances in both films competent, I’m not really impressed. Nothing singular with his performance, just run-of-the-mill competence, IMO.
IMHO, he’s an adequate, but not great, actor who will always be living and acting in the shadow of his brother, who was “the” Actor in the family. Yeah, the others have acted as well, but River was The One who flamed out before he could get mediocre or greedy. There’s just no way to escape the golden boy glow of a dead angel.
I think if he ever does a film with John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons, the Dentists and Scenery Shops Union 42 Amalgamated will be very, very happy folks.