Guy Pearce Re-Watch: Supporting Grace

 

Supporting Grace in the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch!

Those who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn in a great performance in often exceptional films. 

After his self-imposed sabbatical from Hollywood in the early aughts, Guy Pearce re-emerged in a little bit of everything, adding gravitas to award winning films and independent surprises alike. Be it ten minutes or unforgettable villains, Pearce knows how to gracefully lend his cinematic support in all genres.

Please click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with these quick commentaries and countdowns.

New Video Bonus: The Convert

10. Two Brothers – This 2004 French film provides adorable cubs, intense tiger action, beautiful Cambodia locales, and picturesque ruins with the help of real wildlife, clever special effects, and up close animatronics. DVD Behind the scenes features and conservation documentaries compliment the period picture, and billed below the titular tigers Pearce is a rugged trophy hunter learning the error of his ways thanks to nibbling kittens, innocent children, and colonial corruption robbing the country of its history. Though labeled as a family film, the story here is very upsetting for audiences of any age with tiger mating, animal shootings, circus abuse, violence, and cub anguish as our brothers are repeatedly separated from those they love. The lessons win out for a happy ending, but viewers must know this is a tough watch despite the cuddly big cats.

9. Genius – This 2016 slice of life about Colin Firth's (Kingsman: The Secret Service) editor Max Perkins to Jude Law's (The Talented Mr. Ripley) writer Thomas Wolfe adapted by John Logan (Penny Dreadful) should be fascinating literary discourse. Instead the tormented artistry is a slow, dry yarn under-utilizing Nicole Kidman (Dead Calm) and Laura Linney (The Truman Show). I'm not a fan of either author but Dominic West (The Affair) has one scene as Ernest Hemingway – as does Vanessa Kirby (The Frankenstein Chronicles) as Zelda Fitzgerald – with precious few minutes more for Pearce as the bitter late stage F. Scott Fitzgerald. That's the biopic I needed.

8. The Hurt Locker – When naysayers on Twitter say Guy Pearce hasn't done anything since Memento, sometimes I like to be a little mean and recommend this 2009 Katherine Bigelow (Near Dark) Best Picture winner just to mess with them. Pearce's opening gravitas immediately establishes the devastating shock, action awe, and Iraq War pain to come for Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). 

7. Lawless – I should like this 2012 prohibition epic from director John Hillcoat and screenwriter Nick Cave more than I do thanks to their previous glory that is The Proposition. This has period style, sweet cars, and suave gangster Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) to match real life bootlegging brothers Tom Hardy (Venom) and Shia LaBeouf (Nymphomaniac). However, the moonshiners, crooks, and corrupt officials are all just shit men going on and on in believing their own self-perceived invincible hype. Why did Jessica Chastain (Crimson Peak) and Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) sign on to play such used, abused, and objectified women? Of course, Pearce hams it up as the no-eyebrowed and over perfumed villainous Chicago dandy out to get our brothers in the film's best, most brutal moments.

6. Swinging Safari – Director Stephan Elliott (The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert) provides a zany look at growing up in seventies Australia in this nostalgic 2018 ode with everything from a beached whale stinking up the summer to kids with cameras setting each other on fire for their Death Eaters Super 8 magnum opus. Great retro colors, bell bottom styles, and period gadgets accent the perilous pets, pool mishaps, and mangled fruit substituting for Evil Knievel gore amid vignette freeze frames, slow motion, and distorted in-camera narrations. Our youths are left to such danger at play thanks to bored parents Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue (Bio-Dome), Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen), and Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck) – who decide to get down with a key party gone awry and therein is the problem. This is two films in one mashing a serious Wonder Years coming of age with an adult comedy that doesn't have enough of the titular scandal. Too much is happening and the charm becomes disjointed despite numerous entertaining moments worthy of a more complete picture. 

5. The King's Speech – This 2010 Best Picture winner about George VI's overcoming his stuttering problems is a charming period piece thanks to the lauded cast including Best Actor Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter (A Room with a View), Geoffrey Rush (Elizabeth), and Guy Pearce “kinging” with aplomb as Edward VIII. Of course, the vocal exercises come across so feel good because the story excises any probable Nazi implications to the abdication. Here tuxedo wearing, champagne popping, piloting his own plane Pearce abandons the throne solely for love. Certainly I'd love to see a more accurate portrayal of the dirty dynamics between the subsequent Duke and Duchess of Windsor warts and all, but the endearing focus here builds to a superb radio speech accented by divine Beethoven crescendos.

4. The Last Vermeer – Scene stealing Guy Pearce's artist Han van Meegeren is second to Claes Bang (Dracula) in this 2019 historical drama struggling with a framework that doesn't completely tell its most interesting tale. Brief flashbacks of nude portraits, juicy parties getting in bed with the regime, and photos hidden in the floorboards suggest we've come in too late here in the post-war aftermath. Questions on Dutch versus Jewish identity and what double agent wives had to do to survive while upset about it husbands were in the Dutch resistance are uneven and heavy handed amid public firing squads and Allied Command versus reinstated Dutch Ministry intrigue. Vicky Krieps (Old) is underutilized as the female assistant who solves the case but get no credit, and the pace lags when Pearce is off-screen. Accused as a third rate artist but first rate opportunist, Han is small, impish, and ornery – humorous with his drunken house arrest witticisms, sexy assistant, and sassy wife innuendo. However, van Meegeren is also angry and duplicitous with careful smoking mannerisms and expertly crafted double talk. The chastising art community underestimated him, and he is at once for the people in besting the Nazis yet smug in this delicately orchestrated scheme peppered with priceless artwork, laundering implications, and whispers of espionage. The finale rushes over montaged chemical tests and loose legalese, and whether the charismatic Han was a hero or a collaborator is left unclear despite Pearce's compelling performance.

3. Animal Kingdom – Mustachioed good cop Pearce tries to protect Oscar nominated Jackie Weaver's grandson from their family's ruthless den of crime in this 2010 drama written and directed by David Michôd (The Rover). Ben Mendelsohn (Bloodline) and Joel Edgerton (Loving) punctuate their “grubby business” with drugs, murders, police corruption, and creepy family favoritism. Our sweet talking, manipulative matriarch thinks it's all a boys will be boys happy family while the innocent are caught in the crossfire. Rather than a cool crime heist or slick, polished thriller; the realistic filming is bitter with shabby styles, claustrophobic interiors, and mournful scoring to match the bleak consequences and brutal existence. Dramatic builds and abusive, incestuous implications lay the queen bee, bullying pecking order before shock shootings, car accidents, raids, arrests, witness intimidation, and bodies in the backyard. Edgy egos and power trips provide no recourse from this inescapable web as groomed youth must decide to pay the price or lay down a new law thanks to the raw, hard hitting performances here.

2. Rules of Engagement – The sensitive subject matter of this 2000 William Friedkin (The Exorcist) military courtroom drama starring Tommy Lee Jones (Stormy Monday) and Samuel L. Jackson (Kong: Skull Island) would be handled differently today. The well done opening siege action and latter legalese divide the picture in two halves. I'd also rather we had not seen the mission in question once the gunfire occurs nor known the fate of the videotape evidence – thus putting an intriguing uncertainty on what actually happened. However, viewers are never meant to doubt that Jackson was in the right doing what he had to do and that Jones will defend him with every crusty underdog gotcha. Time is taken for their banter and backstory alongside the fine supporting ensemble. Rather than being the purely villainous, nondescript prosecutor; Pearce holds his own as our opposing major, saying he will try the case on good evidence only and respecting the defending colonels. His Biggs also seems slightly fey, overcompensating with the macho talk and courtroom showmanship. Friedkin's winking zooms and stylish lighting accentuate Pearce's eyes when he realizes what's what. Five o'clock hour shadows add to the tension on the witness stand, and we must pay attention as jurors take note when testimonies conflict. Despite knowing the outcome, this is easy to re-watch for the action, intrigue, and characterizations. “Sixteen fucking minutes.”

1. The Count of Monte Cristo – Although this 2002 swashbuckling Dumas adaptation differs from the novel; the cinematic relationships and fine ensemble layer the tall ships, Napoleon intrigue, chess pieces, and betrayals. Burned letters and treasonous kickbacks mean the idealistic, niave Dantes is wrongfully imprisoned – counting the stones in his dungeon walls, vowing revenge, and secretly digging three inches a week. Courtly, austere mansions versus charming prison montages echo the classim and poverty as cave-ins and daring escapes lead to treasure maps, pirates, allies, and murder. Carefully orchestrated vengeance escalates to feigned kidnappings, ingratiating rescues, and duels while brief flashbacks punctuate the well paced adventure amid just turnabouts, pistols, arrests, and ruin. Balconies allow for dominate downward angles while windows and swaths of light invoke hope. Candlelit patinas, period costumes, lovely set design, and dirty attention to detail match the Malta locales, scenic waters, horses, and hot air balloons. The epic score accentuates spectaclular parties, revealed secrets, lost love recognized, and a dashing sword fight that surpasses the written finale. Despite the story's underlying goodness, we root for Mondego to get his due at times more than we cheer for our hero. Instead of the offered Dantes, Guy Pearce chose to play the childhood friend turned villainous love to hate Mondego – creating memorable deceit, rotten teeth sleazy, and despicable envy. I suspect this delicious performance is why there is a certain audience that will always hate Guy Pearce, and understandably so.