Hidden Gems of 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.
This countdown's order is more arbitrary, as it's worth seeking all of these hidden gems for their film quality and variety of Pearce performances. Though capable of breaking the internet from time to time, Guy Pearce is not the marquee actor cast to put butts in the cinema seats. Fortunately, he is the go-to actor for quiet gravitas as seen in the unique pieces here.
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.
9. The Hard Word – Crooked lawyers and corrupt cops facilitate heists carried out by conveniently release jailbird brothers in crime in this 2002 Australian who's who including Joel Edgerton (It Comes at Night) and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under). It's tough to tell if this is about the crime or the comedy with turnabout circumstances, zany personalities, and backward Butcher Talk code suggesting humor while the dramatic prison visitations are very well done. Reflections on each side of the dividing glass accent the confrontations over who's screwing whom, and the camera accents the cleverness and crime realizations in the second half. Pearce is at times unrecognizable thanks to a bad fake nose that doesn't really move with his expressions. However his smart brother Dale slips into each disguise as needed. Though thematically uneven and not as taut as it should be with convoluted betrayals and unnecessary bad guys, literal runs with the loot and quirky characterizations keep this a bemusing late night heist.
8. Dating the Enemy – The dated fashions, peppy ear worms, Valentine's Day cliches, and corny humor of this 1996 Australian body swap comedy starring Claudia Karvan and Guy Pearce takes me back to simpler times. Certainly part of me wishes there was more depth to the battle of the sexes explorations beyond his not being able to understand pantyhose and her zipper mishaps – women's locker room secrets and sleeping with your disappointing male best friend were ripe for more humor and sophistication. Likewise I also think our opposites attract exes should have switched back thanks to the unexplained wishes and moon magic and not because they had fulfilling sex while in each other's bodies. Learning what the other person wants and needs in a relationship and knowing how to give of yourself mind and body should have happened after they swapped back. Compared to American sex comedies the discourse is tame, played for all audiences without nudity or raunchy, shallow titillation. Our man realizes it sucks to be a woman not taken seriously who can't eat pizza every day while she has to do both their jobs. Fun performances anchor the preposterous mystic versus science of it all with walks, postures, and mannerisms reflecting the mind inside the wrong body voiceovers. The audience is along for the romantic ride, and I miss this kind of lighthearted, fanciful, charming little picture.
7. 33 Postcards – This 2011 international production also featuring social worker Claudia Karvan chronicles soon to be paroled inmate Pearce and his secret sponsorship of an orphaned Chinese teenager. Though naive and isolated from the real world for her age, young Lin Zhu (The Demon Hunter) runs away from her traveling choir to find her sponsor, getting in over her head in the Sydney chop shop scene. Some viewers may be bothered by the dated musical moments, dual languages, cultural mix ups, and slightly amateur English but our Mei Mei has a certain fearlessness – unafraid to ask for help whether people are friendly with the map or potentially taking advantage of her. Her positive outlook rubs off on others as the initial pen pal awkwardness gives way to making up for time served and loners realizing they don't have to be alone. Despite writing fanciful postcards filled with beachy Down Under fun, Pearce's inmate is actually pale, pasty, shaky, and squirrely small. He remains hunched with his hands in his pockets, fearful of re-entering the outside world after his ten year sentence. Immigration visas, bad relations, and parole red tape interfere as our would be father and daughter try to take care of each other, and tense prisoner harassment escalates to shower perils, shank chases, and children in danger. You know today a Hollywood version would be dark, scandalous, and cliché; however the youthful, personal moments here make for a simple, endearing little picture about finding your own family and making your own music.
6. Hateship Loveship – Jennifer Jason Leigh (Possessor), Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope), and Nick Nolte (Cape Fear) are underutilized in this disjointed 2013 drama based on Alice Munro's short story. The slow paced plain and realistic bare mirroring the too old to be putting on makeup for the first time wallflower Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) may be boring and naive for some viewers. Fortunately, attention to detail in character clothing, cigarettes, and shabby motels sets off the misunderstandings as Guy Pearce becomes the erroneous, not so put together object of our shy housekeeper's affection thanks to a sneaky letter writing campaign by his daughter Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and her snotty friend who doesn't get the comeuppance she deserves. Well timed country music lyrics accent the foolishness and elbow grease as the down and out, who's taking advantage of whom realizations come to light. Wigg is subdued in a strong dramatic turn – humbly anchoring the broken people and second chances. Today's audience may balk at her runaway devotion, but Joanna makes the best of the fix despite her sheltered honesty, his flaws, fatal pasts, and drug abuse. Pearce is grizzled, shaggy, and sickly, having served for his mistakes but continuing to use, steal, and lie. People can't change immediately, but this late bloomer starting over romance could be the positive healing they need. Our hard working gal has her own money and takes action to achieve what she wants in this lovely little piece for fans of the cast.
5. In Her Skin – Lovely landscapes, dancing, and original songs contrast dark skies, empty trams, and every parent's worst fear in this 2009 Australian true story starring Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings), Guy Pearce, and Sam Neill (Dead Calm). A daughter hasn't returned home, and the number of days since the disappearance anchors episodic acts focusing on the parents, killer, and victim. Blasé officials see these cases everyday, but emotions are high for the family facing this awful new experience with frantic phone calls, television pleas, sobs, and swoons. Sensuality, nudity, love, and sex are also shown in different dynamics – the young bloom, ugly body dysmorphia, tenderness between couples, and brutally suggestive strangulation. Panning camera work, demented voiceovers, fantasy-esque flashbacks, and windswept distortions are spooky and slightly off kilter, getting viewers inside our killer's state of mind alongside disturbing letters, violent artwork, bullying, and a devious sense of empowerment with Electra undertones from the award-worthy Ruth Bradley (Humans). Today it's difficult for us to believe no one noticed or provided mental health intervention, but the performances carry the uncomfortable grief and realistically stilted shock in this intriguing psychological drama.
4. First Snow – Subdued psychic J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) warns sleazy salesman Guy Pearce he's on borrowed time in this 2006 parable waxing on fate versus destiny and self- fulfilling prophecy. Eerie, intense palm readings provide sports scores, highway warnings, and the titular ticking clock. Threatening phone calls, EKG check ups, amateur investigations, and screwed over business deals pepper angel on the shoulder girlfriend Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) versus paroled Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island) coming back to haunt our smooth talker. Dialogue and sounds often bleed into the next scene, and moments are intercut with flash forwards or past memories, visually mirroring the predestined plots. Low on the highway angles, rear view mirrors, up close windshields, choice zooms, and headlights match the rushed, coming and going, hitting the pavement metaphors while answering machine harassment, mail box threats, and gunshots build intensity. This is a bright picture with desert vistas, whiteouts, and spotlights, and our Jimmy often hides behind his sunglasses. He's said to have the gift of bullshit – smoking, slicking his hair, and mocking the ill-fated prediction before getting in over his head thanks to past mistakes, current paranoia, and increasing, gun toting isolation. Jimmy's appearance doesn't change, but this is a great character arc from Pearce, and his countenance is altered. His smile and wink become genuine as he mends fences, pays his bar tab, and faces his fate. However, putting things right becomes dangerous, escalating even as we know the full circle outcome of this taut character study.
3. Lorne – It's quite unsettling as the grizzled Guy Pearce sits across the campfire and looks directly into the camera for this 2016 fifteen minute, one man short from director Jesse Leaman (Mad Martha). He asks questions of us, his apparent visitor, for he's used to being alone, sullen, and with his rifle at the ready. His shabby hat and raspy breath indicate the cold desolate while gunshots punctuate the wilderness, and it's clear our forlorn, titular woodsman has been alone too long. Overhead angles show how small he is in the vastness, yet up close shots of Lorne's hands, face, mucky teeth, and dirty nails are uncomfortably intimate. Lorne's paranoid by our stare, wondering what his reflection looks like after this year of on edge isolation, and we don't want to go further into the dark forest with him. He curses and shouts into the void, apprehensive but prepared in the bush with tools and supplies – ready to die over something meaningful but not get killed in the wilds for nothing. He wonders if he's dead already, but the camera glances at his rifle as he talks about his father admiring its craftsmanship more than the dangers. Lorne misses his family and imagines they are there with tearful, introspective regret – realizing that there is only one thing left to do. Although I would have liked to have seen the rest of this story in full form, for fans of taut short films, this is a must see show reel of what Guy Pearce can do with nothing but the emotion on his face.
2. Spinning Man – Foreboding flashes, yellow tape, and photos of the deceased open this 2018 thriller starring Professor Pearce, detective Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye), and wife Minnie Driver (Phantom of the Opera). The professors debate hypothetical opportunities with young students, but working out while the cheerleaders look leads to crushes, stolen glances, and unspoken flirtations as the camera lingers on a girl's smile longer than it should. Professor Pearce is cool about his alibi, yet other times he protests the police questioning for no reason. Paralleling police mirrors or the man made small and isolated in the frame visuals accent interrogations while careful editing matches the police interplay and family arguments. Classroom philosophizing and literal versus figurative plays on words build suspicion, for it's easy to talk one's way out of anything if the truth is subjective. Suspect lipstick and circumstantial evidence lead to awkward family trips, narcissistic blaming, and maybe maybe not memories. No one says what they actually mean and guilty perceptions create duality – for hiding suspect behavior may be as innocent as putting up missing posters for a child's pet you know to be dead or as bad as rationalizing a scandal that puts an entire university in jeopardy. This is a character drama rather than a tense a minute thriller with fine performances providing mature introspection as the lies come full circle.
1. Breathe In – This 2013 drama from writer and director Drake Doremus (Equals) about a would be romance between teacher Guy Pearce and student Felicity Jones (reunited with Pearce for the newly acclaimed The Brutalist) is not played as some steamy, tawdry affair. Superb classical piano and cello music, natural lighting, and intimate camera angles are vivid and authentic – taking time for the telling notes, lingering looks, and increasing contradictory lies that do not go unnoticed. We should hate cookie jar collecting, controlling wife Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) as she quotes the negative logistics of her husband leaving a secure position for a city symphony chair. She always drives, often speaks for him, belittles his music as a loud hobby, and tells him no in front of others as if he's a teenager like their daughter. However, if Megan didn't smile, deflect, and hold fast to their seemingly idyllic home with scrapbooks and keeping up with the Jones barbecues; Keith's romanticizing of the struggling musician's life wouldn't buy their daughter a car. Young Sophie's Electra issues, on the other hand, are clear. She's brought her own copy of Jane Eyre and carries sheet music yet doesn't play now that her favorite uncle and musical mentor died. Her exchange semester in New York was a spur of the moment decision, and she immediately relates to Keith's despair in song. He drinks and smokes behind his wife's back, sitting on the empty swing set wondering what he has missed in life. Pearce's silent and still demeanor invokes a compelling melancholy– hiding a look of constant anywhere but here contemplation behind his glasses. The lid on the piano is closed no matter the emotional intimacy or sacrifices unsaid, and the painful glances are excellent alongside the shattered cookie jars and reckless teen angst. Nothing physical happens, but juvenile runaway plans lead to deception, cruelty, and consequences. Photo shoot bookends reveal how easy it is to feign happiness, and the superb performances carry the realistic relationships and bittersweet reflections. It's a pity this was released several months before Iron Man 3, for this is so little seen in comparison yet remains the better film.
