photo by Genevieve |
Outlander
The
Passion of the Christ
The
Count of Monte Cristo
Pay
It Forward
Frequency
The
Thin Red Line
The
actor on this list with probably the thinnest resume is Jim Caviezel.
He has been acting for many years but has only had a handful of
leading roles.
His
big breakout moment was in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. It
was nominated for an Oscar and received glowing critical acclaim. I
hated it. I thought it was boring and pretentious. But I found
Caviezel to be captivating in what little screen time he had. The
movie essentially opens and closes with his story, a GI who wants to
escape the madness and meaninglessness of war. I was fascinated by
how he would often have a little, barely noticeable smile on his
face, almost Buddha-like, as if he had some secret knowledge hidden
in his small performance.
Caviezel
continued to do small, but effective parts, like that of the druggie
in Pay it Forward. Again, with very little screen time, Caviezel
convincingly showed the despair and hope of a character who has no
reason to go on besides his next fix.
He
began to show his leading man chops in movies like Frequency. This
underrated film showed his ability to mine emotional depths of a
character trying to connect to a long-lost father while desperately
racing against the clock to stop a murder that he set into motion. A
lot of that emotion has to be done over the radio, so he had employ
all of his talent in his voice acting to convey his character. He showed a much more action-oriented leading man stature when he starred in Outlander, a fun and scary sci-fi Beowulf.
But
the role that made me really take note of his acting abilities was
The Count of Monte Cristo. This movie is also very underrated,
especially as an epic character journey. Caviezel takes his Edmond
Dantes on a soul-harrowing journey into darkness, hope, vengeance,
and life. I'm amazed when I watch Caviezel walk around with a
wide-eyed, earnest innocence that is slowly stripped away through
years of torture and replaced with a cruel, cold fury. What amazed
me was how despite the extremes of character, not a single note of it
rang false from his performance. I completely believed him as the
naïve innocent an as the world-weary warrior. Watch the subtle way his body language, like posture and gait, change to create a completely different type of man while still remaining Dantes. To this day I watch
that performance in awe.
But
his best role is of course his portrayal of Jesus in Mel Gibson's The
Passion of the Christ. I do not believe that my judgment is
persuaded simply because I am a devout Catholic. From a purely
performance based assessment, what he did in that movie was truly
remarkable. So few people have played the God-Man convincingly. He
is either too distant and alien or he is too flawed and common.
Caviezel's Jesus is neither. He is both in control and filled with
emotion. His opening in the Garden of Gethsemane is filled with such
anxiety that I could not tangibly understand how a man could be so
afraid that he would sweat blood. But even in those moments of
agony, it never felt like his Jesus was not in control. Not only did
Caviezel have to speak all of his lines in Aramaic and Latin, but he
had to do most of his most intense work non-verbally. Look at the
mixture of fear and courage on his face right before they use the
scourge. The physical toll that the role took on him is well
documented, but you can feel the full force of a great actor's skill
and talent being used to bring the story to life.
And
I believe that Caviezel is still only getting started. Right now he
is working heavily in television, but there are still amazing
performances left in him for years to come.
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