-------------This is a revised version of my article that will be appearing in the February 2, 2012 edition of The Daily Targum. Enjoy!
By Spence Blazak
When the debate about Hollywood's best leading man comes about, names like DiCaprio, Depp, and Damon are frequently tossed around. While all of these actors are at the top of their profession, there is one actor who has proved time and time again that he just might have no peer. That man is Ashton Kutcher.
I’m totally kidding. It’s Paul Giamatti.
Some people say that there is no way to measure actors up against each other, but, quite frankly, those people are dead wrong. I propose an end-all-be-all scale to judge the full scope of an actor's prowess that consists of the following abilities: to perform in comedy as well as drama, to have a career that can survive being in a kid's movie, to play both supporting and starring roles, to have a wide array of "flawless performances," and to be able to act well in an awful movie. Giamatti gets a perfect 10 in every one of these categories, while Philip Seymour Hoffman and George Clooney fall just short…in Clooney’s case, its because of Spy Kids and Ocean’s Thirteen. Sweet. Merciful. Crap.
Firstly, the majority of Giamatti characters feature swells of emotion with accessible tenderness one second and perfectly timed comedic relief the next. His two best full blown comedy roles are as the villain in Shoot Em Up who simultaneously hunts Clive Owen and tries to salvage his marriage, and his guest appearance as a socially inept TV editor clad in a John Tavares Islanders jersey on 30 Rock. When his role asks him to, Giamatti is always the funniest man on the screen.
Another important part of a well-rounded career is being able to swallow one's pride and take a supporting role every now and again. The movies The Illusionist and Cinderella Man are pretty good, but without the glue of Giamtti's performances holding them together, they would have just been dismal. Russel Crowe playing someone who hits people and Ed Norton playing someone trying not to be sad for the thousandth freaking time can only carry a movie so far.
The next step is to be able to be in a movie as bad as Lady In Water and still hold your head high. As silly as the movie was, Giamatti never once makes a fool of himself. The same goes with kids movies like Fred Claus and Big Fat Liar. In the former, he played a Santa Claus so well that any kid in America would have let him into their house. On second thought, maybe that’s not a good thing….
Finally, every great actor gets at least one “role of a life time” part, but Giamatti has had four. A man at the brink in Sideways, a cynical comic book artist in American Splendor, a Founding Father in HBO’s John Adams, and a neurotic TV producer with decades of girl trouble in Barney’s Version. He shows a range that not many other actors posses and loses himself in roles like a Brando or an Olivier.
If Giamatti retired from acting today he would still be his generation’s best actor, and his body of work is filled with uncountable hours of gems (literally, uncountable…John Adams is almost seven hours long). And one last thing of note...he gave one of the best award acceptance speeches of all time at the Golden Globes last year for Best Actor in a Comedy for Barney's Version. He was belligerently drunk, got to the mic and started out by just saying "fuck!" before proceeding to talk about how much he loved the free Godiva chocolates at the table. That was his whole speech. BUT ANYWAY...Almost every performance from the Giamatti vault is worth checking out for a fan of cinema, acting, or disgruntled bearded men!
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