WEIRDLAND: On the cover of "Esquire"

Friday, November 16, 2007

On the cover of "Esquire"

"The new December Esquire came out yesterday (or the day before), with six actors being celebrated on the cover for having given the mag's choices for "Performances of the Year." Denzel Washington in American Gangster, Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There, Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, Robert Downey in Zodiac, Emile Hirsch in Into The Wild and Jake Gyllenhaal in...Rendition?

It's not that Gyllenhaal plays his Egypt-based CIA guy badly or ineffectively, but that Egypt-based CIA guy is written as such a revoltingly passive wuss. As Esquire's Mike D'Angelo points out, Gyllenhaal "spends much of Rendition standing in the corner of a dark room, watching as some poor soul gets beaten, doused and fried...it's a near-silent performance."

For me, Gyllenhaal's inactivity is infuriating. He's not just a guy doing nothing, but an emblem of do-nothing types the world over. Two thirds of the way through a screening of Rendition at the Toronto Film Festival I leaned over to a friend sitting next to me and said, motioning at Gyllenhaal, "Is he going to do anything or what?"

Gyllenhaal's guy finally makes a move at the very end, yes, but it comes way, way too late".
Source: Hollywood-elsewhere.com

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Great to see Jake on that cover.Some of my favourites are in his company.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's good to see Jake on the cover of Esquire magazine. Am not sure the magazine is what it once used to be (actually I'm pretty sure it isn't!), but at least it still holds one article per issue that deserves to be read!
(And that one pic of Jake inside is quite gorgeous!).

Elena said...

Jake's in good company, good and charismatic actors as Cate Blanchett, Denzel Washington, Robert Downey Jr, spanish Javier Bardem, the only thing I don't like is the beard.