THE COLIN FARRELL REVIEW

By Nate Lee

BEST FILM: Minority Report His breakout role as a detective in the future, trying to catch star Tom Cruise. It’s probably no accident that it’s his only really successful blockbuster; he’s in a supporting role.

GREAT PERFORMANCES YOU MAY NOT HAVE SEEN:

Cassandra’s Dream (with Ewan McGregor, talked into some nasty business by their uncle, Tom Wilkinson)

In Bruges (Golden Globe-winning performance as a hitman hiding out in boring Belgium)

Intermission (a Dublin crook trying to plan a bank robbery)

Phone Booth (a lying SOB trapped in a PB by an invisible psycho)

Pride and Glory (bad cop, opposite Edward Norton)

The Recruit (CIA rookie, opposite Bridget Moynahan)

Tigerland (rebellious but excellent soldier in Vietnam)

Hart’s War (prisoner in a WWII stalag, with Bruce Willis)

Ask the Dust (a young novelist in Depression-era L.A.)

BLOCKBUSTERS:

Alexander (Alexander the Great)

Daredevil (an assassin out to get the superhero)

Miami Vice (Crockett, opposite Jamie Foxx’s Tubbs)

Minority Report (“precrime” detective out to get Tom Cruise)

SWAT (SWAT team member)

The New World (John Smith, lover of Pocahontas)

THE REAL FARRELL:

Cassandra’s Dream

It’s gambling he’s addicted to here instead of alcohol or prescription drugs but it’s a guy making all the wrong choices trying to crawl his way out of his own skin. Metaphorically, Phone Booth is a close second: there, even though it’s someone else who has a gun to Colin’s head, it is still his own personality that brought them (both Farrell’s character and the assassin) to that point.

ACTING STYLE:

Self-destructive. As with his life, Farrell excels at playing guys who don’t have the brains to keep out of serious trouble. At his best, he’s being swallowed up in the vortex of circumstances, which he no doubt started. (You’d think he would have been better at playing Alexander, the apotheosis of the self-destructive hero.) Not exactly deep but definitely brooding, Farrell works the hero-victim as well as Nicolas Cage, plus Colin you’d want on your side in a fight.

BITS AND QUIRKS:

Always tightly wound, seems to up it with a cold stare or with quick jerky motions of the eyes with his head down. Works a cigarette in all kinds of ways. The pout, especially with shoulders up and head down.

GREAT SCENES:

IN BRUGES

The final chase, from “the jump” of his partner forward > The phone calls with Ralph Fiennes as their boss.

CASSANDRA’S DREAM

On the boat with Ewan McGregor > Talking things over with Tom Wilkinson > Self-destructing and threatening to go to the cops

THE RECRUIT

Breaking down in the torture room.

IF YOU LIKE HIM, YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T LIKE:

American Outlaws

SWAT

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