Robert Downey Jr. puts on 10 of his best movie faces
By Kathleen Murphy
Special to MSN Movies
At the beginning of "Chaplin" (1992), which earned Robert Downey Jr. a Best Actor Oscar nom, Charlie gazes
soulfully into a mirror as he removes makeup, peeling away the persona of the
Little Tramp. It's telling how often a scene like this turns up in Downey's
movies: a comic-dramatic chameleon deconstructing whatever "skin" he's wearing
for the camera. These moments frame reflections of an actor who's mesmerized by
his own masks.
Downey's a hipster whose acting style is the equivalent of scat in jazz:
improvised performance driven by nervous energy. There's always an acute sense
of risk in the way this actor riffs, always a chance of his going over the edge
or flying apart. At the same time, Downey's a performer of immense control --
indeed, so much inner control that at times he seems to be making music on a
whole other stage than his fellow players.
The newborn superhero sports a dancer's small, compact body, muscled in
whipcord. The once-boyish face has now gaunted into Goya-esque beauty, but those
dark, melancholy eyes still glint with anarchic mischief -- or madness.
Onscreen, even during tragic times, you could always trust Downey's ferocious
commitment to the art of acting; he'd flay a role down to the very bone of
truth. That approach should stand him in good stead when he dons deerstalker cap
and inverness cape to play cocaine-addicted Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie's
upcoming extravaganza. And look for Downey as a savior of sorts now in "The Soloist."
The greatest actor of his generation is back in the game.
(DreamWorks Pictures)
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