I love Viggo Mortensen. I've had a crush on him for years. (In fact, if you look at my blog, I've blogged about him several times.... a bit sad and pathetic for a 40 year old woman, but hey, what are you gonna do?) It's OK though... hubster has a similarly unrealistic crush on Selma Hayek, so there ya go.
Anyway, this weekend we rented "Eastern Promises" ... Viggo's latest movie (and the performance which won him an Academy Award nomination).
In the movie, he plays a Russian mobster named Nikolai. As always, he has the role down pat. Everything. The accent, the mannerisms, the tattoo "storyboard" on his body, etc. Viggo is thorough and clearly takes his craft very seriously. He is definitely NOT an actor who skates by on his looks (although he easily could....)
However, there was one scene in the movie that I wasn't quite prepared for. Yes, that would be the Naked Bathhouse Fight Scene. In this scene, Viggo's character is basically being set up to be murdered, and is left in a sauna where he's sitting, naked and unaware. Enter two leather clad, knife-wielding thugs; bloody vicious hand-to-hand combat ensues. The visual "punch to the face" is that Viggo is totally (and I mean TOTALLY) naked through the whole scene, and it's not a little 10 second scene either. Cronenberg, the director, leaves NOTHING to the imagination. (As Austin Powers would say "It was all there, baby... his twig and berries...") To say this scene was a bit unnerving and alarming is an understatement. But, once again, it proved what an amazing actor Viggo really is. The fact that he could retain his composure while filming such a horrifically violent, graphic scene (and while being naked as a jaybird) was pretty amazing.
Cronenberg, as usual, never really resolved the story line and resorted to his predictable tactic of gratuitous violence designed to manipulate his audience but, with Cronenberg movies, that's his style and most people know that going in.
Anyway, this weekend we rented "Eastern Promises" ... Viggo's latest movie (and the performance which won him an Academy Award nomination).
In the movie, he plays a Russian mobster named Nikolai. As always, he has the role down pat. Everything. The accent, the mannerisms, the tattoo "storyboard" on his body, etc. Viggo is thorough and clearly takes his craft very seriously. He is definitely NOT an actor who skates by on his looks (although he easily could....)
However, there was one scene in the movie that I wasn't quite prepared for. Yes, that would be the Naked Bathhouse Fight Scene. In this scene, Viggo's character is basically being set up to be murdered, and is left in a sauna where he's sitting, naked and unaware. Enter two leather clad, knife-wielding thugs; bloody vicious hand-to-hand combat ensues. The visual "punch to the face" is that Viggo is totally (and I mean TOTALLY) naked through the whole scene, and it's not a little 10 second scene either. Cronenberg, the director, leaves NOTHING to the imagination. (As Austin Powers would say "It was all there, baby... his twig and berries...") To say this scene was a bit unnerving and alarming is an understatement. But, once again, it proved what an amazing actor Viggo really is. The fact that he could retain his composure while filming such a horrifically violent, graphic scene (and while being naked as a jaybird) was pretty amazing.
Cronenberg, as usual, never really resolved the story line and resorted to his predictable tactic of gratuitous violence designed to manipulate his audience but, with Cronenberg movies, that's his style and most people know that going in.
All in all though, great cast, and pretty good movie.
Chalk up another great performance for Viggo.
A fine actor.
1 comment:
Twig and Berries???
OMG that is SO funny.
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