Rantings and Ravings: Ten Characters played by...Martin Donovan

MARTIN DONOVAN

First up:

You're going to notice that a lot of the films on this list are directed by Hal Hartley. I remember that my Hal Hartley obsession began when my brother told me to rent the film Trust a few years ago. As usual, my brother's cinematic recommendation was bang on, and I loved the dream-like mixture of soapy emotions and over literary dialogue. But a big part of my admiration for the film stemmed from the peformances given by the late Adrienne Shelly, and Martin Donovan in the two leads. Donovan has been plying his trade on film and television for fifteen years now. He performs just as well in the lead as he does in supporting roles, and his understated, measured performances show a range and talent that deserves to be more widely appreciated. I've excluded some of his more recent efforts, including Insomnia (good), The Sentinel (terrible), and Wind Chill (so-so). The ones listed are what I feel are Donovan's finest turns. So, let's start with his first.

TRUST: MATTHEW SLAUGHTER

"He's dangerous...but sincere"

"Sincerely dangerous?"

Prone to outbursts of violent temper, Slaughter is the the hero of Hartley's sophomore film. He's cursed with an innate ability to fix computers and televisions, despite loathing technology. He lives with his father, who punches him in the stomach when he doesn't clean the bathroom properly. He doesn't get drunk, no matter how much he drinks. He also keeps a live hand grenade in a drawer in his bedroom. Oh, and he puts his boss' head in a vice. Then he meets Adrienne Shelly's Maria, and so begins, as the poster says, a "slightly twisted love story". As their relationship develops, Matthew learns to depend not just on himself, and to have others depend on him. Donovan's balance of rage and vulnerability helps make this an essential film for lovers of independent cinema.

SIMPLE MEN: MARTIN

"I can't stand the quiet!"

Hartley's third film gave Donovan a much smaller role. He's a very Hal Hartely kind of comic relief: potentially violent, intimidating, foulmouthed, passionate about music, and oddly philosophical. He misinterprets a discussion about whether Madonna, and other female musicians, are exploited or are exploiting others, and instead lists his favourite rock bands. It's a small, but memorable, part. Oh, and he gets to be a part of the Godard-esque dance sequence. Hot fuckin' Tuna indeed.

AMATEUR: THOMAS LUDENS

"Are you going to tell me who I am, and what's going on around here, or what?"

Amateur was Hartley's first real attempt at a different genre, namely a thriller. The film starts as we see Donovan's character lying unconscious on a pavement surrounded by broken glass. He wakes up without his memory, and wanders into a café where he meets Isabelle Huppert's character. Huppert plays an ex-nun who was kicked out of the convent for being a nymphomaniac, despite the fact that she's a virgin ("I'm choosy"). Thomas enters her oddly chaste-yet-sordid life with a wide-eyed curiosity. However, Thomas is being looked for by a threatening consortium who know his true identity. Donovan balances goodness with the potential for malice here, and plays wonderfully off Huppert.

NADJA: JIM

"We can't get a drink here, Jim, this is a coffee shop"

Produced by David Lynch (who also cameos), Nadja is a very strange vampire movie from oddball indie director Michael Almereyda. Shot in grainy black and white, Nadja is set in New York in the present day. Jim (essentially Jonathan Harker) bails out his uncle Van Helsing (Peter Fonda, enjoying himself), who has just killed Dracula. The pair get very drunk, little realising that the Count's daughter Nadja (Hartley regular Elina Lowensohn) and son Edgar (Jared Harris) are also in the city, and Nadja is determined to resurrect her father. It's odd stuff, and very much of its time, but it's well acted and strangely hypnotic. Admittedly, Donovan actually has little to do except react to Peter Fonda's ramblings, and dialogue like "It's my sister....she's on an aeroplane...dying....for a cigarette"

FLIRT: WALTER

"Maybe I ought to shoot you?"

Donovan took another small but memorable part in Hartley's contrived, three-short-films-with-the-same-story experiment. He's in the first, and best, segment set in New York. He plays Walter, who's wife has left him. Bill (Bill Sage), the lead, has the misfortune to wander into the bar in which Walter is drinking a bottle of whiskey and trying to load a pistol. Bill is the titular flirt who may or may not have tempted Walter's wife away from him. Bill learns a valuable lesson: Don't try and hug the man you cuckolded when he's drunk and holding a loaded gun.

THE BOOK OF LIFE: JESUS CHRIST

"Who are the Mormons again?"

Yep, it's another Hal Hartley movie. This time, Donovan takes on the role of JC himself, debating whether or not to open the Book of Life on New Year's Eve, 1999. Aside from being Hartley's first full-length dalliance with digital, the script is very witty. Hartley enjoys playing with Biblical names and New York types (a law firm is called Armageddon, Armageddon and Jehosoaphat) PJ Harvey is surprisingly good as Jesus' loyal companion Mary Magdalene, and Thomas Jay Ryan (Henry Fool) gives excellent seediness to the Devil. It's not a showy Donovan performance, more quietly sympathetic, appropriate to a thoughtful, and ultimately optimistic, little film.

THE UNITED STATES OF LELAND: HARRY POLLARD

"You want a story? Go and talk to that kid's parents! Ask them how they raised a monster!"

This flawed, but interesting, little film starred a young Ryan Gosling as Leland, a troubled young man who kills the mentally handicapped brother of his ex-girlfriend. The film is a bit all over the place, trying to be insightful and touching. It manages both, but never at the same time. The cast is excellent, including Jena Malone, Kevin Spacey, Michelle Williams, Don Cheadle, and Lena Olin. Donovan is superb as the distraught father, desperately trying to cope as his family deal with their grief almost silently, Harry is a terribly affecting character

SAVED: PASTOR SKIP

"All right! All right! Who's down with G-O-D?"

Saved! showed that Martin Donovan could be funny. The underrated film tells the story of Mary (Jena Malone), who realises that her attempt to convert her gay boyfriend has left her pregnant, and that the religious school she attends will be unlikely to accept that she did it because she thought God wanted her to. Donovan plays the funky Pastor Skip, who flips onto the stage, talking about G-O-D, JC, and Mary's posse being on the front-lines for Jesus. But Pastor Skip is also having a spiritual crisis of his own. Despite being separated from his wife, he can't divorce her because it would be a sin. Meanwhile, he's falling for Mary's mother Lillian (Mary-Louise Parker). This is definitely worth a watch.

WEEDS: PETER SCOTTSON

"Take them to dinner and profess my love? That's how I took down the Santiago brothers"

I'll be honest, I really went off Weeds once they went to the coast. But in the beginning they nailed the combination of comedy and drama, as Mary-Louise Parker's widowed Nancy Botwin started dealing weed to pay her bills. Donovan appears towards the end of the first series as single dad Peter, who Nancy promptly falls for. Shortly afterwards, she discovers that he's a DEA agent. Donovan lends some much needed threat to the early series of Weeds, and temporarily scared the shit out of the complacent Nancy.

MASTERS OF HORROR: RIGHT TO DIE: CLIFF ADDISON

"What about her soul...."

Masters of Horror was a very hit-and-miss series, but Rob Schmidt's Right to Die was one of the clear high points. Donovan plays Cliff, whose wife burns almost to death in a car accident. Cliff is given the choice to stop life support on his wife. He's in favour of the idea, but realises that whenever his wife flat-lines, she appears as a very angry ghost, bent on revenge. Right to Die is very different from everything else on this list. It's gory, silly, but it's geniunely spooky and is helped no end by an excellent performance from Donovan, who slowly clues the audience in to the fact that Cliff may not be a very nice person.

So there you have it. Ten Martin Donovan performances. There's no sign of any massive mainstream acclaim for the man any time soon, but each film and show on this list is worth seeking out. Who knows, maybe he'll do a Richard Jenkins in a few years and get an Oscar nomination. He certainly deserves it.

P.S. If anyone is wondering why The Opposite of Sex isn't on this list, it's because I haven't seen it. I hear it's great!