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!

Ramblings and Retrospectives: Wonder Boys

WONDER BOYS

You know, it’s easy to hate Michael Douglas. When we think of him, we think of the actor who was the poster boy for terrible early-90s erotic thrillers, getting grotty with Sharon Stone and Demi Moore in Basic Instinct and Disclosure respectively. More recently, we‘ve had to put up with sub-par blockbusters like The Sentinel, and his cameos in weak comedies such as You, Me and Dupree, and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. If we’re being generous, we might allow him his performances in Wall Street, or Traffic (despite the fact that the film is not as wonderful as it was hailed on its release). But Michael Douglas can surprise you. Every now and again he’ll pop up in films like Falling Down, The Game, or Wonder Boys, and we remember he’s a talented actor, and not just Catherine Zeta Jones’ sex-addicted husband who got an Oscar for producing Once Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Despite receiving good reviews, Wonder Boys flopped hard on its release in 2000 (hardly surprising given the awful poster campaigns and the tagline "A weekend from hell became the time of his life") and has never really been reappraised. It’s a shame, because the film is an excellent, sophisticated little dramatic comedy that deserves another look. Based on the novel by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon, it’s the story of a very bad weekend for pot-bellied, pot-smoking author/professor Grady Tripp (Douglas). He has still not finished the long-awaited follow-up to his acclaimed, award-winning first novel, The Arsonist’s Daughter, despite the fact that his page count is now in the tens of thousands. His wife has left him on the morning of the first day of the university’s weekend-long literary event, WordFest. His editor Terry Crabtree (Robert Downey Jr.) has flown into town with a tall transvestite in tow. He’s supposed to be there for WordFest but is really trying to sniff out Grady’s second novel. His mistress Sara (Frances McDormand), who happens to be married to Grady’s head of department, Walter, has just discovered that she is pregnant with his child. In a moment of kindness he decides to take unusual student James Leer (Tobey Maguire) under his dubious wing for the weekend. Before long, Grady is saddled with a stoned student who has not only killed Walter’s dog, but has stolen his priceless coat belonging to Marilyn Monroe. Over the course of the weekend, he must shield James, not only from the police, but from Terry’s advances, and decide what to do about Sara, his weed habit, and his ever-growing behemoth of a novel.

If we’re being honest, not a lot actually happens in Wonder Boys. The first night of the story takes up around half of the entire movie. But we are introduced, carefully, to each of the characters and we are allowed to make our own judgements, and a film’s willingness to take its time is a vastly underrated quality. The script is also hilariously funny in a very low-key, deadpan way, setting up wry zingers that seem tailor-made for old hands like McDormand and Downey Jr. At the same time it doesn’t shy away from the humour found in incredibly bizarre situations, such as an attempt to escape from an angry, short man who believes that Grady has stolen his car, or the difficulties of hiding a dog that’s been shot twice in the chest.

Director Curtis Hanson is best known for his work on LA Confidential and 8-Mile and seems like a curious choice for a film like this at first glance. However, he makes the actually rather bold choice of directing the film in the least obtrusive way possible. A less experienced director might have looked at the script and, panicking at the lack of action, thrown in some unnecessary flashy visuals or fiddled with the story’s structure. Hanson lets the scenes flow smoothly along. The excellent production design and locations speak volumes about the characters. Specifically, Grady’s house is a wonderfully lived-in mess covered with books and papers. Meanwhile, Sara and Walter’s home seems to be striving for a classy, literary elite feel. As James points out, standing outside looking in, “It’s colder in there”. It would also be a grievous error to describe Wonder Boys without mentioning the weather. The film is set in Pittsburgh in winter, and the snow and rain permeate the mood and texture of the film. Grady’s house, overflowing with its various odds and ends, is warm and comforting. The real world outside is cold and unwelcoming, and you feel for Grady as he answers the door clad in a comfy-looking pink dressing gown and a woollen hat. The contrast of warmth and cold is added to by the excellent, nostalgic soundtrack, featuring Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, and Van Morrison. There is also the small matter of Dylan's "Things Have Changed", written for the movie. Hanson trusts the setting and the cast to draw you into the story and get you interested in their lives. And what a cast it is.

Douglas has never been better used than here. Many will argue that Falling Down is his finest work, but I would beg to differ. In Wonder Boys he convincingly sheds his image and truly inhabits the role: You forget that you’re watching Michael Douglas. As Grady drags himself out his self-contained world into situations where he may have to be decisive and take responsibility, the actor keeps the character believable and, above all, likeable (a rare thing for a character played by Michael Douglas). A pre-Spider-Man Tobey Maguire works very well in the role of the talented but peculiar James Leer, juggling humour and melancholy. Katie Holmes has a smaller role as Grady’s student/tenant who continually tries to be a shoulder to cry on or, preferably, his new lover. It’s not a terribly demanding part but she’s convincing and surprisingly funny. Robert Downey Jr., before rehab, veers between auto-pilot and excellence, but Robert Downey Jr. on autopilot is still far more entertaining to watch to watch than most actors. He also gets an unexpected slapstick moment that works so well that it reminds us that, yes, he played Charlie Chaplin. There’s a nice cameo from Rip Torn as the pompous, but successful, author Q, and geek favourite Alan Tudyk pops up as a janitor interested in Errol Flynn’s sex life. Most underused, however, is the wonderful Frances McDormand. Despite winning an Oscar for Fargo, she’s still one the most underappreciated actresses in Hollywood. She makes the most of her screen-time, however, fashioning Sara into a strong-willed but kind-hearted woman. She clearly wants to be with Grady, but she isn’t going to make the decision for him. It’s a shame the film has such a dreadful, maudlin little coda, but it certainly doesn’t ruin the ninety minutes you’ve spent with the characters.

Wonder Boys takes great delight in satirising the literary world. From Grady’s class’ brutal evaluation of James Leer’s short story that starts the film (“Jesus, what is it with you Catholics?” moans one girl), to the self-importance of Q (Rip Torn), Wonder Boys shows writers to be narcissistic, vain, and often completely clueless. As Q takes the stage at WordFest, he takes a moment to size up the packed auditorium before intoning, with the gravitas of Orson Welles, “I…am a writer”. He receives rapturous applause. Shortly after, his bubble is popped when James drunkenly bursts out laughing. It is important to note, however, that although the film skewers the industry, and the people, it remains reverential of the work they produce, and it admires the commitment that these people have to the written word. Although we’re encouraged to laugh at Q, we are told that he is rich and successful. James may be a very strange young man but Grady and Terry’s admiration of his manuscript, “The Love Parade”, shows that he is also very talented. And there’s Grady himself, who, after ranting about fiction doesn’t mean anything anymore, is told by a heartbroken James that “‘Arsonists’ Daughter’ meant something. It meant something to me.”. Even Q remains impressed by his talent.

Wonder Boys may not be a perfect film, but it’s witty and intelligent in a way that a lot of more recent urbane indie films have tried hard to achieve but failed (Smart People, anyone?). Quirkiness, an interesting cast, and a good soundtrack mean nothing if you can’t connect with the characters, and where other “offbeat” films fail, Wonder Boys succeeds. It may be slow, but it leaves you with the warm glow attained after spending an evening in great company.

Wonder Boys trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2179072281/

Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQDeYzUkXOU