One challenging role deserves another

JAKE Gyllenhaal (at the annual Governors Awards in Los Angeles) is a front-runner in this year’s acting derby for “Nightcrawler.” AP

2014 has turned out to be an annus mirabilis for Jake Gyllenhaal, who recently wowed drama buffs with his “twin” portrayals of two men who looked alike but were diametrically opposed in terms of psychological makeup in “Enemy.”

Most actors would thank their lucky stars to be given one exceptional thespic showcase each year, but Gyllenhaal is especially blessed and regarded, because he’s now following up on that singular achievement with another crackerjack performance in Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler.” One challenging role clearly deserves another!

“Nightcrawler” is being singled out by fans of “dark” cinema and films that comment on life today because its title character, portrayed by Gyllenhaal, is a creepily compelling and unusually controversial protagonist. To do him full justice, the actor had to lose a lot of weight—a testament to the absolute involvement and dedication that he feels all roles worth doing deserve.

In Gilroy’s film, the actor is cast as a TV news stringer who seeks to make it big in the highly competitive field by pushing back the limits of news coverage in terms of violence and shock value.

To make his visuals even more creepily compelling, he isn’t averse to “manipulating” a crime or accident scene for maximum effect.

His “partner in crime” is a similarly ambitious and unprincipled TV news director (Rene Russo), who looks for and finds shocking and sleazy crime or accident footage with great dedication—and absolutely zero moral compunction.

These two creepy characters’ exploits say a lot about how low the broadcast media has sunk today in terms of responsible principles and standards. So viewers interested in the impact of irresponsible media on audiences today should make a beeline for “Nightcrawler” as it “creeps” into our cineplexes. Watch, shudder and learn!

Other promising movies coming to our screens include James Marsh’s “The Theory of Everything,” about the famous British physicist, Stephen Hawking, portrayed to most credible perfection by Eddie Redmayne, another actor who will do anything for a role.

In his case, Hawking is completely immobilized and can communicate only via cursor and computer, so the actor has had to find ways to be dramatically expressive and emotionally vulnerable even if the character he plays is completely trapped in his absolutely motionless and insensate physical frame!

Gyllenhaal and Redmayne’s completely committed and credible portrayals should teach Filipino actors how to play challenging characters with correspondingly incisive believability and insight.

Most of the time, local thespians go by personality instead of completely believable characterization so a lot of lessons need to be learned in this regard—and fast!

Hopefully, if those lessons are learned, we’ll be able to see a Jose Rizal on TV who isn’t tisoy and sports cute but “irrelevant” dimples! Hopefully.