In Which I Come to a Poor, Helpless Movie Star's Defense...Sort Of

First, let me reiterate that it's not as though I think that Russell Crowe is the greatest actor of his generation and how dare you doubt his thespian genius or anything like that. His performances are serviceable and often engaging, but he's never moved me to tears or anything. I only said something because I thought it was kind of strange and interesting that you expressed such a strong opinion about him as an actor—not just a particular performance, but his performances in general. I honestly can't think of a dramatic actor whom I dislike in general—though there are particular performances I dislike, and plenty of actors I don't especially like or dislike, and there are certainly non-dramatic actors whom I generally avoid (Rob Schneider, the majority of Adam Sandler, just about all of Eddie Murphy since 1990, etc.)—so I was intrigued by your dislike, especially considering that he's a pretty well respected actor.

Your dislike of Crowe seems to stem from two sources: He plays a "tough guy" when he shouldn't, and his performances are often overrated. As for the second criticism, there's not really much to discuss since it's simply a subjective matter of opinion; either you think his performances warrant the praise they've received, or you don't. For my part, I don't think he deserved to win an Oscar for Gladiator (I probably would've gone with Bardem in Before Night Falls that year), so that performance at least was overrated in my opinion. (That is, assuming that an Oscar win is definitive evidence of how the public "rates" a particular actor.) Of the films you mentioned, I haven't seen The Insider, and I wouldn't call his performance in American Gangster overrated; I thought he did a good job of playing down his natural charm and establishing a dichotomous contrast between his character and Denzel's, though he didn't blow me away or anything.

As for your first criticism, I don't think I've seen enough of his "non-tough-guy" films to be able to say that he lets inappropriate tough-guy elements seep into his performances there. The only example of this you gave was State of Play, which I haven't seen; from what I can tell, his characters in The Insider, Body of Lies, and A Good Year don't seem like tough guys, but I haven't seen those either, so again I can't say. I have seen A Beautiful Mind, and, despite its other faults, I can't say he played John Nash as a tough guy at all. I've also seen Master and Commander (though not since it came out, so my memory may be a little rusty), and, in addition to suggesting that you muster the interest to see it, I think it offers an example of a performance by Crowe that's neither "tough-guy" nor "non-tough-guy." His character is certainly very much in control of the people around him and the situations before him (hence the title, I guess), but in the manner of a gentleman-captain in the Royal Navy, not a brutal '50s cop, a Roman gladiator, or the leader of a gang of Old West bandits; he's formidable to be sure, but not what you'd call a "tough guy."

I'm sorry if this post seems to be mostly my nitpicking about your criticisms about Crowe rather than a stalwart defense of him on his merits, but, as I said before, I just don't feel that strongly about him one way or the other. My opinion of him is that he's made some good movies (L.A. Confidential, Master and Commander, Gladiator to an extent), some stomach-turning schmaltz (A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, A Good Year), and some respectable but not particularly memorable work that falls somewhere in between (American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma). Given that you don't like him and I don't really care enough either to agree with you or to defend him, I think we can lay the Great Blogospheric Russell Crowe Debate That Never Was of 2009 to rest.