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July 2, 2008
Ben Whishaw’s rising star
Fans of the Evelyn Waugh novel, “Brideshead Revisited,” and the 11-hour British miniseries from the early 1980s, will probably find a lot to criticize in the new theatrical film version that’s opening on July 25.
The miniseries — which launched the career of Jeremy Irons — was exhaustively faithful to the book.
The Miramax film is a Cliff’s Notes version of what Waugh was trying to say about class and sexuality in England in the years between the two world wars. Ironically, at the screening I attended in New York last week, I heard someone complain that the two-hour-and-10-minute film was “slow” — what would they have made of the miniseries?
No matter what happens to “Brideshead Revisited” in its midsummer art house release, the picture should bring more accolades to the 27-year-old actor Ben Whishaw — his performance as the alcoholic gay aristocrat Sebastian Flyte is the best thing in the movie.
After a series of small roles in British TV and films, Whishaw got his big break when he landed the starring role in the 2006 “Perfume” — where he played a sympathetic madman with a genius for creating expensive scents. The following year, Whishaw turned up as one of the multiple Bob Dylans in “I’m Not There” and held his own in a company that included Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett.
Whishaw is a classically trained stage actor with the charisma of a movie star — he has that special ability to draw us close to angry, disturbed and confused characters who might not be sympathetic if played by a less compelling performer. Whishaw reminds me of the young Tom Courtenay, who was able to redeem anti-social anti-heroes in "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" (1962) and "King Rat" (1965).
Sebastian Flyte in “Brideshead Revisited” is a more conventional character than the ones Whishaw played in his last two movies — a sad young man who drinks to block out his inability to come to terms with being gay — but the beautifully mounted production will take the actor into the center of the mainstream. It’s the sort of flashy and tricky work that earns Oscar nominations.
Posted by Joe on July 2, 2008 3:37 PM
