Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
This weekend, Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain star in an indie film about a tourist who inadvertently kills a local in the Middle East and must come to terms with his actions while the social mores of the region demand justice. While I’ve twice tackled Jessica Chastain as part of a group list, I haven’t yet highlighted the career of Ralph Fiennes. For many, their first experience with the British thespian was in Schindler’s List, though it was his third film and those who saw him in his first, Wuthering Heights, will probably remember him from there. However, his Oscar nomination for Steven Spielberg’s film set during the Holocaust may have set him on his current career trajectory, one that’s been filled with as many heroic performances as villainous ones. Let’s look at my five favorite films starring or featuring him.
Schindler’s List (1993)
To show you just how effective an actor Fiennes can be, look no further than Spielberg’s magnum opus. In Schindler’s List, Fiennes plays Amon Gรถth, an SS Commandant overseeing the Pลaszรณw concentration camp in Krakรณw, Poland. Although his efforts on behalf of Nazi Germany are abhorrent, Fiennes manages to embody the character with the kind of charm that exemplifies how the Nazis managed to achieve all they did.
Fiennes is just one of a strong cast in the film with Liam Neeson turning in his best performance to date and Ben Kingsley providing able support. Filmed mostly in black-and-white, Spielberg infuses all of his humanity and hope into a film about the mass murder of millions of Jews. The film focuses in on Oskar Schindler’s attempts to save the lives of as many of his Jewish workers as he can as the horrors of the Holocaust come into full view. It’s a potent film that grimly delves into the inhumanities visited upon the Jews by the Nazis. It’s a harrowing experience, but one of paramount importance. Only by facing the tragedy of the past can we hope to avoid the pitfalls that led to it.
The English Patient (1996)
Going from the villain in Schindler’s List to the romantic lead in The English Patient is another sign of how talented Fiennes is as an actor. In Anthony Minghella’s Best Picture winner, Fiennes plays Hungarian cartographer Count Lรกszlรณ de Almรกsy who is mapping the Sahara Desert. He meets and falls in love with Katherine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), the wife of his expeditionary partner (Colin Firth). The film is told in achronological order beginning as the horribly burned Fiennes, suffering from amnesia, is being cared for by a compassionate French-Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche) who agrees to look after him after her services in World War II come to an end.
Mighella adapted the celebrated novel by Michael Ondaatje, delivering a fine epic the kinds of which Hollywood hadn’t seen successfully completed in at least a decade and which favorably reminds audiences of the kind of work David Lean used to produce. Fiennes, Scott Thomas, Binoche, Willem Dafoe, and Naveen Andrews are all superb as is every aspect of the film from the lovely production design and costuming to the makeup and visual effects. It’s no surprise that the film swept the Academy Awards that year, though a film I favored more got shafted as a result.
The Constant Gardener (2005)
In Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of the John Le Carrรฉ pseudo-spy thriller, Fiennes and Oscar winner Rachel Weisz star as a husband and wife on dispatch in Kenya. Tessa (Weisz) is an Amnesty International activist and Justin (Fiennes) is a low-level diplomat. Weisz suspects something foul is happening in Africa and sends a report through another diplomat (Danny Huston) to the Foreign Office in England. She suspects a multi-national drug company is using the people of Africa to test a highly experimental and deadly tuberculosis drug.
When going into the film, one shouldn’t expect a fast-paced action thriller like you might get with James Bond. Carrรฉ’s novels and the film adaptations of such are slow-boil dramas that build to a crescendo where nefarious affairs are brought to light or stifled through murder and other illicit means. The film is worth the effort to seek out if for nothing else than to see Fiennes, Weisz, Huston, and Bill Nighy delivering strong performances.
No original review available.
In Bruges (2008)
From villain to hero and back again, Fiennes once again took on a dastardly role in Martin McDonagh’s crime comedy In Bruges. To say it was dastardly is perhaps making it seem one-dimensional. In McDonagh’s film, nothing is one-dimensional. The film follows two hitmen (Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson) as they are ordered to Bruges, Belgium to await further instructions. There, their boss (Fiennes) orders Gleeson to kill Farrell for gaining a conscience after the mistaken murder of an innocent altar boy.
Fiennes’ character doesn’t like mistakes and doesn’t like consciences, but even while he’s attempting to carry out his own order after Gleeson refuses, he speaks with the men almost reasonably, as if no bad blood exists between them. It’s thanks to McDonagh’s skill at crafting a compelling narrative, fascinating characters, and forthright dialogue that the film succeeds beyond what his three actors bring to it, which is inestimable talent. They manage to sell a seemingly outlandish narrative as an honest and subversively wholesome film. Farrell and Gleeson are as fantastic as, if not better than, Fiennes.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
When talking about range, it’s not just being able to sell heroes and villains. It’s also the ability to tackle drama and comedy with equal aplomb. Fiennes is adept at both as this Wes Anderson comedy shows. In it he plays the beloved concierge of the titular hotel. He, along with a new lobby boy (Tony Revolori), go on an adventure after escaping a rich dowager’s will reading with a painting she has bequeathed to him. If the premise sounds absurd and you like that kind of thing, then the film will be right up your alley.
As is typical with Anderson’s films, he gathers a superb array of terrific actors, each giving a delightful performance. They always make their characters seem real, honest, and oblivious to the surreal nature of the story surrounding them. The film is visually stunning with Anderson’s trademark vibrancy. The film received nine Oscar nominations, all of them deserved, and took home four, all of them the best elements of the film: score, production design, costume design, and makeup & hairstyling
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