daily stream: a movie star who oozes off the screen and snuggles up to you
2003’s *The Recruit* is new on Disney+ in the UK, and on all the usual services in the US
I’m not sorry that Brendan Fraser won Best Actor at the Oscars last night (though I have Some Things to say about The Whale, which I must do soon). But I would have been very happy to see Colin Farrell win for his pitch-perfect, blackly comedic performance in The Banshees of Inisherin (which I also have things to say about, and must say soon). I love that Banshees director Martin McDonagh is the only filmmaker so far who seems to have realized that Farrell is funny (see also: the brilliant In Bruges). But even when he hasn’t been funny, Farrell has always been a riveting screen presence. As in 2003’s The Recruit, which you may have justifiably forgotten. This CIA thriller is not a good movie, per se, but Farrell’s hotshot hacker subsumed by the Company makes it more than worth a look (or another one). From my 2003 review:
Not only is Farrell walking sex, the kind of movie star who simply oozes off the screen and snuggles up to you, but the boy can act, too. Even lumbered with all the usual inanities of action suspense thrillers — the car chases, the girlfriend he can’t trust, the let’s-type-on-the-computer-keyboard-and-pretend-it’s-exciting scenes — Farrell is far more sympathetic than he has any right to be. We may have (correctly) predicted everything that’s about to happen, but his James Clayton is in the dark, and he makes James’s apprehension and doubt so palpable that we can forget we know what’s coming and get caught up in worrying right along with James.
I’m gonna watch The Recruit again, and then I’m gonna watch Banshees again…
US: rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: new on Disney+; rent on Sky Store; buy on Prime and Apple TV
See The Recruit at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
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We are in the same boat about the Best Lead Actor Oscar; I am also genuinely thrilled for Fraser, but wow was I displeased by The Whale. I knew Farrell didn't have a hint of a chance (and if he didn't, poor Paul Mescal was never in consideration despite his wrenching performance) but I was rooting for him all the same; I loved Banshees and he nailed it. I think his performance was. . . well, I hate to use words like "better" because I don't think it's a competition, even though in this case it is. But while Fraser's role was awards candy, Farrell mastered a character arc with nuance, hilarity, and heartbreak.
And yeah, he's funny! He guest-starred on an episode of Scrubs back in the day that made me just adore him.