Leonardo DiCaprio, incandescent actor.
"He is blessed with a name that for its bearer's purpose is perfect in every respect. Leonardo DiCaprio; movie star. If he lived 10 lives he couldn't come up with a better one. His hippie mom decided on the painterly handle traipsing about the Uffizi Palace feeling her son's urgent kicks whilst gazing on the works of the Renaissance master. And however tortured the analogy to his thespian skills, there's still the ring of truth.
This week we're reminded of this singular talent with the release of Marvin's Room , an intelligent if occasionally mawkish family drama. It features a worthy Oscar-nominated performance from Diane Keaton, a competent turn from Meryl Streep as her sister, and a truly weird non-speaking role for Hume Cronyn as the Alzheimer-ravaged patriarch. Rising above all this is DiCaprio, still in his early 20s, playing a troubled teen, Hank. He fulfills the contractually obligate menace to a T. But what's extraordinary is the charismatic presence he generates even when his character is acting like an idiot. When he's off-screen you can hear the air go out of the movie.
From the start, DiCaprio's performances seem to have sprung fully formed from a deep well of intuitive intelligence. He inhabits his roles in a way that makes other efforts along similar lines appear stagy and designed." It goes on to talk about Leonardo's movies, first What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
"DiCaprio is utterly artless in the best sense. He swallows Arnie whole, tick, giggles, sobs and all. Emotions sweep across his face like clouds scudding across an Irish seascape."
Now it's talking about This Boy's Life; "DiCaprio is a gifted mimic and I suspect that specific talent is central to his broader skills. There's a funny moment just prior to his character's introduction to his nemesis. Half to himself he complains: 'Dwight, what a stupid name.' He proceeds to run through a series of mocking pronunciations. First as a dumb-ass bubba: 'DUHwhite,' then as a high pitched floozy: 'Doooowhiiite.'"
It then goes on to talk about The Basketball Diaries; "Not much later, DiCaprio is full in the throes of withdrawal, complete with a symphony of hellish grunts and cries. It's hard to believe he hadn't gone through it before, for real, such is the intensity of his performance."
The last movie they talk about is Romeo and Juliet; "DiCaprio took some heat for lacking the range and elocution required to play Shakespeare convincingly. True. Still the sheer visceral beauty of the two principles, each swimming in the other's impossibly blue eyes, combined with the wildly original setting, more than make up for their flatish California accents. If that's the worst his critics can do, no doubt the best from Leonardo is the actor yet to come."
Leonardo will be appearing opposite Kate Winslet in The Titanic, opening Dec. 19.
From The Globe and Mail. Written by Douglas Bell
