'Detective! Liteutenant.' - The Fine Art of Kevin Spacey

I'll wholly admit that it's taken me quite a while to take to Kevin Spacey as an actor, mostly based on just learning more about the medium of film. When I was a bit younger I found him a good enough actor, with a good deal of onscreen charm and charisma, but nothing more than that, a more serious sort of George Clooney. It's required time and re-watches of certain performances of his to fully appreciate that when he's properly invested in a role, he's probably one of the very best at his profession.

Spacey is a very unique kind of actor--an effortless superstar. He's at his very best when he doesn't really seem to be trying - not so much that he's slumming it or taking a simple route of characterization, but akin to someone like Leonardo DiCaprio, or Tom Cruise, his most remarkable work is done when he seems to ease up and utilize his natural talent and movie star persona to help in the characterization of his performance. It's apparently applied to in his performance as Frank Underwood in House of Cards (a performance I've yet to see), but based on what I've seen of him so far, the best example of this in his filmmography is his performance as Jack Vincennes in the masterful noir procedural  His is a character and performance I underrated so much upon my initial viewing of the film. I loved it the first time I watched it, and liked Spacey's performance in it well enough. On re-watch though I've come to find the film a masterpiece, one of my new favourite films of all-time, and Spacey's performance is quite possibly the best thing about it, although there's great competition by the leads Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe. 

Spacey is perfectly cast as the movie star sorta cop who's less concerned about his profession than fame and gain, as he's probably the master of sleazy charm which Vincennes has in oodles. He's never overly smarmy which would make him unlikeable, rather Spacey utilizes a very smooth sort of style to brush over a lot of Vincennes' less savoury aspects. Spacey is so entertaining to watch in the role, I've always thought so, as he makes everything this careless but not dumb cop do so fun to watch. His mind is always on the hedonistic high life but Spacey excellently never plays Vincennes as a useless jerk cop, he's so much more than that.

I never should have underrated it as just another effortless employment of Spacey's smarmy charming suave cool routine, as there's so much more to Jack than just that. Although that's not to diminish that side of Spacey's work there. He's the perfect cool customer and extremely charismatic presence as the Hollywood cop without a smidgeon of restraint in his love of fame, glory and money. The most exceptional side to Spacey's suaveness here though is the underlying self-loathing. He brilliantly depicts the hatred he feels at every self-serving action he does, and in particular shares some exceptional chemistry with Pearce's upstart hotshot cop Exley as the contrasting idealism and cynicism of the two characters so wonderfully contrast. A few reaction shots in particular show to me the strengths of Spacey's work in this regard as without words, he conveys such a range of constrained emotions to the camera:

His sorrowful response of 'I don't know' to Exley's question here (I also just love the way he delivers the word 'LiEUtenant' in this scene:

His '50 Dollar Bill scene':

And of course his final scene, 'Rollo Tomassi'

Add in all the other possible interpretations garnered by Spacey's performance (is he gay, suggestions of his past) and you have a masterful depiction of an outwardly hedonistic, inwardly regretful cop who ends up being a true hero.

There's a different but no less impressive side to Spacey's talents that can be found in another masterful 1990's film, Se7en. Here Spacey doesn't play a conflicted hero, he plays a villain, one of the worst villains in recent film history who could've been easily turned into a hammy, overplayed sadistic stereotypical villain, but in Spacey's enigmatic hands becomes the ultimate haunting mystery, the elusive John Doe.

I guess there's spoilers here by simply talking about this performance but oh well. Spacey's John Doe takes a great deal of time till he enters the film, and by the time he comes into the picture all but 2 of the seven sins have been perpetrated, and he's the clear perpetrator of it. This is a fascinating performance as it doesn't focus on trying to hide any aspect of the character's murderous nature as it's so obvious from the outset that no question about it, John Doe is the culprit, which Spacey brilliantly nails in his entrance, gradually ascending his delivery of 'detective...detective...DETTTEECCTIVE'.

Spacey once again seems so effortless in his portrayal of a criminal, giving a performance that is stylized but in the most brutal, most unappealing sort of way. There's a certain sort of gravitas to the words of John Doe but it's not of the comforting sort, not at all, rather Spacey brings a sort of distant confidence and off-putting, self-presumed ominscience to his words that is particularly felt in his conversations with Detectives Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Brad Pitt) in the car.

Spacey's psychopathic killer is depicted with a most unique mindset, compelled by a deeply twisted desire to fulfil his 'masterpiece' and reveal the world in all its depravity as God would have it. The seven sins are all brilliantly conveyed through Spacey's fantastic work here through which shows the deranged delusions of the 'preacher's, and mending it with the underlying grotesqueness and hateful jealousy of the killer-I love how Spacey manages to make the convictions of John Doe in the lack of 'innocence' in the world around him and the righteousness of his twisted moral code and actions, but also revels in exactly how callous and vile his soul is by his lapses into anger.

That he gains the upper hand in the end and manages to fufil the seven sins without even lifting a finger is testament to the haunting quality of the film's ending. Freeman, and Pitt (I disagree with the general consensus, I think he's brilliant in the film and don't even think his final line deliveries are bad at all, maybe a bit over-the-top but I actually do think it's the sort of reaction a lot of people in his situation would have), excel but it really is Spacey who brings to the fore the hatred in the man as one of a kind, and even through death casts such a shadow over the film's extremely dark ending. Both these performances are masterful works of art by Spacey, showing that there's perhaps no one better than him at portraying with such ease the depravities and regrets of man's deepest, darkest natures.

I promise to watch the American House of Cards ASAP.