Matthias Schoenaerts - The Belgian Beast

You probably noticed him in a relatively small role in The Danish Girl, and you probably found his character a bit pointless, and a bit poorly written all in all, but let me defend him: he made more of the role than I think anyone could've, really. The nature of the role as the third man of a somewhat problematic 'love triangle' could have rendered his character's presence both obnoxious and unnecessary, but the charm and screen presence he has carries him through in a way I can't say the same for Amber Heard and Ben Whishaw in their distracting supporting turns (though in Whishaw's case, that beret does deserve its fair share of blame too). It's Mr Schoenaerts' weakest performance out of all those I've seen so far, and understandably so: some Hollywood directors, noting his good looks and charismatic personality, must've thought, 'we'll make him the next safe onscreen eye-candy: give him low-key, somewhat bland roles to play', like the role he apparently has in A Big Splash.

Which is a shame really, because bland roles are not Schoenaerts' strength, nor should they be. You have a huge array of actors in that sort of vein to choose from, Hollywood: this Belgian, multilingual talent deserves much better. The first performance I saw of him, in the almost painfully underrated The Drop, pretty much affirmed that far from being just a piece of meat to display onscreen, Schoenaerts is one of the most exciting actors to burst onto the Hollywood scene (I'll focus on his work here first) in recent years, with an intensity and chameleonic range to his method not unlike his co-star Tom Hardy. 

In the film, Hardy and Schoenearts sort of do their own variation of the dynamic between Marlon Brando and Lee J. Cobb in On the Waterfront. High praise, I know, but the two more than live up to it through the excellence of their scenes together. I've mentioned before that Hardy's Bob Saginowski is a most curious act of character creation by him, an odd and rather brilliant out-of-sync-ness and dimwittedness with the world around him blended with a brimming, quiet intensity, which contrasts beautifully with Schoenaerts' performance, which is a searing portrayal of a man who could be best described as a stupid thug, but one who takes such pride in his delusions of grandeur, that every movement of his is potentially lethal, because of what a ball of unpredictablity he is. His every apperance carries such effortless menace, and to boot Schoenaerts adopts a pitch-perfect New York accent. You'd have no clue English wasn't his first accent, nor would you ever question this guy was a genuine Brooklyn lowlife criminal. Also (spoilers), his last scene with Hardy and Noomi Rapace is fantastic, as in a few seconds, he sells the twist of the film in perfect harmony with Hardy by so quickly revealing the utter artifice of his character in a few seconds.

Schoenaerts soon did a complete 180-degree turn in terms of character from playing the most unpleasant asshole to the ultimate nicest guy ever, and one of the most famous swell characters in all of literature, Gabriel Oak in Far From the Madding Crowd. Far From the Madding Crowd is not a perfect film, it can't quite match the intrinsic power of the source material, the editing in the third act shortchanges some character developments, and Tom Sturridge gave the worst performance of last year which doomed the film beyond full recovery. That it still works overall as a good film is testament to Thomas Vinterberg's solid direction, the beautiful costume and set design, and three performances at its centre: Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen are great as the headstrong Bathsheba and the kindly but deeply haunted and insecure Boldwood, generating an extremely moving pathos within their characters and performances, but Schoenaerts, given probably the most limited role in the film as the 'nice guy', also shines marvellously. He does not have as much focus as Sheen and Mulligan but is equally impressive in his character creation.

His Gabriel Oak is a masterclass in understated acting; through most of it, he only gets a reaction shot here or there, a few words to speak to Bathsheba, but he makes each and every one of them count. He makes you feel utmost sympathy for his undeserved misfortunes, charmed despite his quiet nature and innate empathy for Bathsheba, admiration for the character's blunt nature, and despite having very few one-on-one scenes with Mulligan, makes the love that develops between the two resonate beautifully.

Having admired him very much in these two supporting roles, I thought, better check how he fares in a leading role. Well in both Rust and Bone and even more prominently, Bullhead, he acquits himself marvellously with bigger (quite literally) roles. On the surface, they might seem like two similar performances, but in reality they could not be more different.

Rust and Bone is to an extent a Marion Cotillard show, and she is certainly terrific in it, given an extremely heartbreaking and subsequently heartwarming arc as a whale trainer, crippled in the line of work, who slowly rebuilds her life together. She disappears for large stretches in the film, however, and the true lead and focus of the film is Schoenaerts' Alain van Versch, or Ali. His portrayal of Ali reminded me of great actors like Charles Bronson who could say a great deal with very little. Ali is a silent type, who spends most of his time doing physical stuff: working as a bouncer, boxing, getting into confrontations, having soulless love affairs. He realizes this stoic and mindless nature of the character beautifully, and makes his eventual transition into a livelier man truly resonate.

But if he was impressive there, he's even more incredible in Bullhead. His performance, which makes my extremely competitive lineup of 2011, can be best described as an extreme assertion of masculinity, but not in the way people usually mean when they state that phrase. Schoenaerts' Jacky is a man who having suffered a traumatic childhood accident, relies on injecting testosterone into his body to keep himself intact physically and mentally. Schoenaerts' decision to portray this as an almost subconscious, excessive degree of MAN-liness is incredible, as he merges this brilliantly with the listless, unpredictable and somewhat terrifying nature of his character's volatile yet infantile nature. The film is not flawless, it has a few slow patches, but is made entirely watchable and extremely compelling by the nature of the direction t Michael V. Roskam, and Schoenearts' performance which moves through the extreme points the film takes him with aplomb, and ends on an explosive note that's some of the greatest physical acting I've seen in ages.

 SPOILERS