The Curious Case of Chris Pine

It baffles me that it's taken this long for me to realize, in the past two years, that Chris Pine is actually a really great actor. I hate to admit it, but for a while he was on my radar as this pretty boy coasting on his looks to roles. Yet looking back on his career, it's kind of clear that while his looks certainly helped garner many of his roles for him, that's not all there is to his career. So much more, in fact.

As a straightforward leading man

Pine's most well-known role is probably as Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek films. He's certainly quite good in them, never trying to emulate William Shatner, but instead taking his own perhaps less hammy, at times a bit sleazy and cocky, but still charming approach to the role. Then there's stuff like Unstoppable and This Means War where he has to play off against more dramatically reputable actors like Denzel Washington and Tom Hardy in fun, dumb action films. He's fun to watch in these, and even if he can be occasionally a bit bland as a leading man (see The Finest Hours), he's usually a solid enough guarantee as an anchor to the proceedings.

As a manic character actor

Now this is where Pine gets a bit more intriguing as an actor. He's absolutely delightful in Into the Woods as a Prince Charming with very little substance, playing up the vapidity of the character wonderfully, quite funny as an egotistic and spoilt millionaire's son in Horrible Bosses 2, and in his collaborations with Joe Carnahan in Smokin' Aces and Stretch his performances are something to be seen to be believed. Not everything he does works, but the maniacal energy and enthusiasm he throws into these roles are the mark of a truly dedicated actor doing his best to entertain, and often succeeding.

As a more complex leading man

Now this is my favourite side to Pine, one I haven't seen enough of yet, but like his co-star Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman, I look forward to seeing how they will stretch themselves in the future, acting-wise. Steve Trevor and Toby Howard from Hell or High Water are completely different characters, one's a fast-talking, charismatic, humorous and heroic WWI spy, the other is a morally more murky, understated, quiet man who resorts to robbing banks to keeping the family ranch going. I'm starting to think that his work in both films is becoming a bit underrated. Jeff Bridges, and especially Ben Foster are great in Hell or High Water, but Pine's quieter work is every bit as essential to making the film's powerful conclusion work as well as it does. He never raises his voice throughout the film yet still conveys so much.

Then in Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot carries the film marvelously as the titular heroine, but without Pine's excellent comedic timing to play off her sweet naivete, and the poignancy of their swift romance that enhances the ending of the film's power, I don't think the film would have been as great as it is. And the more I think about it, what's stuck with me the most in the film outside of that amazing No Man's Land sequence is the last few seconds of Pine's performance. It's easy to write off what he does in this role and so many others, but I'll definitely keep an eye on whatever Pine does next. He's not just a charismatic leading man, he's a very talented actor in his own right too.