Sam Worthington made his breakout with Avatar, which went on to become the highest grossing film of all time. This lead to a certain period of Worthington being cast as the leading man in a series of roles, where he was most often seen as underwhelming or bland. Now one failing to succeed as a leading man does not mean one's a bad actor, sometimes the actor just might not be right for those types of roles. Well with that in mind let's take a look at his supporting role in this film. The Debt jumps back and forth in time as it follows the three operatives, Rachel (Jessica Chastain, Helen Mirren), Stefan (Marton Csokas, Tom Wilkinson), and David (Worthington, Ciaran Hinds) in youth and in their later years. In the later years we find Rachel and Stefan as a bitterly divorced pair, and we only meet David briefly before he unexpectedly commits suicide.
David's fate is already known before we come back to follow his younger self on the mission to capture the Nazi doctor Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), and essentially Worthington must lead the character to this point. We first meet David as he is preparing the mission with the others and Worthington presents an isolated man. Worthington keeps an emotional detachment around David, and no this is not in in the way you might expect. Worthington is instead very effective in realizing a man placed into this state of a strange apathy. When it is revealed that David lost his entire family in the holocaust, this seems as though we already know this fact through Worthington's performance. That grave loss can be seen in every second of Worthington's performance as he presents a man who seems to always be actively closing himself off in order to not constantly be reminded of his past.
Worthington is haunting by portraying the intensity in David's to be the way he is, and portrays his time performing the actual requirements of the mission as the only thing that can keep his mind from his pain, if only for a moment. Worthington's work acts a powerful reminder of what the entire point of their mission is, as he wears the deep scars of their motivation. As the mission develops so does a love triangle between the three operatives. Although it is clear that Rachel is most interested in David, we know she ends up with Stefan. Worthington makes this dynamic absolutely believable for his portrayal of David's terrible state. Worthington captures the emotional mess that David, as there is a constant desperation and confusion of a man who wants to pursue this love but can't bring himself to. Worthington portrays the difficult struggle in David to try to reach out, then pulls back as though to avoid the possibility of suffering that same loss once again.
The team eventually captures the Nazi though they fail to properly extract him leaving them to watch over him, waiting for the an possible escape route. Worthington once again excels as this positions David's exact state as he interacts with Vogel. Again Worthington keeps this overarching attempt at that detachment, as he focuses on his duty, and away from what the man did to his family. David is able to keep this detachment until Vogel purposefully continues to prod David with his hateful words. Worthington is brilliant in the breakdown scene as he absolutely earns the moment, and makes it feel as though David for a brief moment is releasing his anguish as he attacks Vogel. This leads to Vogel's escape, and Stefan to encourage them to concoct a lie that they actually succeeded in killing the man. Worthington shows that this lie essentially is the final limit to his repression, depicting a vicious anger at the very notion of reiterating the lie. This however also finally allows him to reveal his love to Rachel. Worthington is absolutely heartbreaking as he conveys such vulnerability in the moment, and is devastating in his reaction as she ignores his plea. As we end on Worthington's performance he has brought David to a man only a moment away from giving up on life. Worthington's soulful portrait of man being overwhelmed by despair elevates the film, and proves his talent as an actor.
12 comments:
I'm glad you liked him. Ratings and thoughts on the rest of the cast?
Yeah I was bloody surprised by how good he was here. I think he's actually starting to transition into more of a character actor now based on his upcoming roles which, based on this performance, is a good thing.
I have to admit I didn't care too much for the film besides the acting though.
I really liked the film... until the last five minutes. That jump scare nonsense with Christensen's character damn near crippled the entire film.
I agree, he was great.
Robert:
Also hated the ending.
Chastain - 3.5(Her accent was a tad inconsistent to say the least however I did find her effective in her portrayal of someone not as troubled as Worthington's David, though still haunted in her own way. She was good though in kind of providing the inexperience of someone trying to be stronger, while still struggling with her own insecurities.)
Mirren - 3.5(This is very Mirreny in her portrayal of the tough old broad in that she comes in just knock it out in a fast and efficient fashion. I'll give her credit she does it well as usual.)
Csokas - 2.5(I'll give him credit he almost seemed to forget he was a terrible actor for much of the film. Then he remembered in his final scenes hamming it up to no end, and to be fair he wasn't exactly great the rest of the time)
Wilkinson - 3(I honestly think Wilkinson was kind of trying to match Coskas's hamminess by presenting a man who kind of flies off the handle from very little, though he presented it in a far more natural fashion.)
Hinds - 3(As per usual, Hinds is underused. However I did find he managed to go off from where Worthington ended, giving an affecting portrayal of the man at his wits end.)
Christensen - 3.5(He'd be higher if it weren't for that ending as well. In that scene he really overacted, which is a shame. The rest of the time I found him very effective as he underplayed the role. Starting out as the kind doctor hiding something, then as the man trying to play mind games. I found him particularly unnerving in the scene where he sets David off, as he delivered the lines as though he was comforting the man)
I always forget how many films Chastain was in 2011, what a great year but awfully busy too, so I'm actually quite impressed she managed to give at the very least solid performances in all of them.
Alright I really liked the OJ miniseries but even I can't quite advocate the near-sweep of all the acting awards. For example, I liked Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown, but both of them winning over Colman and Dunst, Woobine, Plemons and Laurie? Hm. Not to mention that having Brown in supporting is kinda category fraud.
Calvin:
I knew that was going to happen, but it should have been Dunst's. I'd say Brown was definitely lead, more so than Gooding, every episode followed his character's point of view, even before he went on the case.
Paulson was good but Dunst and Colman gave two of the best lead actress performances on television, ever. I agree it should've been Dunst.
I haven't watched Veep but I'm nevertheless glad Dreyfus won. I assume she's terrific since I've never heard a negative word thrown her way about her performance there, and I really like both her onscreen and offscreen persona a great deal.
Also, Louis, what's the argument for Sam Neill as supporting in Hunt for the Wilderpeople? I don't disagree with you obviously but this year's been fairly complicated for me in terms of category moving, so I'd just like to hear your thoughts.
Calvin:
He's right on the border no matter what. Whenever the film breaks off, except for one very brief scene at the end, we always follow Ricky not Uncle Hec. Uncle Hec in the end feels like he's in support of Ricky's story, although only just barely.
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