Alternate Best Actor 2014: Ethan Hawke in Predestination

Ethan Hawke did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying the bartender in Predestination.

Predestination follows a temporal agent as he attempts to find a criminal that has consistently alluded him throughout time. While I don't think the film is bad, its potential seems far greater than its result, particularly in terms of its attempt to blend genre tropes with an attempt at an insightful examination of self.

Ethan Hawke is an actor that I have consistently praised on this blog, which was a less popular opinion initially, however thankfully the most recent completed decade has seemingly improved his status in general. I personally don't know why that was ever in question, as even though he didn't always give great performances his work was typically good often leaning towards greatness, and arguably has only improved with age. Hawke is someone who tends to always seems to care regardless of what he's working with, which actually makes his dismissive comments for Logan a little silly, since Hawke is obviously someone who knows that one should take any material seriously. This takes us to this film which is science fiction, though in many ways an interpersonal drama in its examination of the story of the character of John/Jane (Sarah Snook). Hawke, despite his presence on  the poster looking like a time wizard, is the secondary lead here. Hawke though from the outset suggests that same sort devotion to his work as one would typically expect from him. This even in the odd opening where it seems he's a man, working for some shadowy government institute, with a new face. Hawke's eyes grab that mental anxiety, but also the strange almost eerie conviction as the man takes upon his mysterious mission even with grave consequences if he falls outside of the strict confines of the mission.

The opening scene, and the synopsis of the film gives a bit of the wrong ideas as it takes a backseat almost immediately to that interpersonal drama as the agent, posing as a bartender, listens to the story of a patron John/Jane who tells of  a rather unusual life story. Hawke's performance in this sequence, which focuses on Snook, I suppose more than illuminates his ability in acting as a largely more literal supporting manner. This as Hawke delivers a certain empathy within his reactions, but there is a bit more than that. Hawke's performance throughout the story showing concern, but more with shades of a knowing or understanding that goes beyond just listening as a bystander. This until he begins to reveal himself a bit more to the patron. Hawke immediately fashioning perhaps the more expected sense of what the poster alludes to, this in a domineering and curious manner. Hawke delivering an offer to the patron to kill the man that wronged John/Jane, this as this professional but with a stylish riff within his delivery. Hawke making this shift with such ease and granting this immediate sense of gravity towards the odd proposition as the bartender reveals himself to be a time traveler. Hawke both playing it as procedure for the bartender, but also spoken with that utmost expected condition as he explains the method. This technical perposterousness of it all made most digestible through Hawke's ease within the role, and that conviction in every word of the conceit...well except for maybe the moniker of the criminal "the fizzle bomber" but that one is tough.

Of course time travel isn't so easy and naturally more than a few things get a bit confused. The emotional material is largely left to Snook, where Hawke remains this seeming deuteragonist of sorts stuck in his twilight zone episode (don't mean that in a bad way), against what's going on with Snook. This is as Hawke largely needs to sell the concept with just vague shades of a character. This what Hawke does more than what he can with, creating an undercurrent of emotion within his character largely through his performance as a man purposefully crafting a paradox. Unfortunately for me I found the film, which is 66% a first act, then the other two acts squeezed int 30 minutes, turns into less of the characters dictating motion in the plot, and more of the plot dictating the acts of the character, less per natural motivation and more so per need of satisfying the twists of the narrative. Twists that shouldn't be too obvious but will be as the amount of characters determines the fates in this regard. So naturally spoilers the bartender is the fizzle bomber, with all that time you'd think they could've come up with a better name. Anyway though we get the determined agent finding his future self, which is Hawke giving his best unabomber impression. The scene feels hollow mainly because the development is paced with such immediacy, and as rules of reduced characters enables on a single path. Having said that Hawke is terrific in the anxiety of understanding the situation, where as the extremist, I'd say he's more fine, though this in part the introduction is instant. Hawke though has a sense of mania within it to be sure, but the concept is something more interesting, well in concept, than execution, though no way in terms of being the fault of Hawke. Sadly the revelation doesn't strike into something extraordinary, rather causes one to think of a Rube Goldberg machine. This limiting what Hawke can do, still this is a nonetheless a good performance from the remarkable actor.