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A Masterfully Understated Pair
by Richard Horgan |
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9/12/2007 at 4:44:26 PM |
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These two old pros hail respectively from St. Louis and Cleveland, have ridden their solid Midwestern work ethics to an Oscar and four Emmys, and have first and last names capitalized by the same repeated letter.
This fall, Kevin Kline and Hal Holbrook are on formidable display as Ray and Ron Franz in the dramas Trade (Roadside Attractions, September 28th) and Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage, September 21st), in which they play quietly pensive old guys teamed up with young, world-conquering whippersnappers. As each film’s narrative reveals, these old guys have a lot more in common than just age. The way they relate to the central young protagonists (Cesar Ramos, Emile Hirsch) has a lot to do with the burnished edges of their own, gradually revealed pasts.
In June, the Munich Film Festival got the jump on Hollywood by awarding Kline a CineMerit Award for his performance as the Texas cop drawn into a tragic tale of U.S.-Mexico border crossings. I would venture to say this is Kline’s finest dramatic film performance since Ang Lee’s 1997 film The Ice Storm. His persona is that of a supremely decent human being who, though struggling to do so, is determined not to let any personal baggage get in the way of present day-to-day happiness. Like Holbrook’s performance, some of the best moments in this Kline portrayal come from moments of silence rather than dialogue.
Just as Trade was inspired by a New York Times article, Into the Wild can be traced back to a piece in Outside Magazine, which in turn led to the best-selling book by Jon Krakauer. Holbrook has a few years on Kline; whereas the latter turns 60 next month, the man who indelibly became associated on stage with Mark Twain is an iconic 82. His work in Trade is stupendous, the kind of supporting performance that slays Academy voters (although most younger fans will know Holbrook from his TV work rather than things like All the President’s Men, Julia and Capricorn One).
In both films, the younger males in the pairing prod the older father figures’ chosen ways of life, challenging their decisions and questioning their beliefs. It’s the kind of dynamic you don’t see enough of on the American big screen, and in working opposite such solid elder screen statesmen, the younger actors (Ramos, Hirsch) shine in these scenes as well.
“It’s a very interesting relationship that develops between this old man and this young man,” Holbrook explains in the press notes. “Ron is a loner, just as Chris (Emile Hirsch) is a loner. He’s sort of established himself out on the edges of society, but he’s kind of trapped himself in one place. This young man urges him to look for life beyond the little circumference he’s drawn for himself. It’s a very human, emotional thing that goes on between them.”
Intriguingly, on the Kline end of things, the actor in real life had a similarly human and emotional starting point with Trade’s 27-year-old director Marco Kreuzpaintner. After reading the script, the actor asked to meet with the filmmaker, and when they did so in New York City, their half-hour meeting turned into a marathon conversation about ‘life, art, politics, family, sexuality, America, Europe, Mexico and more.’ Kline decided based on all this that Kreuzpainter could be counted on to deliver the human rather than the sensatiionalistic side of the sex slavery business. Based on the evidence of Tade, he was absolutely right.
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