I haven't seen the play, so I don't know if the way Patrick performs is true to the part, but it sometimes feels fake. As if he is reading his lines from a paper. But then again, it might be the mormon in Joe talking.
I think he's a very good actor in other movies, so I was surprised to see his performance in Angels and wonder if anyone else noticed it.
"You cannot find peace by avoiding life"
I always thought that he was miscast and that he was the weakest member of an otherwise very strong cast. That's not exactly his fault, but I do agree with you that he was a little in over his head in the role.
When I read the play (which was years before I saw the movie) I pictured someone more--I don't know, Steve McQueen-ish as Joe. Of all the Joes I've seen or heard about in various productions, the actor who most matched my mental conception of the character is Daniel Craig, who played Joe in the first London stage production in the early 1990s and who is now James Bond.
http://www.google.com/search?q=daniel+craig&hl=en&prmd=imvnsuo l&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=PG1HUKapAofK9QSi4oHABg& amp; amp;sqi=2&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1296&bih=465
Wow, I never would have imagined Daniel Craig playing Joe. Angels is a huge project for any actor, let alone for Patrick Wilson since it was only his second movie.
Every actor is so good in this movie that his flaws are visible. I wonder why they'd give a big part like that, with such big names attatched, to an unknown actor.
"You cannot find peace by avoiding life"
Every actor is so good in this movie that his flaws are visible. I wonder why they'd give a big part like that, with such big names attatched, to an unknown actor.I don't think Patrick Wilson's problem was that he was an "unknown." I wouldn't say that Ben Shenkman or Justin Kirk were any better-known or more experienced than Wilson (who had only been in one other movie but had done a lot of theater), but I thought both Shenkman and Kirk were great and exceptionally well-cast while Wilson wasn't. I just think that Patrick Wilson was the wrong actor for the part, which is the fault of the casting agents and the director, not Wilson. share
Just for fun, here is a photo of Daniel Craig as Joe: http://national-theatre.tumblr.com/post/65825214308/jason-isaacs-and-d aniel-craig-in-angels-in.
He is shown with Jason Isaacs playing Louis (Isaacs is probably now best known in the US for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies; he was also the villain in that movie in which Mel Gibson single-handedly won the Revolutionary War).
I can totally see Daniel Craig as Joe now! He does have an incredibly vulnerable side. I remember, Jason Isaacs was a great villain in The Patriot!
Thanks for sharing these pictures :)
"You cannot find peace by avoiding life"
I've never seen the play so I don't have anything to compare Wilson to. Out of the main cast he's the least impressive. He's not bad, he's actually good. He's just not as good as his co-stars. All of them are better than him. Even whiny Louis.
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I thought he was good. At times, very good. But I think one of the reasons he got the part was because he totally looks like a good gay Mormon boy who became a lawyer and got married and moved to Brooklyn Heights and wanted to eventually move to DC and become an even more impressive lawyer.
shareDisagree, he's excellent. Just as he was in Hard Candy.
__Look on down from the bridge,
there's still fountains down there.
Joe Pitt is acting every minute of every day of his life. Of course he's uncomfortable living this lie. I loved that Patrick Wilson and Mike Nichols made the decision to show that discomfort as almost palpable. Joe is saying what he THINKS he should be saying. He's doing what he THINKS he should do. When he finally lets that artifice down, like when he's confessing to Harper, or proclaiming his love to Louis, he's completely different. I thought his performance was brilliant.
shareThank you, dee_ayy. Most of the critiques people were making about Patrick Wilson's performance seemed to be critiques you could make about Joe Pitt.
He's a horribly tragic character. We're meeting every character at a turning point in their lives, but Joe seems to be the one who's the least honest with himself before the change occurs. By the end of the play he's definitely different than who he was at the beginning, but he's nowhere close to completing his journey. No one is, but he's almost like a child at the end of the play. He's got so much more to do.
I think there's been a rape up there!
Harper seems to be the one who's least honest with herself. She slips into fantasies and delusions to escape harsh realities, like when Joe finally tells her the truth that he's gay. She slips off to a trip to the Antarctica with Mr Lies.
shareI don't know that I'd agree with that. Harper is honest with herself. She's honest with herself about the fact that her husband is gay and that her marriage is a lie, thereby causing her to question her identity and her religious past and present. That's the reason why she slips into delusions and fantasies because she can't deal with what she knows is real.
Sure, pills may not be the way to solve her issues, but I definitely think she's being honest with herself.
I think there's been a rape up there!
Exactly. So beautifully said.
I thought Wilson was excellent; Joe's visible awkwardness and discomfort are deliberate, and I thought Patrick Wilson brought that to life very well.
I agree that Joe is too often "acting" every moment of his life, and there are so many other layers to this because he himself often believes in his own honesty even when everyone else can see that he is lying to himself.
I thought Wilson brought the right layers to Joe's role while also bringing this sweetness and believable naivete to the part.
I loved the whole miniseries, meanwhile, and think it was one of the best ever made, easily. Beautiful and moving, and even better than the plays.
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I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not.
I think he was great, and fit the role perfectly. He captured that lost Mormon naivete very well. Plus he looked gorgeous, so there's that! Of course, next to Justin Kirk's brilliant performance, as well as Pacino (who, I'll admit, normally plays a caricature of himself, but was absolutely amazing in this), he does pale a bit in comparison.
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