Keanu Reeves Is My Favorite Actor, and I'm Serious

Jim wanted me to blog about this, but I wasn't going to. I figured no one would get it, you'd all just make fun of me, nothing would get accomplished, and the world would move one step closer to the Apocalypse. Then my friends at the Blogulator had to go and pick a fight, so I had to stand up and defend my opinion.

In my opinion, Keanu Reeves is the greatest actor who ever lived, but for the sake of argument (since I'm sure that's going to come off as a farce), I'll just say that he's my favorite actor. Laugh all you want, but I'm not kidding. He's better than acting. He transcends acting.

Allow me to explain. I'm sure you're all willing to admit that Keanu has a distinct style of acting. Most of you would call that style "bad," but you'd be missing the point. Keanu doesn't act like other acting people because he knows how to add a certain element to his characters that others can't. They all try and become their characters, like Jamie Foxx becomes Ray Charles or Nicole Kidman becomes Virginia Woolf. Keanu doesn't merely become; he validates. He lets the character become part of himself, or he lets himself become part of his character, so the performance he gives is real in a sense that we don't usually experience in the movie theater.

It's not bad acting because bad acting is when somebody is obviously trying to be somebody they're not. What we often praise as good acting is when someone just is someone that they're not. What Keanu does is become someone who he simultaneously is AND is not. It's a psychological and artistic marvel.

This immeasurable talent is not totally clear in most of the movies of his that people like. In the Bill and Ted films, he's surrounded by doofuses, so he doesn't shine like he ought (like Tom Hanks in Bachelor Party). In The Matrix movies, it's easy to miss how awesome he is because there's so much action.

But let's take a look at what you'd consider his "lesser" works. Take Speed, or even better, Johnny Mnemonic. Try to imagine those movies if the lead was played by Christian Bale or some other "talented" actor. They would be completely mediocre and hardly even worthy of comment. They wouldn't be anything special (even if you think they're only specially bad now). Why? Because Keanu brings something unique to those films that other actors can't. Taking Keanu out of Johnny Mnemonic is like taking the basil out of any meal that uses basil--it loses all of its flavor! Same goes for his romantic comedies. They'd just be more sappy crap without him, but with him, they're something strangely glorious. Go see Sweet November and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Next time Point Break is on TV, take a little time and pay closer attention. You may be surprised at the light that shines through what you once thought was just a pile of sludge.