James Spader

[MiddleEarthGirl]

This is a thread to discuss the works of actor James Spader

The purpose being to foster intelligent discussion of films without resorting to "It's a piece of crap." or "It's the greatest film ever." (And so that we all can gain a bit of a film education from everyone.)

****SPOILER WARNING**** of course this entire thread is going to be full of spoilers

[Meloosh]

Spader is always picture perfect as the amoral, sleazy yuppie/preppie in any number of films, from Less Than Zero and Pretty in Pink to Bad Influence and 2 Days in The Valley.

[tomdkat]

Originally Posted by meloosh

Spader is always picture perfect as the amoral, sleazy yuppie/preppie in any number of films, from Less Than Zero and Pretty in Pink to Bad Influence and 2 Days in The Valley.

Yaeh, I agree. I haven't seen him in "2 Days in the Valley" or "Bad Influence", but I saw him in the others you name.

He played a different kind of role on "Mannequin", which I also enjoyed.

Peace...

[limacharliewhiskey]

James Spader is a versatile actor who I thought would've been much bigger and famous than he is. I thought he had the ability to achieve the same versatility that Johnny Depp has, but for some reason, Hollywood hasn't really embraced him.

Sex, Lies, & Videotape was his breakout role (which I didn't see until recently). I think the 1st time I saw Spader in a lead role was White Palace, where he was pretty good, and when Stargate came out, I thought that would propel him to the A-list of actors.

But I think he torpedoed his own career starring in the very controversial David Cronenberg film, Crash. For a few people, they love this film because of its bizarre combination of sex and car crashes, but I found it to be a complete turn-off, and maybe Hollywood did the same.

2 Days in the Valley was decent, but is more known as the debut of Charlize Theron to American audiences. Don't remember much about Spader in it, but I still remember the catfight between Charlize and Teri Hatcher.

When Spader did turkeys like Supernova and the Watcher, I thought his movie career was over.

Luckily, Spader was fantastic in the indie hit, Secretary, and it brought him back into the limelight. He was also recently in a FX TV movie, the Pentagon Papers, which was pretty good, too, and I think really helped him get his current starring TV role on the Practice.

I don't think he has the appeal anymore to be the lead actor of a major film, but he's always been a great actor who can play a wide range of characters, from wimpy guys to nerdy guys to tough macho guys to nice hero-type guys.

[Marq]

James Spader is certainly an interesting case.
He does have a habbit of starring in similarly-themed films and/ or as a similar character.

I've liked a great many of the movies he's happened to have starred in, coincidentally usually when he's playing his refinied sleazy yuppie with a nack for kinky stuff. However, I can't say I ever liked these films because of him or his peformance.

Some of the movies I'm referring to include: sex, lies, and videotape, Bad Influence, Dream Lover, Crash and most recently Secretary. All were movies I enjoyed for the most part, but never did he strike me as bringing anything especially significant or deep to his roles. Sometimes his portrayal of "blankness in spite of perculiarity" can indeed work very well depending on the story. In Crash, Cronenberg casted him perfectly when looking for someone to lead his story of cold obsessions, sex addiction, and raw technological determinism. Conversely, in Secretary Spader plays up his plain-ness and obsessiveness to beyond a boiling point so as to make it a near-parody with his inter-office behaviour involving his new hire.

However, these two highlights appear to be rare exceptions for him. He has the potential when given a role that perfectly takes advantage of his characteristics to give an intriguing performance, but otherwise I find him to be either an uninterested participant in the film or sometimes even a detriment to the story because of his not being convincing.
When he plays his other trademark role, the vulnerable sap, it's an uninteresting character to being with, so he's certainly not going to be overly impressive anyway. In movies like Wolf or even Mannequin, he's such a boring character that there's really no hope in him giving the viewer much of anything.

As a whole, Spader is an actor I can "give or take". I certainly don't follow his career to see what his next movie will be, nor do I anticipate anything when I plan to see a movie he happens to be in. Given that he has provided a couple of nice performances over time, I do know he's capable of better, but unless the most pin-pointed script comes to him, I don't foresee him having the necessary range at this stage of his career to pull off much of anything. Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong in the future, but now that he's decided to languish in second-rate TV and movies like this for a while, I don't have many hopes.

It should be noted that there are certainly a few films he's been in that I've yet to see but would like to, including Wall Street, White Palace, Bob Roberts

[Morticia]

I think the first movie I saw James Spader in was "Jack's Back". I am a sucker for (among other things, apparently) different interpretations of classic horror themes, and while the Jack the Ripper story is part of history, it has been told and re-told many times in movies. Undoubtedly the open-endedness of Jack's identity really lends itself to this.

I was completely sucked in to the story, the movie, and James Spader's performance. Admittedly, I haven't seen it lately, so I may have just been kind/caught up in the moment. (Hey, it happens, and I'd like to see it again to see how it holds up.) After that I was always looking for Spader in new movies, and while I missed him in "Sex, Lies..." I did see him next in "Wolf" and "Stargate." Like others, I thought he did what he could with his "Wolf" character -- which wasn't much. An interesting premise with fine actors who had a sucky script, unfortunately.

I really thought he hit it "big" with "Stargate" -- a wild Sci-Fi adventure with an original premise and some thought behind it. But it seemed like he almost stopped working. Maybe "Crash" killed his career? I don't think so really -- looking at his IMDB listing he's got 15 movies after "Crash", plus his role in the TV series "The Practice." But I have heard of maybe 2 or 3 of these 15 movies. And yeah, Marq -- if they are all like "Alien Hunter" -- :p

His role in "The Practice" almost makes me want to watch a TV show. Almost. He really has made an art around playing the slimy yuppie, or the sleazy lawyer who's too "pretty" and uses that to his advantage. Your reaction is, "He's so charming, he CAN'T be evil." But he is!

As disturbing as "Crash" was, I thought his performance was great and suitably disturbing. And a little more than just his usual 'yuppie sleaze' characters. See also the Film Discussion on Crash.

[The Crow]

Although I don't have much of an opinion on his film career since I haven't seen hardly anything he was in, he is GREAT on TV's "The Practice."