It’s been told that Michael Sheen is a lot more comfortable on stage than he is anywhere else, and it might be true since he’s admitted as much and tends to enjoy going back to his first love now and again. But being seen on the big or small screen is still a treat since he is a great actor and is someone that tends to heighten the picture he’s in with a degree of class and that strange, mercurial feeling he gives. In other words he can be quiet, calm, and reserved one moment and fly off the handle at the next moment as he’s directed, much to the delight of the audience that is watching. In truth when he’s not on screen he doesn’t look like the type you’d see in action movies, he’s kind of slim, not as built as other individuals, and he looks much more like a well-refined gentleman. But he can take on pretty much any role that’s given to him with a zeal that makes it obvious that he was the right choice.
Here are his five best movies.
5. Passengers
Imagine being stuck on a spaceship along with almost five thousand other passengers that are all in a deep sleep for the next nine decades and there are only two of you awake for that entire time. Now think about a friendly AI bartender that, as Laura Barnard of The Star wrote, is there to be a cocktail mixer and a friendly ear to talk to when in need. It’s not much of a wonder why Aurora and Jim had problems at first since Jim decided to lean on Arthur when he woke Aurora up to have some company, perhaps expecting that Arthur would keep the secret indefinitely. That’s the thing about some bartenders though, they’re not all that great at keeping secrets when their job is to assess and console people as they see fit.
4. Underworld
Lucian is definitely painted as a villain among villains in the opening of this movie and he doesn’t do much to dissuade anyone from that notion since he does attack Michael and he is a Lycan, a werewolf in other words. Trying to choose the lesser of the two evils from a human standpoint is kind of difficult, but so long as neither want to subjugate humanity and would prefer to remain apart from it, then so be it. But Lucian turned out to be the one that was trying to create the hybrid that would be strong enough to kill the vampires, his one-time oppressors and those that he saw as responsible for the life he’d been forced to lead.
3. Frost/Nixon
Alex von Tunzelmann of The Guardian does admit that this movie stretches a bit from the truth, but that seems to be the common quality that many movies have, especially when they’re taken from true stories of what happened in history. The idea of Frost and Nixon being given anything but a movie that is bound to make Nixon look like the kind of man that traded his moral compass in a failed bid to cover up the truth is kind of silly to be honest since throughout history Nixon has been seen as little more than a scandalous character no matter how the story is spun. It could be entirely fiction and the former president would still be shown in a poor light.
2. The Damned United
The world of coaching doesn’t always seem to be one that a lot of people can just step into, but this movie gives a pretty good accounting of how cutthroat it can really get when Clough, who is a bit egotistical really, tries to impose his will on one team and then another, and on other individuals that don’t want to give. It does cost him quite a bit but in the end it does come out that he and those around him have reaped what they’ve sown for the most part and his life did turn out as something that was eventually rather positive in one light. Of course it’s all a matter of perspective in this kind of a story.
1. Blood Diamond
This is something that has been dealt with in real life and has long been a serious matter that only gets brought to light when people really seem to feel the need to do some good in the world. But this particular story localizes the issue when it focuses on Solomon and Archer as they try to retrieve Solomon’s son and the pink diamond he found so as to get them to safety. The issue of ‘conflict’ or ‘blood’ diamonds tends to stem from the fact that they’ve been used to finance warfare that has taken the lives of so many that it became an epidemic of sorts.
He’s definitely someone that can pull at your heartstrings or make you wish for his character’s eventual demise.
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