Tom Wilkinson is the kind of actor a person really likes or doesn’t think about that much since he’s very, very good at what he does, but at the same time, he does star in roles that, at times, a lot of people don’t get into as much. It could be that he plays alongside those that are supposed to be a big deal in the movie or that he’ll portray a person that people just don’t like. Whatever the case, he’s exceptional at making people like him or hate him, since his acting ability is great enough that he becomes the character he needs to be and often makes it possible for people to really get into the character. As he’s grown older he hasn’t really slowed down much but it does appear that he’s continued to take on roles that are prominent enough to keep him in the spotlight, but that are also more supportive and not quite as front and center. One great thing about Wilkinson is that he can be the main character or a supporting or even a peripheral character and he puts as much into the role as he needs to in order to make it work.
Here are some of Tom Wilkinson’s best movies.
5. Batman Begins
As Carmine Falcone, he doesn’t have a huge part in this movie and he’s not quite as important, but he does manage to play a convincing part since as the type of guy that sits in the background and calls the shots he’s well-suited to the role. The gangsters in the Batman movies range from the low-level thugs to the crime bosses that are fully ready to burn a person’s family to the ground if they need to just to prove a point. That’s the kind of persona he takes on during this movie, and yet when it comes time for him to be eliminated, or at least neutralized, it’s not much of a surprise since gangsters aren’t really a big deal to Batman compared to his worst enemies.
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
As great and as sleazy as he was in this movie it would appear that he actually clashed with the director during the making of it since he didn’t like the way things were going. That’s not atypical of a movie set since there are times when actors and directors clash if they can’t get along for some reason, but it’s tough to really make out whether this translates to the movie or not. Most people who didn’t know that the two had clashed likely wouldn’t be bound to see any difference most likely, but for those that did know about it there might be a few moments here and there that might show up in the movie.
3. The Ghost and the Darkness
This movie was far better than a lot of people gave it credit for since it starred Val Kilmer while he was still at his peak performance. As for Wilkinson, he played the near-villainous character of Richard Beaumont, who was attempting to gain a knighthood by creating a bridge over a river in order to ‘save Africa from the Africans’ as it was hinted at in the movies. When two bloodthirsty lions started terrorizing the camp however it became obvious that things weren’t going to progress any further until the problem had been dealt with. Beaumont however was the type of person that didn’t care for excuses no matter how deadly they were.
2. The Patriot
Let’s just say that this was a glamorized version of the Revolutionary War that saw the colonists as the good guys and the British as the bad guys. It’s hard to say for certain just who was in the right more often than not, no matter that it was a struggle for independence from England that people were supposed to be fighting for. But for a man like General Lord Cornwallis, all that mattered was bringing the colonists to heel once more and reminding them who was in charge. Of course, it also meant further colonizing the land and spreading the influence of the empire ever westward. Obviously, that didn’t work out.
1. 44 Inch Chest
This is a movie that a lot of people likely don’t know that much about since it is fairly obscure despite the fact that it features some of the best actors around and is fairly messed up. When a successful man finds that his wife is cheating on him, he locks the man in a chest and then proceeds to verbally torment him, along with his many friends. Playing the role of Archie, Wilkinson is actually one of the more reasonable of the bunch but is still fairly vicious since the whole point is to make the main character realize what was done to him.
He’s a great actor without a doubt, but it’s fair to say that a lot of people probably don’t know that much about him.
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