Philip Seymour Hoffman is us

Philip Seymour Hoffman has finally made it.

Yeah yeah, the Academy Award for best actor. Whatever. I’m talking about his new supervillain status in “Mission: Impossible III.” Starting out, Hoffman was never the villain but the friend of the villain. In his first (small) screen role, in a 1990 episode of “Law & Order,” he wasn’t the rapist but the guy who held down the girl for the rapist. In “My Boyfriend’s Back” he wasn’t the villainous BMOC but the villainous BMOC’s toady, all sneer and backwards baseball cap and catch phrase: “What’re you lookin’ at, dirtbag?”

There’s a great rivalry between two of the three criminals who pull the dog-track heist in the 1993 remake of “The Getaway”; Hoffman’s the third guy, the one who doesn’t get away. And when John Cusack’s Philly dockworker finds $1.2 million in “Money for Nothing,” Hoffman’s not the local tough who offers to launder it for him; he’s the unemployed dockworker who tries to blackmail him but self-loathingly settles for a free drink instead.

Now look at him. A global arms dealer playing deadly games with IMF agent Ethan Hunt. “I’m gonna find her, I’m gonna hurt her, and then I’m going to kill you in front of her” is a far cry from “What’re you lookin’ at, dirtbag?”

The guy who played that in that
Of course if I had to peg Hoffman as a supervillain I’d probably go with Spider-Man’s nemesis, the Chameleon, the man who keeps changing identities. How many times over the last 10 years has Hoffman inspired the following conversation among moviegoers: You mean that’s the guy who played that in that? And now he’s playing this guy? You’re kidding. That’s unbelievable.

You’re kidding. That’s the guy who played the smitten homosexual in “Boogie Nights”? And now he’s this rich jerk in “The Talented Mr. Ripley”?

You’re kidding. That’s who played the partying member of the storm-chasing team in “Twister”? And now he’s this genial writer in “State and Main”?

You could go on forever. The guy playing Truman Capote is the spoiled former child star from “Along Came Polly” is the defrocked Reverend from “Cold Mountain” is the gambler from “Owning Mahoney” is the pimp from “Punch Drunk Love” is the drag queen from “Flawless” is the blue-blood roommate from “Patch Adams” is the obsequious manservant from “The Big Lebowski” is the hapless obscene phone caller from “Happiness” is the put-upon policeman from “Nobody’s Fool,” and all of them are the snotty rich kid from “Scent of a Woman.”

Spider-Man wouldn’t know which way to turn.

Small, exquisite choices
Mine, by the way, is the first of the above responses (smitten homosexual/rich jerk). Knowing and loving him as Scotty J. (for years I assumed Hoffman was gay because of the role), I was stunned when he stepped off his car with all the insouciance of his class in “Ripley.” Scotty is small, passive and full of self-loathing (and we love him for it) while Freddie Miles is big, aggressive and full of self-confidence (and we hate him for it). Both are played perfectly. Both hit bone.

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Scotty has that embarrassing scene where he makes a clumsy pass at Dirk Diggler and then sits in his car saying, “I’m a f---ing idiot” over and over again. Freddie has that confrontational scene where, looking for Dickie Greenleaf, he finds Ripley, and confronts him, and treats the furniture like it’s his (jacket tossed onto the piano), and sees through everything — not least, Ripley’s bourgeois taste — and when he finally gets whacked in the head, he rears up and makes a noise like an angry bull, because Ripley is this sad nothing, and how can this sad nothing stop him? End him? Can you imagine poor Freddie’s mind at that moment? In the movie of his life, with Freddie as the star and Dickie as one of the supporting players, Tom Ripley was, at best, an annoying extra. He shouldn’t even have had a line. And to have this extra suddenly be the cause of the end of his movie? It didn’t make sense. No wonder he reared up like an angry bull.

Hoffman makes these small, exquisite choices all the time. The look of horror on Scotty J.’s face as a coked-up Dirk Diggler loses it and tells off the crew. The get-along chuckle of Brandt, the manservant in “The Big Lebowski,” and the respectful way he acquiesces to everyone’s wishes, even the Dude’s, even to the point of calling him “Dude” in a respectful, manservant tone of voice. The pause he gives tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds talking to the FBI in “Red Dragon”: “It’s a pleasure doing business with you...chumps.” What’s sadder? That “chumps” is the bon mot he pauses for, or that he doesn’t realize it’s not much of a bon mot? We watch Hoffman act the way we read the best sentences of the best writers. There’s art in it. It’s worthwhile on its own.

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