Keanu Reeves: Wooden wonder boy

Keanu Reeves leads the Hollywood version of a charmed life. Despite what might charitably be called “limitations” as an actor, he lands plum roles in everything from indie movies to Shakespearean film adaptations to big-budget action flicks. He recently turned 40, but he’s still beautiful enough to snag romantic-comedy leads. The last two movies in the “Matrix” series didn’t do well, but that didn’t stick to Keanu; he’s got three movies coming out this year and two more next year, including a Spike Lee joint.

What’s Keanu’s secret? Has he earned enough capital in Tinseltown with past hits like “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and “Speed” that he’ll keep getting good parts forever — or at least as long as he’s still pretty? Or will the bombs — and his, er, “lo-fi” approach to acting —eventually catch up with him?

Sarah D. Bunting

I think he only got the Scott Favor role in ‘My Own Private Idaho’ because an actual log turned it down.

I think that, as long as that bone structure holds up, Keanu can keep earning a high-profile living as an actor. Well, perhaps “actor” is not the right word – “placeholder,” perhaps? “Reciter of dialogue”? “Warm body”? Not to harsh on him unduly here, because I don’t think he’s ever claimed to be a master thespian, but...I think he only got the Scott Favor role in “My Own Private Idaho” because an actual log turned it down.

But it doesn’t matter. I have watched “Point Break” more times than I would like to admit — on basic cable, mind you, with all the swear words replaced by silly dubbed euphemisms, and in spite of my physical aversion to Lori Petty — because of Keanu. Shirtless, wet Keanu.

He is not a good actor. He is not, it would seem, a good picker of scripts, either, because “Constantine” looks Constan-terrible. But if it hasn’t hurt him in almost 20 years in the business, I don’t think it’s going to start now.

Tara Ariano
Oh my God, “Constantine.” Okay, granted, I don’t read the comics, so it’s not like I was coming at that trailer all steeped in the canon. But that was some incomprehensible BS.

Here’s a question, though: has he ever had a “good part”? Ted in the “Bill & Ted” movies, I will grant you; he’s a sweet stoner, and Reeves plays him like a big floppy-eared puppy, endearingly. That may even be the only time I can recall him seeming engaged in a role. But for all the success of “Speed” and at least the first “Matrix” movie, any other attractive male movie star could have filled those slots — Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Matt Damon…I mean, it’s a long list. Reeves movies — both the hits and the bombs — just strike me as being so generic, and he’s generic in them; he seems to bring so little personality or inner life to his performances that he’s boring to watch. Especially post-“Matrix,” all he does is furrow his brow and glare. Imagining him in the ensemble of, say, an “Ocean’s Eleven” is impossible because he seems to have no sense of humor or playfulness.

It’s not that I think he’ll ever make a flop big enough to end his career; you’re right to say he’ll keep rolling along just as he has been. But John Travolta’s worked pretty steadily since “Pulp Fiction,” too, and that doesn’t mean he’s done anything I care to see.

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