There are a few actors named Bruce Willis.
One of them is an international action star, appearing as cool, slightly cynical hero John McClane in the successful Die Hard films, to say nothing of Armageddon, the surprise hit Red, The Last Boy Scout and extended cameos in the Expendables movies.
Then there’s the Willis whose presence fits comfortably in eclectic independent films: Pulp Fiction, Sin City, Fast Food Nation.
And, finally, there’s the unpredictable Bruce Willis, an actor who takes oddball roles that surprise audiences in movies that are not really “Bruce Willis Movies.”
This article is about those.
Willis seems to be guaranteed a banner year and a half. He appeared in Looper, a 2012 science fiction effort that garnered terrific reviews and good box-office; the new Die Hard outing, A Good Day to Die Hard, received negative reviews but strong opening box-office results. The near future will see the release of the delayed G.I. Joe: The Retaliation, as well as Red 2, the sequel to the all-star geezer spy adventure, with John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker and Helen Mirren also reprising their roles.
In the cracks, he’s also managed to fit in a winning bit in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, a supporting part in the kidnapping suspenser The Cold Light of the Day, and a turn in the Vegas-set Lay the Favorite, new to DVD.
Here, then, are some oddball but worthwhile performances from the 57-year-old actor’s resume, that we suggest you catch, quirky parts you may have missed even if you are an avid Willis watcher.
Yippee Ki-Yay.
Lay the Favorite (2012): Barely released in theaters, this energetic true story of Beth Raymer (Rebecca Hall), an exotic dancer whose expertise with numbers leads to a job with a sports betting operation run by Dink (Willis), a wily risk taker with a sensitive side. Dink is essayed by the actor in one of his best—and most subtle—recent roles. Director Stephen Frears, in reuniting with High Fidelity screenwriter D.V. DeVinentis, takes this Las Vegas-set movie in unexpected directions, thanks in part to the nothing-is-as-it-appears to-be character shadings of Willis, Hall, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Dink’s jealous, pampered wife.
Lucky Number Slevin (2006): Willis definitely has a secondary role in this stylish, twist-filled comic thriller, but his character—a wheelchair-bound guy spouting an anecdote about horseracing in an airport—is essential to this ever-mounting violent tale of mistaken identity involving loser Josh Hartnett, girlfriend Lucy Liu and feuding crime kingpins Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. If you like suspensers with oddball turns and colorful characters galore—a la The Usual Suspects—you will probably roll with Slevin from Brit director Paul McGuigan.
Hostage (2005): A surprisingly taut thriller that finds Bruce as a disgraced Los Angeles hostage negotiator who has decided to drop out from society. When accountant Kevin Pollack and his family are taken hostage by three thugs in a well-barricaded fortress filled with high-tech surveillance equipment, Willis springs into action. Rather than boasting the rousing action-adventure set pieces of the Die Hard films, this one remains dark—and Willis’s character bleak and serious-minded—throughout; still, the film works. Ben Foster scores as the head creep.
Unbreakable (2000): Willis joined forces with M. Night Shyamalan for a second time after the surprise success of The Sixth Sense. The results may not have been as critically acclaimed or as successful at the box-office, but, damn, if this film doesn’t play particularly well today. Bruce plays a Philly security guard who leaves a horrific train accident unscathed. His supernatural resilience draws the attention of handicapped comic book art dealer (and fellow Pulp Fiction co-star) Samuel L. Jackson. This leads to some surprising places and a finale that is likely to anger or annoy you on first viewing. Once you think about it, it makes perfect (sixth) sense.
Last Man Standing (1996): We’ve recently expressed our enthusiasm for Walter Hill’s solid reworking of Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars (see http://www.moviefanfare.com/walter-hill/. ) We just want to add that Willis’s fedora-topped Prohibition-era drifter, who plays Irish and Italian gangs against each other in a small Texas town, puts a snazzy spin on the familiar story, and fills his wingtips as ably as Toshiro Mifune’s sandals and Clint Eastwood’s boots.
12 Monkeys (1995): While this film was a solid hit and got good reviews, we believe the incredible physical performance of Willis was worthy at least of an Oscar nomination. He does it all here, and with a rugged power, playing a futuristic convict who travels back to the past to try to prevent a super virus from wiping out mankind. This teaming of Willis and director Terry Gilliam, making an action-packed science fiction based on Chris Marker’s noted short film La Jetee, plays even better today than it did on first release.
Nobody’s Fool (1994): A gem on all counts, Robert Benton’s adaptation of Richard Russo’s novel about the redemption of small New York town ne’er-do-well Donald “Sully” Sullivan (Paul Newman) offers a terrific supporting turn by Willis as Sully’s sometimes contractor employer. Willis is sleazy (he cheats on wife Melanie Griffith) and wily (he gets a kick out of stealing Newman’s snowblower), but altogether human, in this low-key but marvelous character study.
Hudson Hawk (1991): We all know that this expensive heist comedy was a multi-megaton bomb at the box-office. Most are aware of its exaggerated—well, everything. Call it a “guilty pleasure” if you’d like, but it seems to have picked up a cult following over the years. Hip cat burglar Willis and associate Danny Aiello get mixed up with swiping ancient blueprints by Leonardo Da Vinci for a machine that turns lead into gold. Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard are the baddies, while Andie McDowell and James Coburn also star. Willis timing his exploits to the song “Swingin’ on a Star” is priceless. In Time, Richard Schickel wrote that “…if you can see past the thicket of dollar signs surrounding Hudson Hawk, you may discern quite a funny movie — sort of an ‘Indiana Jones’ send-up with a hip undertone all its own.” Well, at least some others like it, too.
Mortal Thoughts (1991): This gritty, North Jersey-set domestic drama from indie film stalwart Alan Rudolph (who also directed Willis in the misfire Breakfast of Champions) offered Bruce a chance to shine in a supporting role, told in flashbacks. He’s the abusive sleazebag husband of Glenne Headly, who has had enough of his behavior. So, she does him in, and is helped in the cover-up by friend Demi Moore. Sporting a devilish grin, a goatee and a despicable demeanor, Willis here might make you think twice before you associate him with heroic John McLane again.
In Country (1989): A real stretch for the actor, Norman Jewison’s compelling screen treatment of Bobbie Jean Mason’s novel showcases Willis as a PTSD-stricken Vietnam veteran who cares for his teenage niece (Emily Lloyd) after her father—his brother—died in the conflict. A quiet film with powerful moments and memorable characters, In Country divided critics and audiences, although Willis, displaying a Fu Manchu mustache and a receding hairline, drew solid notices for his change-of-pace role.