“The Cotton Club” (1984)
Somewhat underrated in the Francis Ford Coppola canon, “The Cotton Club” isn’t on the level of “The Godfather,” but it’s still a rich and compelling organized crime tale, with one of Gere’s best performances at its center. A jazz-age epic based on James Haskins’ novel (originally intended to be directed by “Godfather” producer Robert Evans before he got cold feet at the last minute and asked Coppola, who’d co-written the script, to step in —the film went on to go famously over budget, causing a rift between the two), it sees Gere play trumpeter Dixie Twyer, who lands a job at the mobster-owned Cotton Club (with mostly black performers and a mostly white audience), making an enemy of gangster Dutch Shultz (James Remar) when he falls for his moll Vera (Diane Lane). While the film is visually lavish, the script (which reportedly went through dozens of drafts in just a few weeks) doesn’t quite manage to capture the novel’s scope —these days, you suspect it’d turn out as a TV series, which would better capture the sprawling storylines. But Coppola keeps the film rattling along, creating a deep well of sadness amid the music, and Gere is superb, translating better to the 1920s than you’d think for such a 1980s icon, and having the generosity not to dominate, letting supporting players like Gregory Hines and Bob Hoskins share the spotlight.
“Pretty Woman” (1990)
“Pretty Woman” is without a doubt Julia Roberts’ film —it launched her career and reinvigorated the rom-com genre. Roberts may dominate herein because of her on-point comedic timing and physicality, but Gere does an awful lot to shine a light on her. What makes Gere’s performance work in this movie, despite having dubbed it ‘silly,’ is his ability in providing space for Roberts to play off him, as well as his witty improvisations that provide some of the golden moments in the film. Take the iconic scene where his Edward snaps the necklace case down on Vivian’s fingers. If Gere had not thought of executing such a simple in-the-moment action, we wouldn’t have Roberts’ genuine bellowing laughter echoing through time. The rom-com genre thrives on the chemistry of its lead actors, and it definitely takes two to tango. It’s hard to imagine what “Pretty Woman” would have been without Gere’s charisma, and his rapport with Roberts takes a premise that could easily be tawdry and makes it into a true fairy tale.
“Primal Fear” (1996)
The 1990s and 2000s saw Gere starring in a host of mainstream thrillers, most of which were somewhat ropey —“Red Corner,” “The Jackal,” “The Mothman Prophecies,” etc. The pick of the bunch is undoubtedly “Primal Fear.” Yes, Gregory Holbit’s film (based on the novel by William Diehl and a big hit at a time when John Grisham movies were the “Fast & Furious” franchise of their day) is a courtroom thriller, but it’s made and acted with rare skill, and has a killer story. Gere stars as an unscrupulous, fame-hungry defense attorney who takes on a tough case concerning a young man (Edward Norton) accused of murdering a beloved Archbishop, which becomes much tougher when he discovers first that Norton was molested by the man he killed, and then that Norton appears to have multiple personality disorder. With a nice Lumet-ian depiction of corrupt Chicago institutions in the background and a killer twist up its sleeve, the film’s dominated by Norton (in his first role, and an Oscar-nominated one), but Gere’s quietly just as good: he’s the smoothest of smooth operators who ends up discovering he wasn’t the smartest person in the room after all.
