“Chicago” (2002)
Having begun his career in a stage production of “Grease,” Gere belatedly returned to the musical genre for this Oscar-winner from director Rob Marshall. Though he wasn’t nominated as several of his co-stars were, he contributed a terrific performance that helped to revitalize his career. As conniving, money-minded attorney Billy Flynn, Gere racks up as much drama as he does dollar bills with every tap of his shoe. This role feels made for him —he manages to balance between his own signature charm and Flynn’s cartoon villainy, but at no point does he dive into caricature or attempt to upstage costars Renee Zellwegger or Catherine Zeta-Jones. While Gere’s melding of self and character may seem effortless, the musical numbers required what he stated was some of the hardest training he’s ever done for a film. One of the most enjoyable numbers is Gere’s rendition of “We Both Reached for the Gun”: It shows that despite being past his 50s, he is still nimble enough to puppeteer us with his razzle-dazzle.
“I’m Not There” (2007)
Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There” is a creature all its own. It’s a biopic designed to deconstruct the very nature of the Hollywood biopic and to capture the many aspects of a shape shifting musician united under the monker Bob Dylan. Less focused on the “facts” of Dylan’s life, “I’m Not There” traces instead the themes and spiritual motifs of his work. The film employed six great performances to link the disparate threads together while making them stand firm on their own, and that’s exactly what it got. And while the best of these six might just be Cate Blanchett’s Jude Quinn (because, let’s be honest, has anyone else ever captured quintessential Dylan like her?), Gere’s soulful portrayal of Billy McCarty provides a perfect respite, lending the film a quiet thoughtfulness it might not have needed but certainly benefited from. Gere plays Billy with a reflective timidity, a post motorcycle crash Dylan looking for peace in anonymity, who, when pressed, is still quick to fight the good fight. And when that final, impossible-as-it-may-be moment comes and Billy finds Woody’s guitar, Gere makes it hard to not to feel the power of his conviction and the loom of true legacy.
“Arbitrage” (2012)
Far fewer films have been made about the last decade’s financial collapse than anyone might have predicted at the scandal-dominated peak of the crisis in 2008, when CEOs and bankers were lying through their teeth in front of congress and walking away will millions. Of the films that have tried, very few have succeeded at turning the jargon-heavy talkers that the genre necessitates into something worth watching. Of those that succeeded (see J.C. Chandor’s excellent “Margin Call”), the ones that triumphed explored the ruthlessness and infinite hunger that drove the men and women at the top. All of this is to say that Nicholas Jarecki’s “Arbitrage” needed a ruthless bastard so compelling that audiences would double over with suspense at watching him throw everyone in his life under the bus to get ahead and make another buck (or cool million). It’s almost safe to say that no one except a top-of-his-form Gere could have pulled off Robert Miller, a man so corrupted by power and wealth that many other actors might have turned the role into a caricature. But with Gere’s suave sophistication, his on command charm, and that sly grin, it’s easy to see why he’s inspired so much trust in those around him and we’re left damn near rooting for him to pull it off and get away with murder (in this case, manslaughter).
Honorable Mentions: Across a forty-year career, there’s been plenty more to mention from Gere, even with respect to his occasional dry patches. Among them are his menacingly sexy turn opposite Diane Keaton in “Looking For Mr. Goodbar,” John Schlesinger’s decent “Yanks,” Sidney Lumet’s underrated “Power,” co-starring Denzel Washington, Julie Christie and Gene Hackman, his great turn as a corrupt cop in Mike Figgis’ “Internal Affairs,” Gary Sinise’s solid drama “Miles From Home” and his cameo in Akira Kurosawa’s “Rhapsody In August” (how many American stars can say that they worked with Kurosawa?)
Hitchcock homage “Final Analysis” with Kim Basinger isn’t bad, and neither is post-Civil War drama “Sommersby” with Jodie Foster. He’s good in a small role in the HBO AIDS drama “And The Band Played On,” is on charming form in “Runaway Bride” and even “Shall We Dance?” and is an effective villain opposite old co-star Diane Lane in “Unfaithful.” “The Hoax” is tepid, but Gere’s very good in it, while not enough people saw war correspondent drama “The Hunting Party,” co-starring Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard. More recently, he was also good as an aging cop in Antoine Fuqua’s “Brooklyn’s Finest.”
— Oliver Lyttelton, Gary Garrison, Jillian Tan
