slightlytainted

I love Johnny for a number of reasons. He's a Hollywood survivor, a working-man who shunned teeny-bopper, heart-throb, pin-up stardom in the beginning of his career to take more risky ventures, often stretching himself to portray characters that were people other than simplified versions of himself. He went into roles convincing us he was somebody else entirely, preferring the career of a character-actor rather than a movie star. Before he was propelled into the Hollywood A-list of brand-name-stars who open films with huge ticket-sales (by Pirates Of The Caribbean in 2003), he garnered steady work with auteur directors such as Tim Burton, John Waters, Terry Gilliam, Jim Jarmusch, Roman Polanski, The Hughes Brothers, Ted Demme, Lasse Halstrome, and Robert Rodriguez among others, not to mention the renown likes of Wes Craven and Oliver Stone. These are great reasons to love Johnny, but for me, it's the fact that every 'romantic' part he's played in didn't make me gag.

Generally, romantic-comedies tend to substitute silliness for wit. They're generic, bland, noticeably unrealistic junk with scenes so cheesy you can hear a muted trumpet play "Wah-wah-wah-waaa" in your head over and over again, yet not so with Johnny.

Edward Scissorhands is a beautiful fairy-tale about the pains of being a unique individual in a society of insipid, conformist, zombies who are quick to ostracize and easy to rouse into violent hatred. Ed Wood, on the other hand, isn't strictly a romantic film but does have scenes with the relationship of hack-actors and cross-dressing directors that's so intentionally campy it's both twisted and hilarious, while remaining sweet at heart. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is another film so well written and performed it comes off as a gritty, slice-of-life that's easily believable in its tender characters living harsh, unhappy circumstances. Don Juan DeMarco follows a more typical formula but in the end

A worthy, unexpected surprise you don't often see in romantic-comedies.

Benny & Joon was another romantic-comedy dealing with less-than-emotionally-stable characters who actually have to work through tough obstacles to make their relationship work. Obstacles that really do happen to people but aren't shown because the subject matter "isn't funny." Because of this "it-isn't-funny" belief, the presented problems (which drive the story) of this sort are typically trite to avoid any deep thinking in the interest of "keeping it light." Light-hearted and trite shouldn't be synonymous, in my opinion, because light-hearted is an attitude, not a subject matter. Benny & Joon is a movie that understands this principle and works with it. Aside from that, the Buster Keaton inspired antics of Johnny's character are performed to perfection, a rare case of physical comedy not being a lost art.

I'd go on to mention Chocolate but I haven't seen it. No matter, all-in-in, Johnny Depp has managed to not only take a wide array of interesting parts in unique, timeless films, he's also done romantic-comedies that, rather than making me gag, fall into the same, artistic trend that's defined his entire career. Something no other current, A-list actor can claim. He's a thespian who happened to become a huge movie-star in the process, and you can see the difference in his work.


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