Two of the perennial picks for this sort of question – Sofia Coppola in Godfather Part III and Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York – have already been mentioned.
I’m going to submit a more recent performance that I feel prevented a terrific film from achieving true greatness.
Orlando Bloom in Kingdom of Heaven.
While the theatrical cut released to some scathing reviews and general lukewarm reception, I staunchly maintain that the Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven is an outright marvelous film, and if not for one key element, it could have been as strong a film as Ridley Scott’s other historical epic, Gladiator.
That element is the difference between a Russell Crowe and an Orlando Bloom.
Look, I will not shift this into a ‘Let’s trash Orlando Bloom’ party. He is inextricably linked to my love for movies – he was in the Lord of The Rings trilogy, after all.
And he was entirely serviceable as Legolas. And he was believable as Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean.
But in Kingdom of Heaven, he wasn’t asked to be a Legolas or a Will Turner, he was asked to be an Aragorn or a Captain Jack Sparrow.
And for as much as I’m fond of him, I don’t think Bloom can go there. From what I have seen of him, he doesn’t have the gravitas or charisma required for such a part.
It doesn’t help that he was enveloped by strong actors. Edward Norton, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson were in splendid form; Norton, in particular, delivered the film’s finest performance with his face obscured by a mask.
Bloom’s limitations become more glaring considering the admirable performances surrounding him.
Throughout the film, I couldn’t help but feel that Bloom was coming off as a poor man’s Aragorn – both men are on somewhat similar journeys, but one of them is played by Viggo Mortenson, who is not only a vastly talented actor but also an incredible leading man.
And ultimately, that is the ‘Oh, what could have been’ at the heart of it all.
What if a performer with the authority, personality, allure and acting capacity of the likes of Mortenson or Crowe had played Balian of Ibelin?
Kingdom of Heaven lives up to the ‘epic’ in historical epic; it is an ambitious film, by all measures. And it needed an actor who could shoulder a film of such enormous scope.
I don’t think Orlando Bloom was that actor.
I still greatly enjoy Kingdom of Heaven, it’s one of Ridley Scott’s forgotten gems. But I genuinely believe that with a more appropriate actor at the helm, the film would have been much more revered than it is today.
The Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven, with a high-calibre actor leading the charge, could have been just as good, if not better, than Gladiator.
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