Mortensen

Occasionally actors sneak up on me, lay a rather large golden egg in the back of my head, and walk away to let the egg hatch. One of those actors is Viggo Mortensen.

Believe it or not my first encounter of art of Mortensen was literary, not cinematic. I had picked up a copy of “The Best American NonRequired Reading 2004” when I lived with my brother, and Mortensen had written the introduction. An actor, I thought, write an introduction to a book? That’s like asking a football player to explain Swan Lake to us or a jazz singer to critique opera. Seemed too fantastic for me. But Mortensen was more than capable—he was the apt choice for the introduction. Dave Eggers, the editor of the series has a knack for these things.
I discovered in the reading and through web research that Mortensen was in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and, even though I had already combed that series, watched the last one again just to see him. The trouble with supporting cast, if you don’t know them from other works, is that their names get lost on you, and this had happened with Mortensen. I was pleased with his performance, and admired him for the “NonRequired Reading” introduction, and then shelved him to see if he would come back.

And he did.

“The History of Violence” wasn’t one of my favorite movies of all time—I find that the longer I live in this city and the older I get the less likely I am to even watch violence on the screen.

Keep in mind that I still rent the violent movies though, for some of them have plots around the violence, and I can always cover my eyes during the gruesome parts. (Still haven’t gotten up the courage for “Sweeney Todd,” but you never know.) I did that for “History of Violence” and for Mortensen’s latest film “Eastern Promises,” which I watched on Friday night. Both have the gruesome, and both have the plotline from heaven. And both have Mortensen—quiet, steady, with accepting eyes, not burning ones. It continually blows my mind how many actors have to bore a gaze into someone to convey emotion, and other actors can open up and listen with their gaze. It’s like watching a trumpet player produce notes of bell-like quality and sound with his intake of breath, not the outward exhale.

“Eastern Promises” isn’t bad—I preferred “History of Violence”—but it does have some subtle beauty and a gingerly placed resolution. The plot isn’t a strikingly strong one until Mortensen’s character ends up in the hospital…then the viewer starts seeing some twist. In the off-light, however, Mortensen is still enamoured with books, and I come full circle with his art. The September 2007 edition of the Oprah magazine spotlights Mortensen in their regular feature “Books That Made a Difference to…(fill in the blank with a celebrity),” and Mortensen tells in the traditional opening essay about his adventures in publishing (with the advice and guidance of Eggers, no less) beginning in 2002, and then offers a sample of five books that he loves dearly. His tendencies are toward history, of both here and abroad, but I only recognized one author, the others wonderfully and educationally obscure to me. Mortensen’s recognizable author was Amis (Martin, not Kingsley) and I had a love affair with Martin Amis’s work in college. I read this article, I read his introductions, I look for his publications, and I see him in theatres, and suddenly he becomes an actor to follow for all time, pure substance in a swath of twisted steel and sex appeal. Some people just blow the mind.

The golden egg has hatched, and the owl inside glows with gossamer wings and accepting eyes.