It’s Ben Kingsley Appreciation Day

You’ve all seen the compact British actor in various and sympathetic roles in movies such as Gandhi and Schindler’s List and I’d imagine, appreciated those portrayals, as have I. After seeing more of Ben Kingsley’s work, however, I’ve come to appreciate his talent in portraying darker and much less sympathetic characters. In fact, he’s quite genius in evoking a sense of pure evil and unspeakable menace.

A few nights ago, we watched the movie (on DVD), Suspect Zero, with Ben Kingsley, Aaron Eckhart (In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, Erin Brockovich) and Carrie Anne Moss (The Matrix, Memento, Red Planet). This is a story involving FBI agents, serial killers and remote viewing. The themes and execution thereof were intriguing and the cinematography eerie, other-worldly and sinister, but the real reason to see the movie is Ben Kingsley and his portrayal of a man in the shadows, which the viewer cannot initially gauge as good or evil. What Kingsley brings to the role is an intensity of tightly bound chaos and the sense of destruction wrought should it be unleashed. Vicious killer or tortured soul, huh?

An even better film is Sexy Beast, wherein Kingsley plays a crime boss recruiting a former crewmember for one last heist. This character cannot be confused with the clever, outrageous and funny felonious operators in Guy Richie films (Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). Kingsley’s character is a person of such depraved and thoroughly unrelenting evil, that you will find yourself wanting to forcibly extract him from the living – whatever it takes.

Before the character even enters the scene, his threatening presence is shown by the traumatized response of others as they learn of his impending visit. With a less gifted actor, the character’s entrance could be anticlimactic, fall flat or even come across as comical. Not here, buddy. Ben Kingsley brings out the heart of evil and displays it for you. You’re no longer a safe little viewer, removed from the horror – you’re forced to cope with it with the other unfortunates.

That, in a nutshell, is Kingsley’s gift: he can evoke fear, loathing and terror in the viewer by his intense, hypnotic, rattler-like performances. Yes, gentle reader, you don’t want to focus on what roils in the stygian black that is evil, but Ben Kingsley makes it worth your while when he compels you not to turn away.