Emile Hirsch, Alpha Actor - Page 3

In Peter Care's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) Hirsch plays Francis Doyle and Jena Malone plays the conflicted Margie Flynn, his first love interest in this coming of age story situated in a suffocating Catholic school. Margie falls prey to an incestuous fantasy with her brother Donnie that has led her to a suicide attempt. Francis draws comic strips portraying Margie as a romantic heroine who represents a contrast with the indomitable side of Margie's amoral explorations which Francis feels he can't control. The nameless idea of femininity turns into an epic fantasy character in the drawings while Francis is engulfed by a real girl who is ready to love him. "After the male fish hatch, they bite onto a female, like parasites. But after a while they grow into each other and share the same blood and everything... They turn into one single fish," is the example Francis uses to expound how he's already forgiven Margie's past secrets. In this scene Hirsch's understated performance slowly unfolds an irreversible maturation process before Malone's and our eyes.

In The Girl Next Door (2004) Hirsch plays Matthew Kidman, a meritorious senior who has been accepted into Georgetown University, but needs to compete for a full scholarship. He has a boy scout's moral fiber, but irrupting his taedium vitae, the girl next door, Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), appears out of nowhere and hereupon Matt begins to fight for Danielle, who formerly worked as porn star and is tempted to return.

Matt is challenged to change his point of view in the process of dating Danielle, and Hirsch communicates these changes in a completely believable, approachable way: "You risk it all, you put her in front of everything, your life, all of it. And maybe the stuff you do to help her isn't so clean. You know what? It doesn't matter. Because in your heart you know that the juice is worth the squeeze. That's what moral fiber's all about."

Two scenes stood out in the romantic plot of The Girl Next Door, one in a motel at midnight, in which Hirsch manages to pass in a few minutes from cocky to ashamed  when he's reproached by Danielle: "Isn't this what you want? To fuck a porn star in a cheap motel room?"

Article Author: Kendra

I'm an Aragonese/Catalonian freelance writer, poetress and film critic. My favourite genre is independent cinema. My real name is Elena Gonzalvo.

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