Top Jonathan Rhys Meyers movies (based on box office success and rating)

Iris Engelhardt on October 5, 2011, 12:14 pm

Thank you so much for this page. "Elvis" is missing of course ... and give me some time, okay? Iris

Iris Engelhardt on October 22, 2011, 3:30 pm

On Mission Impossible III and From Paris with Love I am not so much of an action film fan. But Mission Impossible III and From Paris with Love are among the films that Jonathan did and beeing interested in his work include these of course. Mission Impossible III: It strikes me to be very much a Tom Cruise film. The story centers around him as an actor, not around his character. The story is complex, the action-scenes with all its technique, explosions, shootings are spectular but too much, too many. At one point this was tiring. It is a pity because Tom Cruise as an actor certainly has the potential to make more of such a film if he just concentrated more on his character and left him more space in the film. Since I am interested in Jonathan's work here most of all I felt, that Tom's fellow actors were a wonderful counterpoint to the story. What I really liked in the story was, that they took care that their characters got into the focus of interest, not they as actors. The held themselves in the background, they never tried to be other than supportive and at the same time all of them seemed to be highly motivated to do a good job and play out the full potential that their character had to offer. This finally consoled me with watching the film. I liked all of the fellow actors, but want to mention Jonathan's part of course most of all. His explosion on the italian street when they stopped their van, for Tom to leave which was some kind of initiation of the scenes where he appeared in. Full of energy and showing the potential of his character yet at the same time acting with concern for the leading character, never trying to become more prominent. I liked this very much. From Paris with Love: I had watched Shelter before and John Travoltas Character was unbearable to me for several minutes then: too lood, too noisy, too rude. John Travolta however had a very relaxed and good natured way to play his character which finally touched me. The story is nice. A member of the American Ambassy, someone who has never been active in the secret service business who wants to become an undercover agent. He is quite naive and idealistic and learns from his partner how dirty and cruel the business is. He matures during the course of the events. The story they gets into then is not that much important and the cliches it serves are forgivable. It is rather how the two characters match and interact in the various circumstances they are confronted with that became interesting to me. John Travolta's character "melted" with the surrounding, the noise with his noisy behaviour. With Jonathan it was as if I was watching a parallel film. He drew the attention on him, on his character with the various emotions that his character experienced: The shock of the cruelty, the dirt, the need to be cunning and quick, the speed with which the action developed and they had to adjust themselves to the course of the events. It makes sense that the vase then was felt to be some kind of protection shield, a teddy bear between James Reece and this hard world. Until it had to be dropped and he was ready to deal with it. It was this parallel world which Jonathan drew me into as a spectator that I loved: centered around a character, the surrounding moves into a background where it does not dominate his play. In this film it became clear that it is Jonathan's ability to change the focus. At the same time Jonathan's performance never got an autistic quality, he remained connected and interacted with John's character, they matched. Again: I really loved Jonathan's performance here. In concluding: The films show that not every film might have a good story or may have its weaknesses but good actors are able to make something of it. I realized it is worth watching a film even it is not my favorite genre if I like the actors in them. And I certainly like Jonathan and his performances!

Iris Engelhardt on December 14, 2011, 1:44 pm

These comments are dedicated to Jonathan Rhys Meyers. It is therefore that I shall address him personally in any following comments. I am no expert, I can only write about what I felt, when watching the film and integrate some information that was possibly available to improve my understanding of the film. Thank you for your work, Jonathan! I really enjoyed it!

Iris Engelhardt on December 31, 2011, 8:09 am

On: The Children of Huang Shi This film is one of my favorites of yours. George Hogg is a character everybody could identify with. The emotional development of the character to me feels demanding and interesting. George Hogg grew up in a time after the 1rst world war and heading towards the second. The world was in motion. There was poverty in countries and imperialistic activities all over Europe. As a former Oxford student Hogg must have met snobbism of his

Iris Engelhardt on February 5, 2012, 3:04 pm

On Velvet Goldmine By Iris Engelhardt, Feb. 2012 You play Brian Slade. Brian Slade is the fictive character of David Bowie. This character serves Todd Haynes to transport his message: Brian Slade/David Bowie and the Glam Rock area are a time when people finally started to put everything that they had to hide on the outside. They literally freed themselves. You comment this in an interview in 1998: I think that after flower people