Reeves, K.

Some claim Keannu Reeves can't act. I disagree. I propose that his supposed lack of range has as much or more to do with the roles he has played rather than his abilities as an actor. We remember three of his roles now.

First, rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah in 1991's "Point Break". Reeves plays Utah as serious, hyper-focused, a newbie who approaches work professionally and seeks professional respect. Professionalism for him means going by the book--the playbook, that is, because it turns out Utah played quarterback at Ohio State University. His brief moment in the spotlight gave him confidence. But he's not the boastful sort, having had his football career cut short by a knee injury. This injury humbled him, and he copes with the loss of status by throwing himself into his work. With his high-profile quarterbacking days behind him, the new thrill and freedom he finds with the Ex-Presidents gang revives in him the taste for a more glamorous life--a life like he once lived at OSU. So he falls hard for bandit life. I think Reeves conveys all this and more.

Second: Have you ever watched a little white mouse sniff around the inside of a snake cage? This mouse moves with a light but distinct sense of caution, although he doesn't quite understand why. This is exactly how Reeves plays Jonathan Harker, an English estate agent and soliciter assigned to Dracula's account in the 1992 film about the man, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Agent Utah had none of the subdued fear that Reeves expresses as Harker, whose standoffishness hides sensitivity.

Third, consider Neo in "The Matrix". Here, I see Reeves for the first time playing a blank slate. This strategy allows the audience to project themselves onto his character, Neo. Before he is annointed Neo, we know Reeve's character as Thomas A. Anderson, a shift-working office nobody stuck in the colorless cubicle we call life. He's you and me: Bored and unfullfilled and hoping in his heart of hearts that he's better than average, an innocent victim waiting for a break in the monotony. We want to play a part in the revolution against meaninglessness and slavery; feeling the present one inadequate, we pine for a real life. A real and authentic life. We see our own possibility in Neo just as children see theirs in Alice and see a world of Wonder and Truth on the other side of the looking glass, see it down the rabbit hole.

Keannu acts. I don't know his range, but I believe right now that during his rise to stardom his work was underappreciated.