Viggo Mortensen
Date of birth
20th October, 1958
Occupation
Actor
Sex
Male
Height
1.80
Squad Goals! 'Lord Of The Rings' Cast Stage Epic Reunion
By Stephanie Chase in Movies / TV / Theatre on 01 February 2017
It’s been 15 years since the release of the trilogy’s first movie, ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’.
The cast of _Lord of the Ring_s held a mini reunion on Tuesday to fight a cave troll in a restaurant, using cutlery.
Dominic Monaghan, who played Meriadoc Brandybuck in the franchise, shared a series of epic ‘squad goals’ pictures on Instagram, showing himself alongside Orlando Bloom (Legolas), Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins), Billy Boyd (Peregrin Took) and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn).
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Captain Fantastic Review
Excellent
An offbeat comedy-drama with a timely kick, this charming family road trip takes on some very deep topics without flinching. It's essentially an impassioned plea to snap out of the way people in the West have been sleepwalking into consumerism and complacency. Viewers who believe that things are just fine will probably be troubled (or angered) by this movie, but those willing to think and have their beliefs challenged will find it entertaining and invigorating.
It opens in the American northwest, where Ben (Viggo Mortensen) is raising his six kids in the middle of a forest, teaching them to use their minds and bodies to think and survive. His wife is ill in hospital, and when she dies the kids insist on attending her funeral, even though her parents (Frank Langella and Ann Dowd) ask Ben not to come. So they pile into the family bus and head across country, stopping to visit Ben's sister and brother-in-law (Kathryn Hahn and Steve Zahn). This encounter and others along the road demonstrate just how far advanced Ben's children are, although they're not terribly well equipped to interact with general society. Eldest son Bodevan (George MacKay) has been accepted into all of the top universities, but hasn't a clue how to talk to a girl. And middle son Rellian (Nicholas Hamilton) is beginning to question the Bohemian lifestyle.
This is a fascinating exploration of a group of children whose upbringing has given them razor-sharp minds, leading them to political beliefs that are far outside the mainstream. The unsubtle connection is that the majority of the public are manipulated by corporate interests that put money ahead of everything else. Actor-turned-filmmaker Matt Ross smartly explores this theme from every angle, which makes the film easy to engage with. And it helps that the driving force of the plot is the emotional desire to say goodbye to a wife and mother.
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Viggo Mortensen posing alone and with Matt Ross and Annalise Brasso at the premiere of Bleecker Street's latest movie 'Captain Fantastic' held at Harmony Gold Theater. Viggo plays Ben, the father of a large family who live in the woods. Los Angeles, California, United States - Tuesday 28th June 2016
Stars of the film 'Far From Men' attended the official screening at the British Film Institute's London Film Festival held at the Vue West End
'The Two Faces Of January' Could Be The Finest Patricia Highsmith Adaptation Yet
By Michael West in Movies / TV / Theatre on 16 May 2014
'The Two Faces of January' is another successful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's work.
American-born but Europe-based, the novelist Patricia Highsmith wrote 22 novels and eight collections of short stories, most of which deal with characters who are badly compromised morally. So it's natural that her work has been widely adapted by filmmakers looking for more complex characters and storylines.
It's also hardly surprising that novelist Patricia Highsmith has long been associated with master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, who gave her career a huge boost when he made a movie based on her first novel Strangers on a Train a year after it was first published in 1950. Her most famous character, the anti-hero Tom Ripley, appears in five novels and has been immortalised several times on film: Alain Delon in the classic Plein Soleil (1960), Dennis Hopper in The American Friend (1977), Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), John Malkovich in Ripley's Game (2002), Barry Pepper in Ripley Under Ground (2005).
Continue reading: 'The Two Faces Of January' Could Be The Finest Patricia Highsmith Adaptation Yet
The Two Faces Of January Review
By Rich Cline
Excellent
This sun-drenched thriller is much more than a pretty picture: it's also a slow-burning story about moral compromises that worms its way under the skin. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, there are clear parallels to The Talented Mr. Ripley as three characters circle around each other and all kinds of Hitchcockian subtext gurgles around them.
Set in 1962, the plot opens with Chester and Colette (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) on a romantic holiday in Athens, where they meet slightly too-helpful American tour guide Rydal (Oscar Isaac). He's already wooing one rich young tourist (Daisy Bevan) and soon locks eyes on Colette. But it's Chester he becomes entangled with, when a private eye (David Warshofsky) turns up trying to reclaim cash Chester stole from a client. So Rydal helps Chester and Colette flee to Crete and, while they wait for a plan to develop, Chester becomes convinced that Rydal and Colette are having an affair.
Writer-director Hossein Amini has already proven himself as a skilled writer of innuendo-filled dialogue (see Drive or The Wings of the Dove), and here he shows a remarkable eye for setting. It helps to have ace cinematographer Marcel Zyskind and composer Alberto Iglesias adding their considerable skills to the mix. The film looks utterly gorgeous, providing plenty of glaring sunlight and murky shadows in which Mortensen, Dunst and Isaac can bring their characters to vivid life. Every scene bursts with suggestiveness, as the inter-relationships between these three people shift unnervingly.
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The Two Faces Of January - Trailer & Clip
Chester MacFarland is a wealthy businessman whose business ventures are often far from lawful. During a vacation to Athens, Greece with his wife Colette, the pair meet a handsome young man named Rydal who works as a tour guide and earns extra cash through elaborate scams. After dining with the couple, Rydal returns to their hotel, but Chester is thrust into disaster when he is forced to defend himself from an armed man who had been on the end of one of his dodgy dealings. Chester persuades Rydal to move the unconscious body, but he soon finds himself trapped in Chester's criminal world with no escape. To make matters worse, he is becoming increasingly enchanted by the highly fragile Colette and, with her accepting his offers of comfort as the trio go on the run, there's only so much jealously Chester can take.
Set in the early sixties, crime thriller 'The Two Faces Of January' sees a tense story of entrapment, jealousy and suspicion. Directed and written by Hossein Amini (writer of '47 Ronin', 'Snow White and the Huntsman', 'Drive, 'Killshot), the movie is based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. It is due for UK release on May 16th 2014.
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Viggo Mortensen - Photo call for The Two Faces of January, 64th Berlin International Film Festival, (Berlinale), at the Hyatt Potsdamer Platz - Berlin, Germany - Tuesday 11th February 2014
Everybody Has A Plan [Todos Tenemos Un Plan] Review
By Rich Cline
Good
While it's fascinating to see Viggo Mortensen starring in an Argentine thriller, the film itself is disappointing and dull, keeping all the compelling emotions so internalised that we find it difficult to care what happens. It's skilfully shot and edited, and Mortensen's dual performance is excellent, but the central relationships are so vague that the film never draws us in.
Mortensen plays Agustin, a successful Buenos Aires doctor whose marriage to Claudia (Villamil) is strained by her persistent desire to adopt an orphan. Just as he's about to snap at her, his twin brother Pedro (also Mortensen) arrives to tell him that he's in the final stages of cancer. When he dies, Agustin sees a route of escape: he assumes Pedro's identity and returns to their family home deep in an isolated wooded river system. There he discovers that Pedro had been involved in a reckless kidnapping with childhood friend Adrian (Ganego). And as Agustin tries to clean up Pedro's mess, he begins to fall for bee-keeping assistant Rosa (Gala).
Mortensen is essentially playing three characters here: the sharp but frazzled city doctor, the wheezy country bumpkin and a combination of the two as Agustin pretends to be Pedro, although only Adrian seems to fall for this ruse. What's intriguing is the way Mortensen so thoroughly internalises his performance, revealing his thoughts and feelings through his eyes. This holds our interest more than anything else in the film, and gives his interaction with the other characters a jolt of raw honesty. Otherwise, we never really believe the romance between Agustin and Rosa, and Adrian is evil for evil's sake, which makes him a cartoon villain.
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Hot Tickets! US Movie Releases: Will Tom Cruise Make Or Break 'Jack Reacher'? Is 'This Is 40' As Good As 'Knocked Up'?
By Hayley Avron in Movies / TV / Theatre on 21 December 2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is riding high in the US box office charts (way higher than its nearest competitor, Rise of the Guardians) this week and it’s unlikely that will change, though there are at least two releases this weekend that have been causing a stir. Tom Cruise stars in Jack Reacher – the adaptation of the Lee Child novel and This Is 40, the new comedy from Judd Apatow; a sequel to the popular comedy Knocked Up.
Some fans of Lee Child’s novels questioned the decision to cast Tom Cruise in the title role of Jack Reacher. He was, after all, originally on board as a producer only but after reading the script, it seems, he decided he’d like to have a go at starring in the movie too. It looks as though the gamble has just about paid off, as long as you enter the movie theatre with the understanding that what you are about to see is very much A Tom Cruise Movie, with Tom Cruise in standard Tom Cruise “cool and calculating” mode, as described by Betsy Sharkey of Los Angeles Times.
So far, the reviews are just about erring on the side of positive, with an aggregate of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s face it, Tom Cruise’s rep has hardly had an easy ride this year and this is hardly challenging new ground for the Mission Impossible star, who has frequented many a steely action thriller of late. However, many reviewers have surmised that really, it’s Cruise that makes this movie. “This is Cruise’s show. And he nails it,” says Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. One for the Cruise fans, then. Wherever you are.
Continue reading: Hot Tickets! US Movie Releases: Will Tom Cruise Make Or Break 'Jack Reacher'? Is 'This Is 40' As Good As 'Knocked Up'?
On The Road Review
By Rich Cline
OK
Despite the skill behind and in front of the camera, a badly constructed script flattens this film version of Jack Kerouac's iconic 1957 novel. It's beautifully shot and sharply played by the starry ensemble cast, but the repetitive structure leaves the film with no forward momentum. Instead of a voyage of discovery, it feels like a lot of random, pointless wandering.
Thinly autobiographical, the story centres on the young New York writer Sal (Riley). He's drawn to the charismatic Dean (Moriarty), a charming rogue who's married to 16-year-old Marylou (Stewart) but is having an affair with Camille (Dunst) while seducing every other woman he meets. And quite a few men as well, including Sal's friend Carlo (Sturridge). All of them are writers and artists, hanging out in clouds of hash smoke as they drive back and forth across America in search of something to write about.
Of course, Sal finds this in Dean as their friendship ebbs and flows over several years. Since this is essentially Sal's story, it's rather odd that the film abandons him from time to time to follow someone else, leaping jarringly into another situation, often marked by Dean's sudden reappearance after yet another bit of roaming. So while we understand how everyone is held in Dean's magnetic orbit, we can't quite see the point of it all. Sal may be obsessed with his thoughts of Dean, but he seems strangely willing to abandon him time and time again. There isn't nearly enough of the scene-stealing costars like Mortensen, Adams and Buscemi. And frankly, it should be a crime to waste Moss (of Mad Men fame) in such a fragmented role.
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A Dangerous Method Review
By Rich Cline
Very Good
Cronenberg's brainy approach makes this film fascinating but demanding as it traces the birth of psychoanalysis through the relationship and rivalry between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The film radiates intelligence through clever direction and strong performances.
In 1904 Zurich, Jung (Fassbender) tests Freud's theoretical "talking cure" on manic patient Sabina (Knightley). And it works, revealing Sabina's own skills as a potential shrink. Two years later, Jung travels to Vienna to meet Freud (Mortensen), and they start a working friendship. But when Freud refers an outspoken patient (Cassel), Jung starts to question his morality. As a result, he starts an affair with Sabina, which is much hotter than his comfortable marriage to Emma (Gadon). But this causes him to question Freud's theories, leading to a clash of the titans.
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A Dangerous Method Trailer
Set in Vienna before the start of World War One, Carl Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, is employing some of Freud's techniques on psychoanalysis to treat a patient at the Burgh"lzli Mental Hospital, a beautiful Russian woman called Sabina Spielrein, who has repressed paternal issues.
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Viggo Mortensen - Viggo Mortensen speaking at the ceremony Friday 26th March 2010 at Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame Los Angeles, California