Top Five Roles: Benedict Cumberbatch

Another two-post day.  I am not good at remembering to update while I'm on vacation.

Why not?  It’s been a while since I’ve done a Top Five Roles post, and trendy fandom favorite or not, Benedict Cumberbatch is just crazy talented.  Even as I start this write-up, it occurs to me that I’ve never seen Cumberbatch doing Shakespeare and it might be wiser to hold off until after 1) Hamlet via National Theatre Live and 2) the BBC’s production of the Henry VI plays and Richard III, and that’s before you consider his entrance to the Avengers universe next year with Doctor Strange.  The point is, singling out five performances from Cumberbatch is only going to get harder, so I might do it while the getting’s good.

Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh:  Painted with Words

Just a really lovely performance.  I love Vincent’s passion, his delight and ecstasy, and I feel for his despair.  Van Gogh was such a raw, beating-heart sort of artist – his joy and his despondency are equal and opposite forces in his life/work – that it’s hugely important to capture both, and Cumberbatch does it magnificently.

Captain Martin Crieff, Cabin Pressure

It’s too bad that this is the only explicitly-comedic character to make the list, because Cumberbatch does humor so well.  Martin, the easily agitated, wildly insecure, pathologically tight-wound pilot of the ragtag MJN Air, is straight-up hysterical.  He’s commits 100% to the most absurd of situations – too many to pick an all-out favorite, but “I don’t care how hypothetical it is, I’m not flying with a live otter in the flight deck!” is a darn good one.

Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock

Duh.  Let’s see, there are the rapid-fire deduction monologues that go a zillion miles an hour and yet are delivered in such a way that you actually understand the connections he’s made.  There’s his audacious indifference towards any and all social niceties.  There are the moments when the aloof armor cracks and we see how much he really needs people, or at least John.  Throw in a little maybe-aceness, and it’s a no-brainer.

The Creature, Frankenstein

Honest-to-goodness mesmerizing.  From his artless, shambling clumsiness to the childlike playfulness he maintains even in the darkest moments, this is such a fascinating performance.  I can’t tell you how much I love the scene in which the Creature confronts Frankenstein about creating and subsequently abandoning him.  Wow.

Christopher Tietjens, Parade’s End

Oh, good gracious, Christopher Tietjens.  A gift of a character and a master class in acting.  The combination between extremely soulful/sensitive and almost unshakably repressed lead to a man at war within himself.  His overwhelming emotions are always painfully evident, bubbling just under the mask he can’t bear to lift.  I mean… good gracious.