More than twenty years after breaking into film as a Goonie, Josh Brolin has emerged as the go-to guy for many high-profile film adaptations, I wrote in my piece on Word & Film today. Since 2007’s “No Country for Old Men,” the Oscar-winner based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel of the same name, Brolin has appeared in five other adapted works — and has four on deck. Lest you think Brolin runs the risk of spreading himself too thin, one need only glance at the depth of his resume and near future’s projects to find reassurance that he’s conducting himself exactly as he should be.
Up first: “Oldboy” (out November 27), director Spike Lee’s re-imagining of the 2003 South Korean thriller by director Chan-wook Park, is itself an adaptation of a Japanese manga. Brolin loved the original film, which won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Lee’s version, written by Mark David Protosevich (“I Am Legend”), casts Brolin as Joe Doucett, an advertising executive held captive in a makeshift hotel room for twenty years. He’s released into a field with a handful of cash, a crystalline desire for revenge, and a timeline to find answers. Sharlto Copley (“District 9,” “Elysium”), Elizabeth Olsen (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”), and Samuel L. Jackson co-star.
With his rugged build, raspy voice and taciturn delivery, Brolin makes a believable badass, crucial for key scenes such as a brutal fight sequence in which he clubs dozens of enemies with a hammer. Yet he also can reveal an inner decency and tenderness. In “Labor Day,” an adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel scheduled for wide release in January, Brolin plays an escaped convict who forms an unconventional family with traumatized mother (Kate Winslet) and her teenage son. When he says in the trailer that he’s never intentionally hurt anyone, Brolin’s flickers of warmth assure viewers as well. “It’s clear virtually from his entrance that this is the best film role Brolin has had since ‘No Country for Old Men’ and maybe ever, and he makes the most of it,” the Hollywood Reporter wrote.