In Reluctant Defense of Colin Farrell

One of the Miami Vice Month writers here on GSunderground has said more than once that Eric Bana would be a better Sonny Crockett than Colin Farrell. I could let it go once, but after his last piece, I feel compelled to explain why Rob (despite his eloquence) is wrong.

I loved the Minority Report 'pre-crime' take on preventing Farrell's role, lest his performance commit a crime against humanity. But where was the mention of Farrell's role in Minority Report? This was his breakthrough blockbuster role -- he played the Department of Justice climber who's career motivations had audiences riveted trying to figure out whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. He revealed the Big Brother conspiracy even before Cruise, but paid for it with a bullet in the chest from Ming The Merciless himself, Max Von Sydow.

Farrell pulled off this good-versus-bad dichotomy flawlessly even in the shadow of Tom Cruise. Granted, at the time Cruise was coming off of a string of masturbatory art house nonsense like Magnolia and Vanilla Sky, so he was an easy target for a fresh Hollywood climber. Even still, Farrell delivered in Minority Report, thanks largely to his own internal darkness and his own struggle with trying to be the good Hollywood role model like Cruise while also having a weakness for every vice known to mankind.

Even our resident Farrell doubter has pointed out that this struggle is the very essence of Sonny Crockett.

In fairness to Rob, I agree that there is evidence to doubt Farrell on a blockbuster level. Sure there was Tigerland, the underground role that made him, and Minority Report, the mainstream movie that he stole. But where was he in all the so-called blockbusters that followed: Daredevil? SWAT? Alexander? Talk about masturbatory nonsense. Perhaps the Farrell's worst turn as a mainstreamer was Phone Booth. Who the fuck told him he could be a global hero by playing a PR guy? The fact that he even listened to this advice, no matter how big the payoff was, is perhaps enough evidence alone for Rob to be justified in his concern.

I also think Rob is onto something with Eric Bana because the connection to the Michael Mann sensibility is very close. Bana was the main character (another guy torn between two lives) in Munich, which screenwriter Eric Roth wrote. The two movies Roth wrote just before Munich were Ali and The Insider -- both Michael Mann vehicles. So there's reason to believe Bana could have pulled off Crockett, but not reason enough. Bana is too clean. He has no visible vices.

Farrell on the other hand is the king of vice -- the man simply can't say no to copious amounts of booze and ass and countless other spoils of a Hollywood fast life. That's why he's got the best read on life as an undercover cop -- someone who's trying to do the right thing, but all the spoils are there for the taking.

So I'm going out on a limb and saying that Farrell will redefine the Crockett archetype for a new generation and give the old generation what they expect from the only cop in history who could rock a white suit with no socks and still be the baddest mofo in the precinct.