Six Essential Performances by…Oliver Platt

Published by Interrobang Staff at May 19, 2014

Please Give

DIGGSTOWN (1992), THE IMPOSTERS (1998), PIECES OF APRIL (2003), CASSANOVA (2005), THE ICE HARVEST (2005), PLEASE GIVE (2010)

Our newest feature salutes some of the great character actors with a primer on their greatest performances. In our first, we saluted the outstanding performances of recently deceased actor Bob Hoskins with Six Essential Performances. This week, a look at six brilliant, and sometimes overlooked roles of Oliver Platt.

Oliver Platt (Currently in Chef, TV’s Fargo, upcoming Lucky Them) is the kind of actor who completely catches you off guard, despite being a familiar face for more than 25 years. In every movie and television show he appears in, it seems impossible to think of any other actor in the role. He adds variety and humanity to the broadest of characters, but despite how great his performances are, there is always something uniquely his own; as if a tiny bit of himself can’t help but infuse every characters. It’s the reason he does so well with significant supporting roles, adding far more to his characters than what exists purely on the page. Like a modern day William Powell, this Shakespearean trained actor has a wild charm, even when playing incredibly unlikeable men. It’s no surprise that even in films which are less than brilliant, his performance always stand-up.

Oliver Platt is the kind of actor who completely catches you off guard, despite being a familiar face for more than 25 years.

Platt trained as a theater actor, first finding significant notice from Bill Murray who suggested him for a significant role Married to the Mob. Small supporting roles in comedies such as Working Girl followed, bringing his remarkable comic abilities to audience’s attention. And in Diggstown, his ability to play the comic dirt bag is in full swing as degenerate con artist Fitz. Platt played Fitz, James Wood’s crime partner, as a hyper loser who follows Woods’ lead like an eager apprentice. And in the moments when they’re playing the con, Platt seems almost giddy to have the opportunity to “play the drunk”, suggesting Fritz’s heroes were the characters from The Sting, and had fantasized about pulling his own long con ever since. There is no vanity to a performance which could have, especially for an actor still relatively new to films, typecast Platt as an unlikable jerk. Instead, he’s one of the most enjoyable performances and characters in this underrated movie.

If you missed The Imposters, you missed a gem of a film.

Platt followed up Diggstown with a handful of other impressive, funny supporting performances which were often the best part of mediocre movies. But his funniest and most unexpected performance would probably be in Stanley Tucci’s follow up to Big Night, The Imposters. If you missed The Imposters, you missed a gem of a film which used silly farce to parody the classic stock film characters of 1930s Hollywood. Along with most of the cast from Big Night, Platt stars with Tucci as comedians (in the style of Laurel and Hardy) with no money or place to live, who have a run in with a pretentious (and untalented) classical actor (Alfred Molina) and have to escape Some Like It Hot style on a cruise liner as stowaways. Surrounded by a ship full of stock characters, Platt emerges as a star who embraces the insanity of such a character with complete abandoned, and showing great reverence for the comics of yesterday. Never afraid to make himself look stupid, his “tasting” scene in a pastry shop is one of the most unexpected and funniest because of the almost regal air he gives his ridiculous character. And his scenes in drag, shows an unflinching commitment to “playing the women” which is especially funny when playing opposite love struck Billy Connelly.

Despite his unbelievable ability to play less than attractive crazy people, Platt brings humanity to every role, no matter how big or ridiculous. But some of his nicest moments come from understated everyman roles, such as in Pieces of April. Platt is really just playing a dad; a warm-hearted, exasperated father who only wants his wife and daughter to find some common ground. In a movie with some larger than life women, Platt’s low-key performance would be easy to overlook if his interplay with of the women hadn’t offered them some of their key emotional moments in the movie. And while his interactions with Allison Pill, Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson are beautiful, the quiet moments he has with John Gallagher are easy to overlook, but brilliant, especially when you see how much he does in the corner of the screen.

2005’s Casanova earned Platt the New York Film Critic’s Award for best supporting actor and is a great example of a subpar movie elevated by Platt’s performances. The movie itself is a bit labored and uninspired, except for Platt’s performance as Papprizzio, which is a breath of fresh air. The remarkable thing about watching Platt here, especially compared to the rest of the film, is the ease at which he takes on historical costume films. His theatrical background, and Shakespearean training particularly, helps him to approach the film with an ease few contemporary actors have when dealing with classical material. Despite costumes and language, Platt seems completely at ease in the role, and plays the role with unhindered delight which captures the original spirit of the scandalous novel.

Earlier this year, due to the tragic death of Harold Ramis, the underrated film The Ice Harvest found a bit of a second life. The noir comedy starring Billy Bob Thornton, Randy Quaid, and John Cusack features a hilarious performance from Platt as Cusack’s pathetic, drunk friend. Despite the film not being a straight comedy, Platt’s comic relief is so welcomed and his character so fully realized, he never comes across as an afterthought or unnecessary part of the story. He is completely believable as a man who seduced Cusacks’ wife away, even while already being a man on hers (and everyone else’s) nerves. Hilarious in a role which is farcical in its broadness but real in how unlikable and childish he goes with the character, it is one of the best part of this little gem. And according to Ramis, the role was unwritten until Platt took the role, developing aspects of the character to make him a more interesting and dimensional character.

Likewise, his role in Please Give was created for him by writer/director Nicole Holofcener, who invited his input on writing a three dimensional, middle aged man for her movie about a New York couple (Platt and Catherine Keener) who make a living buying furniture from estate sales, and live with real and misplaced guilt because of it. There are elements reminiscent of Platt’s put-upon, dependable character in Pieces of April, but has a bit more to do in this film. His character has slowly been losing patience with his self-hating wife, and responds to her claims of being ashamed of their life with a tired, droll sarcasm. But behind all that is a midlife crisis and denial which leads Platt’s decent but imperfect husband and father to have the biggest moments in this female focused movie. And like all his best work, there is a complete lack of vanity here which allows him to embrace the best and worst aspects of his character’s humanity.