Wish-fulfilment is to blame for the only forgettable Jesse Plemons performance
When Jesse Plemons appeared as Todd Alquist in Breaking Bad, a member of a neo-Nazi gang who proves to be one of the show’s most memorable antagonists, the actor cemented himself as one hell of a versatile star.
His biggest role before that was as Landry in Friday Night Lights, a nerdy and well-liked character with a much stronger moral compass than Todd, but now, Plemons has become one of Hollywood’s greatest assets, appearing in many hit TV shows and acclaimed movies, which have allowed him to demonstrate his unpredictability. Sometimes, he’s a charming and reliable figure, but just like that, he can morph into something a lot more menacing, and you never know what you’re going to get with him, which is why he’s so in-demand and a director’s dream.
Nominated for an Oscar for his role in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Plemons often opts for films made in collaboration with well-established filmmakers, having also found himself under the direction of icons like Paul Thomas Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Martin Scorsese, so what went so wrong when he decided to appear in Disney’s Jungle Cruise?
The movie featured Emily Blunt and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the leading roles, while British comedian Jack Whitehall also bagged a major supporting role. If that’s not enough to tell you that this movie was doomed for failure, don’t even get me started on the fact that the plot was inspired by a pre-existing theme park ride found in Disneyland’s Adventureland. That’s just not cinema, is it?
Plemons starred as the antagonistic German royal Prince Joachim, and it’s easily one of his worst onscreen turns to date, but not because he gives a terrible performance, but compared to his other movies, Jungle Cruise majorly pales in comparison. It turns out, welcoming a second child into the world with wife Kirsten Dunst was the reason for Plemons taking on the family-friendly role, with the actor telling Vanity Fair, “Our first son was three weeks old when I started filming that”.
He continued, “I grew up watching Disney movies, and the idea of playing a Disney villain was not something I ever mapped out. But when an opportunity came, I just thought, ‘Man, that would be a lot of fun. I don’t know if I can do this, so I want to see’.”
Plemons wanted to take on the challenge of doing something he’d never planned for himself, although Jungle Cruise was not the critical hit he might’ve hoped it to be, not even performing that well at the box office, grossing $220.9million against a $200m budget.
“I’m always trying to find the part where I feel like there’s enough that I can hold onto, that I understand, but then that there’s plenty that I don’t, and that is a little intimidating, and outside of anything that I’ve done before,” the actor admitted.
At least Plemons’ kids can watch a Disney movie and actually see their own dad onscreen, which is not something that many children are able to brag about.
