Keanu Reeves: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Scott Favor - My Own Private Idaho (1991)

It's interesting to note how Shakespeare very often separates the good actors from the not-so-good. On the latter end belong such turkeys as Ethan Hawke's Hamlet or the recent Aussie version of Macbeth; on the former, anything directed by Kenneth Branagh. My Own Private Idaho missed out on that assessment because it is a vernacular adaptation (i.e. it doesn't use Shakespeare's own language), but it has merit enough to earn a place on this countdown. The film is loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts I & II and Henry V, which are often presented together in a condensed version known as Hal V. Directed by Gus van Sant, it follows the story of best friends and gay street hustlers Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Reeves), who fill the roles of Sir John Falstaff and Prince Hal respectively. Scott is the wayward son of the Mayor of Portland (standing in for King Henry IV), who intends to retire when he turns 21 and inherits his father's fortune. But Mike, who suffers from narcolepsy, has other ideas, and the film follows their exploits soliciting sex and travelling all over America. Following close on the heels of his debut Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho finds Van Sant at the top of his game, giving us well-written, interesting characters with none of the navel-gazing pretension of his later years. Reeves and Pheonix bounce off each other very nicely, with the former successfully capturing the dual reluctance of the character, both to accept his responsibilities and to give himself fully to life on the road. It's a subtle and understated turn which gels with both his fellow cast members and Van Sant's spaced-out sensibility.