Philip Seymour Hoffman: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

4. Reverend Veasey - Cold Mountain

Speaking of terrible films, remember Cold Mountain? No. Nobody remembers Cold Mountain. That's despite it being nominated for more than seventy awards, including seven Academy Awards, upon its release, with Renee Zellweger grabbing a win for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at that year's Oscar ceremony. Despite all the plaudits it received at the time, however, Anthony Minghella's adaptation of Charles Frazier's bestselling novel hasn't stood the test of time. Not only has its reputation dropped considerably, but so has people's recall of it. What's it about again? A soapy Civil War romance, the film tells the story of a wounded deserter from the Confederate army (Jude Law) on his way to return to the love of his life (Nicole Kidman). Along the way he bumps into Natalie Portman, Cillian Murphy, Renee Zellweger and Jack White from The White Stripes, who has a weird double-act with Randy out of My Name Is Earl. It's a bloated, over long historical epic where a lot of talented actors put in uncharacteristically dull and one-dimensional performances, with one of those actors being our beloved Philip Seymour Hoffman. As the corrupt preacher Reverend Veasey - introduced to us as he's about to drown his pregnant slave lover - Hoffman should have gotten a chance to plumb the dark emotional depths of his soul as he never did before. Instead he plays a stereotypical lush, replete with red nose and jolly demeanour, drowning his sorrows in booze and acting more like the dodgy guy you avoid when you go down the local than a morally complex and not particularly sympathetic man of the cloth who should really know better. A wasted opportunity, in all meanings of the word.