Wasted Talent, or RIP Robin Williams, 1951-2014

I was recently thinking about a possible post regarding talented people whose work I, for the most part, despise. Despise more than the work of untalented people. Untalented people can't help it, they do what they can. But it is the person who actually has gifts but then wastes them on crap that really gets my blood up. My case study was going to be Billy Joel, but the suicide of Robin Williams changed my focus.

It may be hard to recall, especially if you are young, just how talented Robin Williams was. Go back to the late 70's, into the 80's. As a fast thinking, fast talking stand up comic, his rabbit holes could be works of art. He could improv most anyone else into dust.

But you must look ultimately to his filmography to judge his legacy. That is how most people know him. How underwhelming much of that filmography is. Even though his range was truly impressive (he trained at Julliard), there is crap in every genre he worked in. Low rent comedies like The Survivors and Best of Times. Bad kids movies abound, like Hook and Flubber and Toys. His serious roles are also of inconsistent quality. Often built on sappy sentiment and cheap emotional ploys, films like Dead Poet's Society definitely have their fanbase but that fanbase is easily mainipulated emotionally. It gets worse with What Dreams May Come. Of course, there is the Marianas Trench of sappy films, Patch Adams, which was absolutely criminal in its badness.

ABOVE: The Bearded Movies. Often when Williams sported a beard, you knew it was a serious role. Good Will Hunting and Awakenings are the prime examples.

But let's stop speaking ill of the man's work. It wasn't all bad. Mrs. Doubtfire, while not sophisticated comedy by any means, had real heart and real laughs too, while remaining a family friendly film. He brought incredible life to the genie in Aladdin. Same with the wartime DJ in Good Morning, Vietnam. My favorite role of his was very much against type. He played the psychopathic killer opposite Al Pacino's troubled cop in Insomnia. Mrs. Doubtfire vs. Michael Corleone doesn't sound like much of a fight, but Williams surprised all by being a formidable adversary to Pacino. Most impressively, he did it without using his manic, bombastic persona, which most would consider the most potent weapon in his arsenal. It was all reserve and holding back. In fact, that is what made him so creepy. He did something similar in One Hour Photo. Why didn't he do more of these type of roles? I don't know. He was very, very good at them and had a real gift in that genre. Perhaps in light of his personal troubles, these troubled dark characters hit too close to home? I don't know.

ABOVE: Pacino and Williams face off in the excellent thriller, Insomnia

At any rate, it is a sad end to an iconic career. By all accounts, he was a generous man who was much loved by colleagues and friends and family. He was key in organizing the charitable Comic Relief that raised so much money and awareness to battle homelessness. By the numbers, his career was incredibly successful. I just think that artistically, it could have been so much more. RIP Robin Williams.