O Canada: A look at the acting chops of some of our homegrown talent

Happy Birthday, Canada! In honour of Canada’s 144^th Dominion Day, I thought I’d write a piece about our great country. Canada is known for many great things like maple syrup, the beaver, multiculturalism, free health care, the Stanley Cup and the Royal Canadian Mounties. We’re a country rich in talent with world-renowned representatives in the sports world (Wayne Gretzky, Steve Nash), in the arts (Margaret Atwood, The Group of Seven), in music (Neil Young, The Guess Who), and in film.

Canada’s bevy of talented Canucks have become big movers and shakers in Hollywood with roles in hugely successful films. Several Canadian actors have garnered both critical and commercial success to become household names and sought after players in the film industry. As Canada celebrates its 144^th year as a nation, we honour its great acting talent with a look at some great Canadian actors.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey was born in Newmarket, Ontario. He began his career in comedy performing at Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto. He landed his first major starring role in the hilariously popular Ace Venture: Pet Detective, which began the snowball effect of great comedic performances by Carrey in films like The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, The Cable Guy and Liar, Liar. Proving his wasn’t a one-trick pony about to be typecast; he stretched his acting chops in more dramatic films like The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, earning Golden Globe Awards for both performances.

Rachel McAdams

Rachel McAdams was born in London, Ontario. She graduated from the drama program at York University in 2001. In 2004, she starred in two major motion pictures – Mean Girls and The Notebook – roles which raised her profile in Hollywood and led to other prominent roles in Wedding Crashers and Red Eye. After the success of these films, McAdams was dubbed the new “it girl” and quickly became Canada’s sweetheart. When she’s not making movies, McAdams lives with her brother in a small town outside Toronto. She’s been quoted in People Magazine as saying, “Acting is my job. It's not my life. My life is in Toronto.”

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling was born in London, Ontario. At age 12, he appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club. He earned mainstream success alongside compatriot Rachel McAdams in The Notebook. In the film, they play a young couple whose love affair begins one summer and lasts a lifetime. In a classic case of life imitating art, McAdams and Gosling became romantically involved after finishing production on The Notebook and dated for three years before calling it quits.

Switching gears completely, Gosling next starred as a drug addicted middle-school teacher in the drama Half Nelson, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. He followed that performance with another staring turn in Lars and the Real Girl, an unconventional love story about a quirky guy named, Lars, who develops a relationship with a doll named Bianca. Critics loved the movie and Gosling’s performance was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Last year, Gosling once again wowed critics with his turn in Blue Valentine.

Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta. Fox became a household name when he captured the hearts of television viewers in the role of Alex P. Keaton in the sitcom Family Ties. In 1985, he starred in what became the highest grossing film of that year – Back to the Future. Back to the Future was a critical and commercial success and became a pop culture phenomenon. It remains one of the most beloved films of all time and graces numerous “best movies” lists. Fox remains one of Canada’s most beloved actors not only for his body of work, but for his personal and courageous battle with Parkinson ’s disease. He’s become a strong advocate for Parkinson’s disease awareness and research, creating a foundation called The Michael J. Fox Foundation to help advance promising research in finding a cure for the disease.

Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh was born in Nepean, Ontario. Oh became widely known in Canada for her lead performance in Double Happiness for which she won a Genie Award for Best Actress. Double Happiness is about an aspiring actress trying to fulfill her dreams amidst competing duties and obligations. She has starred in other noteworthy Canadian films – Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity and Last Night. In 2004, Oh became known to American audiences when she starred in the Academy Award nominated film Sideways. Currently, in her role as Christina Yang in the medical series Grey’s Anatomy, Oh has solidified herself as one of the best known characters on television.

Leslie Neilson

Leslie Neilson was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. When he was young, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force then worked as a disc jockey. His acting career began with dramatic roles in television, but Neilson found his true niche as a great comedic actor. He is best known for his performances in comedy disaster film parodies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun Series. Neilson’s knack for portraying characters with deadpan seriousness while hilarity and absurdity surrounded him was pure comedy gold. The American Film Institute ranked Airplane! on its list of the top ten comedy films of all time. Neilson passed away in November 2010 due to complications from pneumonia. In an effort to garner one last laugh perhaps, Neilson chose “Let ‘er Rip” as his epitaph.

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He broke onto the scene with a starring role in the National Lampoon movie Van Wilder. Reynolds displayed his great comedic timing and leading man charisma and went on to star in other funny flicks like Just Friends and Definitely, Maybe. Stretching his acting chops and showcasing his physicality and ability to play darker roles, he strayed from comedy and starred in the supernatural action film Blade: Trinity and in a remake of the horror film The Amityville Horror. Reynolds continues not to favour one genre over another, splitting his starring roles between comedy – The Proposal – and action ­– Green Lantern.

John Candy

John Candy was born in Toronto, Ontario. He began his career as a standup comic and rose to fame as a member of the improv troupe The Second City. Candy’s superb comedic timing and remarkably endearing and hilarious characterizations helped to make films like Splash, Spaceballs, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck great critical and commercial successes. Candy dabbled in drama and took on more serious roles in the early 1990s, but his dramatic films could not rival the success of his funny films. Sadly, Candy died from a heart attack at age 43.

Who are your favourite acting Canucks? Let us know in the comments section.

Movie Marketing Monday

The Vow

If the comedy 50 First Dates actually tried to be serious, I envision that the film would be something like this film. Although The Vow is not a Nicolas Spark adaptation, the trailer is really trying to appeal to Spark’s legion of fans.




Salvation Boulevard

Greg Kinnear and Pierce Brosnan reunite for the first time since 2005’s The Matador, for yet another comedy. This time they combined their talents for a satire about religion and faith.

Movie Marketing Monday

Nowhere Boy

Aaron Johnson and Kristen Scott Thomas plus the story of John Lennon’s youth equals one interested blogger.




Morning Glory

Really like the casting in this one. The question is: can this predictable looking comedy provide us with a few surprises?

It's Quite Elementary Indeed, Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a film that I may need to see again, yet the more I think about it the less I want to. I actually felt myself nodding off during one of particular action sequences. The loudest point in the film no less. While I think the holiday leftovers may have played a role in this, I am fairly certain the overall lack of originality was the bigger culprit. As much as I wanted to like Sherlock Holmes, I cannot deny that I was surprisingly underwhelmed with Guy Ritchie's latest work.

Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved character, Sherlock Holmes, has seen many different incarnations so it was only a matter of time before a blockbuster version rolled around. In this latest pumped up version, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusty aide Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) foil the plans of a serial killer, Lord Blackwell (Mark Strong), before he can take the life of his latest victim. Lord Blackwell is sentenced to death but somehow rises from the grave three days after he is hanged. While many believe dark magic is responsible, Holmes tries to prove that there is a logical explanation for Blackwell's reappearance. Holmes must also confront his issues with Watson's pending marriage; and the re-emergence of the only woman to capture Sherlock's heart, the chronic deceiver Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams).

It took me a long time to pinpoint what irked me the most about this film. A line in which Holmes states "It's all about the small details" kept looping in my head repeatedly before I finally figured out the problem. By primarily focusing on the elaborate action sequences, Guy Ritchie actually makes Sherlock Holmes rather dumb. I am talking about both the movie and the man. The greatest asset Sherlock Homes has as a character is his mind. Like the films points out it is his ability to tell a lot from the tiniest of details that makes him so fascinating.

Once you place that key element of his character into the background, what do you really have left? A mindless action movie centred around a character known for his mind. We are forced to watch Holmes and Watson in a series of over-the-top action sequences that generate no real sense of thrill. At no point do we ever question if Holmes will make it out of a particular situation alive. This is most noticeable in the outlandish battle at the shipyard. The closest we get to real tension in the entire film is scene with the pigs and the electric saw, and even then we are only mildly concerned with Adler's life.

I am all for trying to make Sherlock Holmes more rugged but then at least provide him with a more challenging case to work with. At times the movie felt more like the next chapter in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code/Angels and Demons series. When Ritchie is not blowing stuff up, or staging slow-motion fights, we have to sit through a thin plot regarding the use of black magic. To top it all off, Guy Ritchie's version of Sherlock Holmes is an eccentric who needs work to keep himself sane. So when Holmes is actually collecting valuable information, such as licking a rock, Ritchie plays it off as just another one of Holmes' odd quirks. All these "quirks" are then overshadowed by the action moments, and serve no real purpose until "big reveal" during the last five minutes.

The one thing I will say in Guy Ritchie's favour is that he got the casting right. Robert Downey Jr. is the main reason to see this film. I loved his take on Holmes and he really carries the majority of the film on his back. Downey Jr. and Law have such great chemistry together that you could easily believe that Holmes and Watson have been in partnership for years. They react to things, both spoken and not, the same way an old married couple would. Guy Ritchie regular Mark Strong is adequate as Blackwood but the character is not a memorable villain at all. There is nothing really sinister or lasting about Blackwood, chances are good you will be more interested in a certain professor lurking in the shadows. Strong's abilities were better showcased in RocknRolla and Revolver. The weakest link is Rachel McAdams but this is more due to how her character is written rather than McAdams' performance. Irene Adler is supposed to be a cunning woman that can pickpocket Holmes' heart as fast as she can most men's wallets. Yet she spends most of the time as the woman in distress, and only occasionally as the swindler. There is no moment in the film where you truly get the sense that Adler and Holmes are madly in love but their lifestyles keep them apart. Frankly one can argue that Holmes had more romantic sparks with Watson in the movie than he does with Adler.

It is fairly evident that this film is setting the stage for a Sherlock Holmes sequel, which might actually work if they provide Holmes with a cunning villain and a great mystery. I just hope it is not another mindless romp for the greatest mind on Baker Street.