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Born again: the stars who came in from the cold
Ben Affleck (left and Quenttin Tarantino (below)
Quenttin Tarantino
Ben Affleck (left and Quenttin Tarantino (below)
The Wrestler offers us two distinct comebacks. After 15 years making bad films for Tony Scott and worse films for Derek P Nobody, Mickey Rourke delivers a performance that, unless a meteor strikes Hollywood, will secure the veteran an Oscar nomination.
Following the critical drubbing handed out to The Fountain, director Darren Aronofsky also needed some love and now he has it in abundance. But who has had the most dramatic comeback in Hollywood?
Ben Affleck the actor was the butt of jokes until Ben Affleck the director secured spiffing reviews for Gone Baby Gone.
Robert Downey Jr survived jail and an addiction to everything from beer to Brasso to deliver admired performances in smashes such as Iron Man and Tropic Thunder.
John Travolta was making films featuring talking babies when Quentin Tarantino re-invented him for Pulp Fiction . (Ironically, following the Grindhouse fiasco, Tarantino, who also salvaged the careers of such stars as Robert Forster, Pam Grier and David Carradine, now requires a bit of rescuing himself.)
Gloria Swanson had made only one film in the previous 16 years when Billy Wilder propelled her into the untouchable Sunset Boulevard.
Bette Davis was doing mediocre telly when Robert Aldrich persuaded her to make with the scowls in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? But it could be argued that the most effective comeback was so complete we have to be reminded that the star in question ever fell out of favour.
From Here to Eternity convinced the world that Frank Sinatra, whose singing career was then stalling, could really act and launched the great man towards immortality.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
Ford's focus on performance results in a RS that's in a class of its own