John Lahr, the theater critic for The New Yorker, says Jake plays his role in the play "superbly" (Oct. 1 issue). 
He does, too. I felt
proud for him, like an elderly distant relative!
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2012/10/01/121001crth_theatre_lahrThe Theatre Ties that Blind by
John Lahr “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet.”
Illustration by
http://paulthurlby.com/(....)
When they are both called to account, the indictment comes from George's deadhead younger brother, Terry (
Jake Gyllenhaal), who returns from a year and a half of wanderlust to crash at their house, and forms a friendship with Anna. "That girl has been criminally fucking neglected!" Terry shouts.
As Gyllenhall superbly plays him, Terry is a bearded, feral soul, who sidles into view in a gray knit cap and a yellow T-shirt, at once heartbroken and hapless. "I, I. I fuck things up. And it makes me mad," he says. He's full of good intentions and bad advice. (He suggests to Anna that she tells her school tormentor "that if she gives you any more grief, I'll be taking shit on her doorstep for the next month and a half.") He can't mobilize thought; he is cluless--a state that is betrayed by his syntax. His sentences, like his life, have no direction or resolution. "Prb'ly shoulda rung or something, but," he says when he sees Anna (whom he addresses as "Hannah") for the first time. "Phone was fucked and I thought, by the time I've arsed around getting change for the fucking. You know the phone, and that, thought I might as well just."
(....)
Gyllenhaal parses every piquant note of Terry's paradoxical nature, keeping his danger and his decency in balance. In his unboundaried moments, Terry offers Anna beer, condoms, and a joint, and lets her slip out on a date, At other times, he seems to have a more adult purchase on reality. "What's y'daughter's favorite subject, George?" he asks his brother. "What's her favorite meal? Favorite film, favorite band. Any of it. Stab in the dark, George. Need to think about what y'doing."
Topic: Jake Jake Jake! (Read 3849720 times)