Who is your favorite Heath Ledger character (not including Ennis Del Mar)?

[ednbarby]

So as not to leave Heath out of the proceedings...  And again, I'm assuming Ennis Del Mar is all our favorite of his characters.  I think I'm pretty safe in that assumption, but if I'm wrong, please straighten me out accordingly.

I went with Sonny Grotowski in Monsters Ball mainly because I haven't seen most of his other films.  Yet.  And thought he utterly stole Monsters Ball from Billy Bob Thornton AND Halle Berry.  Put together.  Also, I'm apparently one of the few people in the universe who's seen "A Knight's Tale" and *thoroughly* disliked it (although I admit he was as cute as a bug's ear in it).  I thought he was delicious in 10 Things I Hate About You, too.  It was one of those "Who IS that guy?"  But I thoroughly disliked everything else about that movie.  Can't stand Julia Stiles so it kinda took away from it considerably for me - i.e., I couldn't for the life of me see what someone as uber-cool as he could possibly see in her.  Blech.

But I digress...

[Penthesilea]

Dan (Candy) by a mile.

I've seen Heath in Brothers Grimm, The Four Feathers, A Knight's Tale, The Patriot and 10 Things I Hate About You. And naturally Candy.

Dan is a sweet, loving, caring, sensitive and lovable character. And intelligent and witty. He loves Candy very deeply. God, they are so cute together. I fell in love with both of the lead characters.

Candy was in theatres only for two weeks in my area, so I saw it only once  . But this week there's one more screening (yes, only a single one) in a cinema not too far from me. Unluckily, my friend and cinema-buddy is away for some weeks. Now I'm contemplating to go alone. I've never been alone to the movies before, lol. I'm not shy, but this idea just never crossed my mind. Cinema is a social thing for me. I need someone to talk about the movie afterwards.
But seeing Candy alone is better than not seeing it. So I plan to go alone.

[southendmd]

Candy doesn't open here in Boston until 12/1.

So, I have to vote for Sonny in Monster's Ball.

I saw it after BBM, and said to myself, omigawd, that's where Ennis came from!  The voice, the behavior.  There's that wonderful parallel where he is walking the man to his execution and throws up in the corner: it's just like the alley scene.  Uncanny.

Best first twenty minutes of any film.

[ednbarby]

Best first twenty minutes of any film.

Agreed.  And at the end, I looked for his name in the credits and could not believe it when I saw Heath Ledger - all I knew him from at that point was 10 Things.  I thought, "Hoo boy, this guy's goin' places."

I haven't been wrong on one of those predictions yet. 

[Ellemeno]

In the past year, I have seen Casanova, The Brothers Grimm, Lords of Dogtown, The Four Feathers, A Knight's Tale, The Patriot, 10 Things I Hate About You, and I TiVo'd Monsters Ball and fast forwarded it, just stopping at Heath's parts, because I had heard enough to know I wouldn't do well seeing this movie.  The only one on the list above I haven't seen is Ned Kelly.

I picked Skip Engblom in the poll.  He's not a very appealing character, but there is a brash, pathetic quality that Heath manages that is pretty amazing to me.  Very good acting.  I thought he was adorable in Brothers Grimm, a movie I otherwise found boring and unpleasant.   Actually, now that I think about it, I got bored with The Patriot and fast forwarded through it too, just stopping for Heath.  And I kept my TiVo of A Knight's Take for a few months, just so that I could periodically watch him do his little dance. 

[Mikaela]

With apologies to Heath and to Ennis - I voted for sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein.  I enjoyed Knight's tale immensely for the light-hearted, anacronistic feel-good romp it is from the first time I saw it..... and both the film and Heath's character still put a big smile on my face when I re-visit them.

Of the films you list I've seen everything except Candy (which isn't opening here until the day after forever) and the Patriot (which I won't see unless dragged to do so - bound, kicking and screaming all the way. Mel Gibson in oversimplistic über-patriotic mood - no fu**ing way!! )

Apart from sir William, it's the role of Sonny in Monster's Ball that truly sticks with me,of course. Fantastic! (Plus one you haven't listed - the one in "The Sin Eater". The film was weird and confusing and less than engaging, but Heath looked so good in it, and brooded his way through it so gorgeously that I was left pretty weak-knee'd.)


But oh God, - Ennis. Can there ever be another role like Ennis? I'm still just as floored by Ennis as I was January 22 when I saw BBM for the first time.........

[RouxB]

I voted Casanova-that movie cracks me up.

 

[mvansand76]

Monster's ball. God, he ripped my heart out with that performance...

[Shasta542]

I chose William Thatcher, but it was close with Gabriel Martin. He was so noble in "The Patriot" I just watched "10 Things I Hate About You" today. It was cute, but I didn't like his hairstyle. His smile was another story, however! Heath was great in "Monster's Ball", but so tragic--it made me too sad.

"Knight's Tale" is full of fun stuff to watch and it turns out happy. I like that every now and then, even though things don't always happen that way in real life. Heath gets better and better all the time. He was perfect as Ennis del Mar---perfect!

[Ellemeno]

I just changed my vote from Skip to Casanova.