The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: The Legacy of Keanu Reeves

Attribution: Governo do Estado de São Paulo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By Geoff Carter

Over a career that has spanned nearly four decades, Keanu Reeves has done a little bit of everything. With films like Speed, Point Break, Matrix, and John Wick, he has established himself as one of the industry’s most bankable action stars. His early work in Parenthood and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure showcased his considerable comedic range and personal charm. Yet for all his prolific work, Reeves has had a hard time earning the respect of the film community. Few other actors have received such a wide range of accolades or condemnations for their performances. He has never been nominated for an Emmy or an Oscar. He has been called everything from brilliant to pathetic.

Films like River’s Edge and My Own Private Idaho demonstrated his ability to handle serious dramatic roles, and his stage performance in titular role of Hamlet earned rave reviews. He has also been reviled for some admittedly horrible performances. He received Golden Raspberry Award nominations for his Worst Actor and Worst Supporting Actor in Much Ado About Nothing, Johnny Mnemonic, along with a few others. Yet he is one of the most successful actors in the industry.

Like Tom Hanks, Jimmy Stewart, and John Wayne, he is an actor whose personality is central to his roles. No matter the part, his screen presence always contains a level of innocence and calm—a certain level of cool. There is always a layer of reserve, of caution, with his characters. Reeves is also well-known for his amiability and generosity. He is patient with fans and donates to a number of childhood cancer research centers.

From Ted Logan to Neo to John Wick to Constantine, Reeves is always Reeves. Cool, intelligent, capable, and, more often than not, a little naïve. While not quite as amiable as the nice guy persona of Hanks or Jimmy Stewart, Keanu Reeves effortlessly embodies trust and likeability. He’s a good guy and a pretty good actor.

Top Ten Keanu Reeves Movies

River’s Edge: In this chilling drama based on a real-life incident, Reeves plays Matt, a member of a group of aimless and alienated California teens. After Jon, one of the teens, murders his girlfriend, the group is talked into banding together and protecting him by Laine, the self-proclaimed leader of the group. Following his lead, none of the group reports the crime and let the girl’s body lie at the river’s edge. Matt is the only one who feels any pang of conscience and eventually defies Laine and reports the murder. Reeves is masterful at portraying Matt’s slow-burning conflict between doing the right thing and being loyalty to his friends.

Parenthood: In this delightful Ron Howard comedy, Reeves plays Tod, teenager Julie’s goofy boyfriend. The film depicts the trials and tribulations of the Buckman family as they attempt to deal with being good parents. Julie’s mom Helen is not only trying to deal with Julie’s rebelliousness and flagrant defiance but is also trying to reach her withdrawn son Garry. While Tod is mostly a clueless stoner type, when Helen asks to help with Garry, he does so without hesitation. The scene where he talks to Helen about his own father and the nature of parenthood is perfect.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Ted Logan and his best bud Bill S. Preston, Esq. are in trouble. Unless they can pass history, Ted’s dad will send him to military school. Out of the blue, Rufus, man of the future, comes to the rescue. Explaining to the boys that their band, The Wyld Stallions, is integral to the future, he gives them the means to travel through time and collect figures like Beethoven, Socrates, and Napolean to help complete their report. Cleverly done, the film is a hilarious romp through history. Reeves is perfectly cast as the amiable and clueless Ted. This is vintage Reeves.

The Matrix Series: The Matrix institution is one of the most popular science-fiction epics ever made. Following the protagonist Neo’s discovery that his (our) reality is a computer program designed to keep humanity ignorant to the fact that they are being harvested by a malevolent presence, he joins Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of a team of guerilla fighters seeking to overthrow the false reality program—the matrix—and free humanity. His portrayal of Neo is quintessential Reeves. Pulled from his complacent life in the matrix, Neo’s slow realization of his place in the world and his fate plays to all of Reeves’ strengths as an actor. His Neo is perfect.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: In this lush and beautifully wrought reimagination of the horror classic, Reeves plays Jonathan Harker, whom Dracula imprisons in his castle. Harker eventually escapes and is reunited with his love Mina and eventually assists vampire hunter Van Helsing in destroying the vampire. Reeves was widely criticized for his depiction of Harker, particularly because of his British accent, yet he still brings his trademark innocence to the role as he slowly discovers who and what Dracula really is. His mounting sense of despair and horror is palpable and sets the tone for the rest of the film.

The Replacements: In this sports comedy, Reeves plays Falco, a disgraced college star quarterback who is talked into playing for a team that has gone on strike. Working to earn the trust of his new team of hilarious misfits, Falco eventually triumphs. Playing pretty much the straight man in this project, Reeves embodies a sadness which could easily but never quite becomes bitterness. Initially reluctant to play, and to redeem himself, Reeve’s growth into a man who rekindles his self-esteem is quite well-done.

My Own Private Idaho: Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Henry V, this drama follows Scott (Reeves) and Mike (River Phoenix), a couple of gay hustlers, in search of Mike’s mom. Along the way, we learn that Scott is actually the son of the wealthy mayor of Portland and will return from hustling as soon as he inherits the family fortune. Their quest takes them to Italy where Scott meets Carmela, with whom he falls in love. A heartbroken Mike returns to the U.S. where he ends up where he started, on a deserted highway. Reeves’ performance, while not as fully realized as Phoenix’s) is still superb.

A Scanner Darkly: Based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same time, the movie takes place in the near future and follows undercover detective Bob Arctor (Reeves) as he attempts to break up a drug ring dealing with the deadly Substance D. In the course of his undecover work, Bob becomes addicted to D, resulting in brain damage and paranoia. To preserve their identities, Bob wears a scramble suit to mask his identity. Exploring themes of identity, the drug culture, and trust, the film becomes a testament to our modern drug-enhanced culture. Director Linklater used a special animation process for the film that gives it an otherworldly quality.

Point Break: This crime thriller follows FBI agent and ex-college football star Johnny Utah (Reeves) as he attempts to infiltrate a group of thrill-seeking bank robbers known as The Ex-Presidents. Suspecting they are surfers, Utah’s boss instructs him to infiltrate their surfing group in order to find out whether they are the criminals they seek. Entranced by Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), their leader, Utah finds himself emotionally enmeshed in the group and must choose between the law and his friendship for Bodhi. In one of his first action film roles, Reeves proved himself as a bona-fide box office presence.

The Devil’s Advocate: In this supernatural courtroom drama, Reeves plays Kevin Lomax, a ruthless and unscrupulous defense attorney. After successfully defending a child molester he knows to be guilty, he is approached by Manhattan attorney John Milton (Al Pacino) who assigns him to defend a billionaire guilty of murder. When his wife Maryann (Charlize Theron) begins to resent Kevin for neglecting her in favor of the job, her mental health begins to deteriorate. Things continue to deteriorate when unexplained deaths and odd supernatural happenings and the mystery of Kevin’s own past lead to a horrific climax. Reeves is believable as Lomax but his performance pales when paired against Al Pacino.