DB7

The real deal

John Patterson pledges his allegiance to Clive Owen - could he be the heir to the Brit-star throne of Caine and Connery?

Saturday July 24, 2004
The Guardian

Clive Owen has the eyes. You can see them at work in one remarkable shot, a long unbroken take in Mike Hodges' endlessly rewarding Croupier. Owen, as Jake the ambiguous card dealer-novelist, is visiting the country house of a yuppie publisher and is persuaded to play croupier and banker for his fellow guests. Sitting calmly at the dead centre of the screen, he shuffles the deck, palms out five hands and watches the players' reactions as each lays down what they think is an unbeatable combination, only to be trumped by the next, and the next. The guests are first pleased with their hands and then annoyed, making plenty of noise and movement as the ascending value of each hand mathematically obliterates its predecessor, finally leaving Jake's date (Alex Kingston) holding the pot. Owen remains utterly still throughout, his electric eyes alone in motion, flicking precisely to each hand as it's revealed, and - though they're in a well-lit room - seeming, with his blue-black hair and practised inscrutability, to carry around with him his own personal stock of portable darkness, relieved only by the glint in his irises.
Owen doesn't seem like a British movie star from 2004. He seems more like a throwback to the birth of machismo and sexual presence among British male stars at the dawn of the 1960s, when working-class Celts overthrew the neutered John Mills/ Richard Todd archetype.

Perhaps because he's been touted as a potential James Bond (don't do it, Clive!), and perhaps also because of his work with Hodges, Owen has often been compared with Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Different eyes, mind: Caine's are like a reptile's; Connery's like a vengeful god's. In fact, with his terse Welsh name, his good-or-evil demeanour and, of course, the eyes, Owen seems closer to the great Stanley Baker ("falcon-eyed", the fan mags called him) in crime thrillers like Hell Drivers and The Criminal. Baker suggested unquenchable savagery behind his soulful voice, and, like Owen, he was an adventurous actor not much interested in playing nice. Seeing Owen as King Arthur reminds me of Baker playing evil Modred in Richard Thorpe's 1953 Knights Of The Round Table, and each of them could have played the other role with exactly as much conviction.

We have a bona fide, complicated movie star in Clive Owen, and come close-up time, one tends to believe he'll be more than ready.

Career high:
Croupier and, long ago, an amazingly unhinged, yet utterly controlled performance as one half of an incestuous couple - with Saskia Reeves - in Stephen Poliakoff's Close My Eyes.

Career low:
Greenfingers. Blackthumb, more like.

Need to know
Big Bowie fan, we hear.

The last word
"The sexiest part of the body is the eyes." He knows whereof he speaks.

David Challinor

Give me Daniel Craig any day. And ''soulful voice'' ?!?...surely a contenter for the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column.

DB7

I watched his debut recently (Vroom) with David Thewlis and to be fair the two of them carry a pretty unremarkable film together. There's also a great cameo from Jim Broadbent as the manager of a bare knuckle boxer who rips them off.

ollie

Sorry to be so damming without explaination but clive owen is a PLANK. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img]
Me other alf likes him though,wonder why? [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]
cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

Lord Brett

I'm with DB7 on this one - I've been an Owen fan ever since he starred in the magnificent TV serial Chancer (Leslie Phillips, Peter Vaughan, even Tom Bell - whadda cast!).

I still don't think he should do James Bond, though.

Rob Compton

I'm afraid Clive hasn't exactly enhanced his career prospects with King Arthur! Sounds like a South London second hand car salesman eek!

Wooden!

rgds
Rob

Hackett

If you put him in a cap and polarneck jumper he would look like plug from the Bash Street Kids. His voice has a horrible monotonous hum to it. How does he keep getting in film?. I don't know. How does David James and Phil Neville keep getting in the England Squad?.

Marky B

Although I have championed Clive Owen for a couple of years as being the successor to Pierce Brosnan,someone mentioned in the Radio Times about Mark Strong (The Long Firm) as the new Bond. Any takers?
Ta Ta
Marky B thumbs_u

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

theuofc

Clive Owen is a perfect Thomas Hardy character. He has a raw boned, morose look to him reinforced by his lower-range voice. I don't see hidden dimensions in his "inscrutable" eyes nor the savage look of Stanley Baker. When critic John Patterson goes on about Owens' eyes, all I think of is one of the greats at letting the camera read his inner thoughts: Dirk Bogarde. Now _he_ had the eyes.

Barbara