Check out: Away We Go
I highly recommend the movie Away We Go, the newest from director Sam Mendes. I don’t think it’s for everybody, but for me, a dude really close to 30 who is in the first sort of nascent stages of starting a family yet who’s still waiting to discover what Adulthood is supposed to feel like, I think this movie was utterly, totally for me.
I won’t link you to the trailer or anything though, because with all due respect to my friends who worked on the marketing, this movie (like pretty much every movie) is better off seen totally cold, without anticipating the big moments that the trailer and commercials give away. So, don’t watch the marketing, but do see the movie. (Oh, and if you don’t like it — well, there’s no accounting for taste. I liked it. Let’s not argue about it, huh?)
Finally: take a look at John Krasinski up there. What do you notice?
He’s bearded.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the only mainstream, non-period American movie in a great while in which the primary romantic protagonist wears a full beard. Leave me a comment if I’m wrong; I’d like to know if there are others!
July 9th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
does Luke Wilson in The Royal Tenenbaums count? he loses it part way through.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
probably knocked up, but im not sure…
will watch the movie as soon as it hits theaters here. so maybe in a year or two. or never. ill rent it when it comes out.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Eh, Seth Rogen’s beard is pitiful in Knocked Up. It’s more like a lazy man’s week-old scruff.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Clooney starts with a beard in Ocean’s 11. I think. Maybe.
But it get’s shaved off. And Affleck, I feel, has featured partial facial growth in at least a few movies. Also, possibly, later shaved off. Hmmm….
July 9th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I’ll wait til this movie hits the torrent sites.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Didn’t the Jim Carrey character in Eternal Sunshine have a beard for some of the story. Admittedly it wasn’t ripe and it was meant to reflect a certain state of mind that hollywood perceives the unshaven to possess, but it was a beard nonetheless. I maybe wrong though.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Oh, yes, indeed he is bearded. Check out Krasinski’s review!
July 10th, 2009 at 12:34 am
…X-Men Origins: Wolverine?
*hides*
July 10th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Oh, and Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Luke Wilson, Bruce Willis and Bill Murray all kinda fit the bill. Willis and Wilson aren’t the protagonists, and Wilson in Tenenbaums and Murray in Life Aquatic were a little while back.
July 10th, 2009 at 12:42 am
Romantic protagonists, Michael!
July 10th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Steve Carrell in Little Miss Sunshine?
July 10th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Didn’t Seth Rogen have a full on beard in Zach and Miri Make a Porno? That was last year.
July 10th, 2009 at 5:42 am
There wasn’t really much romance to the role but Edward Norton in American History X had a pretty good beard.
July 10th, 2009 at 6:43 am
King Kong?
July 10th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Dennis Quaid had a beard in Smart People and he was the primary romantic protagonist. Also Steve Carrel had one in Little Miss Sunshine, so I guess it’s the thing to do when your trying to branch out from The Office.
July 10th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Um…Tim Allen in Santa Clause 2? Maybe not particularly adult mainstream, but he was the romantic lead. Then again, he lost the beard as the romance progressed, then grew it back for the climax…gosh, the mind boggles at the beard symbolism!
July 10th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Awesome film, not yet released, starring a SIDECAR+BEARD… but by golly, a SIDECAR!…. and way more awesome beard.
The Best Bar in America Trailer
July 10th, 2009 at 9:06 am
You can call him a romantic protanganist… but leaning in the classically romantic sense.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Matthew Broderick in The Night We Never Met (1993).
July 10th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Seth Rogen in “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Didn’t Billy Crystal have one in parts of When Harry Met Sally?
July 10th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Do goatees count? If so, it’s all about Edward Norton in ‘The Illusionist’.
Either way, I’m totally going to see ‘Away We Go’.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Once, Glenn Hansard has a beard, and that was last year.
And Ron Perlman in Hellboy 1 and 2 definitely rocks sideburns and goatee combo, not to mention he wears his hair samurai style.
July 10th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Ryan Gosling sports a beard through “The Notebook”. A bit more mainstream than “Once” and its bearded Glenn.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Aragorn had a beard.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Once wasn’t an American movie, and The Notebook, The Illusionist and Lord of the Rings are all period pieces. I’ll provisionally grant Zack and Miri, though I haven’t seen it so I don’t know if it’s a real beard or just up-n-down scruff. Also haven’t seen Little Miss Sunshine so I’ll have to take someone’s word that Carrell is a romantic protagonist.
July 11th, 2009 at 6:28 am
I’m curious as to whether or not Seth Rogen is disqualified for shaving his beard clean off halfway through “Zack and Miri”? I can’t recall if it grew back by the end, but there were some important romantic scenes in which the beard was absent.
July 11th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Hollywood doesn’t like the beard. Wasn’t there a film where (admittedly, way back) Matthew Broderick (so it must be going a way back) has a beard in the film but they used a picture of him clean-shaven on the poster.
July 12th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I don’t remember Steve Carrell being involved in any (on screen) romance in Little Miss Sunshine.
July 12th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I really wouldn’t call Steve Carrell a romantic protagonist in Little Miss Sunshine. There is mention of his romance gone wrong and he runs into the guy who spurned him in one scene, but that’s the extent of it.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Sean Connery in Entrapment (which is 1999).
Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall (1995)
Johnny Depp is somewhat haired in Chocolat (2000)
July 13th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Steve Carrell definitely does not count as romantic protagonist. And Seth Rogen should be disqualified, as he is always percieved as a total slob who somehow manages to score with the ladies. What we’re looking for is evidence that beards can be considered normal and attractive.
July 13th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Legends of the Fall and Chocolat were both period pieces. Entrapment I’ll grant, though that beard is way more about Sean Connery being just a bearded dude in life than about the character he plays. So it was a DEFAULT beard rather than a beard by choice. (Which is fine.) Finally, as for The Night We Never Met (the Broderick film) — NOT ONLY was he indeed portrayed unbearded on the international VHS cover, HIS BEARD WAS ACTUALLY AIRBRUSHED OFF a bearded photo). Thus I cannot in good conscience give that film credit for its bearded protagonist.