One viewing of Charlie Kaufman's latest film i'm thinking of ending things is probably
not enough to fully absorb everything packed inside. There are deeper meanings to everything
you see: Why does the dog keep shaking? Why is an ice cream stand open in the middle of
a blizzard? And why does Jake's Dad look so familiar?
No, you're not losing your mind - he should trigger a trip or two down memory lane. A
little sleuthing will tell you all you need to know about the accomplished actor behind
the character: David Thewlis. With more than 90 credits to his name, and roles in some
of the world's biggest franchises, you've definitely seen David Thewlis before, even
if you can't put your finger on just where.
An actor like David Thewlis can make even tough roles look completely effortless, but
sometimes making movies is no walk in the park. This was the case in Thewlis' breakout
role in Mike Leigh's 1993 arthouse hit, Naked.
Thewlis plays Johnny, a gifted but unstable conspiracy theorist, who teeters around the
underbelly of London, yelling about philosophy and life. Critics of the day couldn't get
enough, and the film cleaned up at Cannes in 1993, winning Best Director for Mike Leigh
and Best Actor for David Thewlis.
Over the next several years, Thewlis went on to appear in films like Dragonheart, The
Island of Dr. Moreau, Seven Years in Tibet, and The Big Lebowski, to name a few.
Such a wide-ranging, diverse set of credits helped make his face a familiar one to film
fans of all stripes.
New parents like to imagine what kind of people their kids will grow up to be. Maybe they'll
be doctors or famous athletes, or perhaps they'll usher in a new era of hell on Earth.
Okay, that last one's probably not so common, but maybe that's why the parents never see
it coming in movies like 2006's The Omen.
In this remake of the 1976 classic Omen film, David Thewlis stars as Keith, the photographer
who begins to understand that the child Damien might just be the devil incarnate.
How does he figure it out? Well, Keith begins to observe strange shadowy images in pictures
he takes, floating over the heads of the people he photographs. Things tend to end poorly
for the folks over whom these eerie images appear, and Keith begins to notice that these
dark events all seem to tie back to creepy adopted child Damien because, spoilers, he's
the antichrist.
If you were a filmgoer in the 2010s, chances are you saw at least a couple of entries in
the Harry Potter series. Here, Thewlis was a standout, playing the complex and highly
sympathetic Remus Lupin, the beloved Hogwarts teacher and secret werewolf. Thewlis brought
fans to tears in 2004's The Prisoner of Azkaban and remained a favorite all the way to the
finale, 2011's Deathly Hallows Part 2.
Secrets also abound with Thewlis' character in 2017's Wonder Woman - and if you still
haven't seen it, we won't spill the beans here. Just know that when Sir Patrick Morgan
says he wants to reach an armistice with Germany to end World War I, there's a little more
going on than meets the eye.
It's no secret, though, that Wonder Woman and the Harry Potter series were box office
dynamite. With a combined global haul of nearly $9 billion, David Thewlis has clearly had
his hand in some of the biggest cinematic successes of the past generation. Not too
shabby for an actor whose characters always seem to have something to hide.
"I am not what you thought I was."
Once you've seen the Coen Brothers' Fargo from 1996, you'll never look at a woodchipper
the same way. The movie found humor in the midwestern culture and unique speech patterns
of middle class Minnesota, and combined this with a pitch black crime story that's not
for the faint of heart. The result is an atmosphere that you won't find in any other film, which
is why FX brought back this setting for the TV series of the same name in 2014.
Like True Detective, FX's Fargo is an anthology series that tells a new story with a new cast
every single season. For season 3, they pull in David Thewlis to play the menacing antagonist
V. M. Varga, and the actor earned a Golden Globe nod for Best Supporting Actor for his
work.
The Varga character is flamboyant and frightening. Wealthy through his role as the head of a
regional crime network, Varga nonetheless wears a cheap suit and lives in the back of
a semi trailer. Played to intimidating perfection by Thewlis, it's proof that the actor can
dominate the small screen just as well as the silver screen.
"There you go, now you're seeing it, the inescapable reality. You're trapped."
If you're excited about i'm thinking of ending things, chances are you're a fan of writer/director
Charlie Kaufman's other work. Past classics include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
and the sad and mind-blowing Synecdoche, New York. However, if you're also a fan of David
Thewlis, you'll know that i'm thinking of ending things isn't the first time the creative
pair has worked together. Of course, you'd hardly recognize Thewlis in the role. In 2015,
they collaborated on the stop-motion animated Anomalisa, starring Thewlis in the lead role
as Michael Stone.
Stone is a customer service guru who has a successful career as an author, but he lives
a depressed existence wherein he perceives all people as completely identical. That's
right, everyone around him, including his wife and son, have the same face and the same
voice. That's why Michael becomes completely enamored when a woman named Lisa comes into
his life, with a unique face and a voice all her own.
This is definitely one of those movies where the less you know the better, so we won't
spoil any more of the surprises that follow. But suffice it to say, if you're a fan of
Anomalisa, you're probably more than a little excited for i'm thinking of ending things,
where Kaufman and Thewlis tackle a story that's a little more humorous...and sinister.
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