The Standouts

NICK STAHL in In the Bedroom

Nick Stahl started out playing a kid in the small, character-driven The Man Without a Face, which was Mel Gibson's directorial debut. Gibson chose him then because he could not only act but hold his own with adults in an adult drama. He survived his youth, and now after worthy (The Thin Red Line) and unworthy (Disturbing Behavior) projects, he's hit grown-up pay dirt in Todd Field's directorial debut, In the Bedroom. Perhaps because his character dies fairly early in the film, and his death prompts the Oscar-bait acting that dominates the second half of the film, Stahl's accomplishment has been underappreciated. In truth, Stahl was able to make use of his limited screen time to reveal two sides to his character--the rebellious youth torn between overpowering mom Sissy Spacek and easygoing dad Tom Wilkinson, and the curious, happy young lover of Marisa Tomei. His relatively unsung skill in making his complex, yet oddly blithe character so unquestionably believable had everything to do with the success of the film's big shocking turning point and tragic second half.

JASON BEHR in The Shipping News

Unlike most teen-show stars, Jason Behr of "Roswell" waited two years before parlaying his success into a next-step film role. His judgment when he did decide to leap was sound and savvy. In director Lasse Hallström's much-anticipated screen adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's best-seller The Shipping News, he took a supporting role in the company of Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench, and he played against his teen-dream type as the bearded, bashful blue-collar carpenter Dennis Buggit. Behr managed to portray a small-town oddball without making him into a caricature, and came up with a credible Nova Scotia twang while he was at it. He also had moments of emotional intensity that were perfectly integrated with the standards set by his more illustrious costars. Though The Shipping News didn't sail at the box office, Behr was good in the movie, and it serves notice that he's going to prefer challenges in prestige films to slam-dunks in middle-of-the-road fare.

ORLANDO BLOOM in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Among the many smart choices director Peter Jackson made when casting the film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's vibrant Lord of the Rings trilogy, his gutsiest was to embellish a roster that included masters like Ian McKellen, gifted new stars like Cate Blanchett, underused lookers like Viggo Mortensen and hobbit dead-ringers like Elijah Wood with the addition--in a crucial role--of a complete unknown. Fresh from a three-year haul at drama school, the 25-year-old, felicitously named British actor Orlando Bloom was picked to play Elf warrior Legolas Greenleaf. Early stills of the film revealed a suspiciously Casper Van Dien-like presence that made one wonder. On-screen, Bloom was something else. He did have an almost unreal, cheekbone-bedecked handsomeness, but he also moved with crystalline resolve and athletic grace. Even when a million things are happening at once, Bloom grabs your attention and makes you feel everything that depends on the great battle of good and evil. Fortunately for us, Bloom will play beefed-up roles in the final two films of the trilogy, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

MEKHI PHIFER in O

As Odin James, a modern-day Othello who squares off against his own jealous nature and loses, Mekhi Phifer surmounted numerous obstacles in O. Shakespeare adaptations carry plenty of excess baggage for any actor, whether it's a bubble-gum 10 Things I Hate About You retelling of The Taming of the Shrew or a Baz Luhrmann cornea-popper version of Romeo and Juliet. But Othello's themes of violence and (arguably) race are never easily navigated, and the difficulty is intensified when the setting is changed to a high school. As the Iago character (Josh Hartnett's Hugo) sets his plot of revenge into motion, Phifer let us see Odin's crippling jealousy without making him look like a dupe. His passionate relationship with Julia Stiles's Desi is both believably tender and, later, shockingly upsetting. All that, and he manages to look quite credible as a force to be reckoned with on the basketball court.

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