It Blows to Co-star with Ralph Fiennes in a Film!

Granted, for a cinephile I am way behind on keeping up to date. But I have a $200 a month cable bill from Adelphia so I've been force to trade date nights and video rentals for On Demand any time of the day or night, but that rant is probably another blog! Just this morning, around 5 AM, when I switched from Starz On Demand to HBO On Demand, I went with The Constant Gardener. Not that I didn't like it, just to be clear. As a matter of fact I went back and watched the beginning that I maybe closed my eyes through the first time, again, just to be sure I hadn't missed anything. But, what in the Bloody Hell is up with Ralph Fiennes. It seemed to me about 3/4 of the way through Africa that he has become a one man genre. The only thing missing from his later day filmography is the Merchant Ivory Productions in the credits. It's like the same movie, gliding over a European Continent, where a vaguely manish introvert in well tailored dress, gets sidelined from his mission in life for the love of a woman. Pretty much David Bowie circa The Man Who Fell to Earth, minus the contacts and the 70's prono soundtrack. And the poor object of his affection and attention always dies, usually from a prolonged or painful death. I know Schindler's List is one of those great train wrecks of a movies that you have to see, but you hate to watch. You know, like Leaving Las Vegas or something Tom Cruise has done in the last couple years. You don't get ranked #15 on the American Film Institute's Villains list in their compilation of the 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains by being the good guy. I still remember seeing that film for the first time and just being mesmerized and revolted, all at the same time. Where have you gone Amon Goeth? My brother would say there goes a man who knows how to treat his women! Alright, granted, playing Amon Goeth in your first bankable role is something akin to being Orson Welles and making Citizen Kane your first time out of the gate. Even so, I really like The English Patient. It isn't one of those have to own, have to watch and re watch like making my pilgrimage to the water lapping on the hull of the Titanic (even cinephiles can be women, too), but it speaks to me. We can wrap up with ensemble roles at the end of this blog, but for the time being let's just go with my third eye blind that is reliving in The English Patient, The End of the Affair, and The Constant Gardener. Consider this movie fan, let's conceive of film in similar terms to her sister art, literature, and imagine that there may be only a handful of original books, because the average prolific author was influenced by something he had already read. Ralph Fiennes is caught in some karmic black hole where he is force to make the same movie over and over again. Sort of The Remains of the Day meets the Twilight Zone. I don't dislike the movies, I simply feel bad for any actress who signs on for a script that he is attached to. The girly man who only steps up to the plate when the woman is dead, he should be made up like Brad Pitt in Interview With the Vampire so we can see him coming.
Okay, so when I started this diatribe I was blissfully forgetful of the truly latest Fiennes incarnation. Lord Voldermorte, or he who I almost forgot to name. Agreed, in the world of teenage witches and wizards (who for six books were forbidden to practice magic without proper parental supervision), Lord Voldermorte is the red headed cousin of Amon Goeth. Ralph, look inside, go back to your roots, play a man to be reckoned with for more than 10 minutes a film!!!
This is my blog, you'll think about it later.