5 Reminders That Jeremy Renner Does Not Suck

The recent release of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which I haven’t seen and don’t exactly plan to, is one of those January dump jobs. Studios traditionally release their poorly-tested projects in this period out of contractual obligation, when most people are still seeing the awards contenders in their theater runs. Poor Jeremy Renner is the latest victim of this trend. A recent piece on Vulture demonstrated the utter lack of interest Renner has shown in promoting this movie that has been pretty much universally hailed as terrible, and who can blame him? He seems to be going through a bit of a slump, in a year’s span that saw a rather poorly received Saturday Night Live hosting gig, a disappointingly thin role in The Avengers, and now he’s the Hansel & Gretel guy. But there was a time, in the very distant past, the annals of movie history, when Jeremy Renner was a respected actor, known for playing roles with integrity and intensity. I exaggerate: he’s being dragged through the mud right now for a couple of lame jobs, but seriously, it’s worth remembering that he’s a good movie dude. Here’s 5 things to remind us of this fact. Continue reading on the next page... 1: The Hurt Locker This movie is really his claim to fame, the role that kickstarted his rather rapid rise to recognition, even though he had some decent credits to his name before The Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow came knocking. But this is the one that made Jeremy Renner a household name, at least in the houses that pay much attention to movies, and with good reason: he is perfect in the role of Sgt. James, a borderline madman charged with diffusing or disposing bombs in Iraq. It’s a film that serves as a demonstration of the whole Chris Hedges “war is a force that gives us meaning” idea, that one of the big reasons countries stay in a state of perpetual war is because they like it. It makes them feel something. The Renner character in The Hurt Locker is a manifestation of the United States’ addiction to war: his role as a bomb diffuser, the best in the forces from the sounds of it, gives him purposes. When he returns from his tour, he’s lost. He doesn’t know how to live a life outside of these extreme situations. It’s a fascinating portrait of a character and a country, and Renner’s performance grounds it in reality, bringing a undercurrent of anger and confidence and magnetism and possible madness to the part that really brings Sgt. James to life. It’s probably the second-best role he’s played, to my mind. Continue reading on the next page... 2: The Town As for Renner’s best performance, I’d have to give it up for his terrifying work in Ben Affleck’s The Town. While I’d argue the movie isn’t as strong as Affleck’s others, this year’s Argo and 2007’s quietly brilliant Gone Baby Gone, this isn’t at all because of Renner (in fact, it’s probably because of Affleck’s greatest shortcoming as a director—casting Ben Affleck in his movies). In fact, the most interesting thing about this movie is probably Jimmy. We saw in The Hurt Locker the seething nature that Renner can convey in a part. He seems cool on the surface but at the same time indicates so much bubbling just beneath the calm facade. Obviously much of this can be attributed to the character context provided by the story and script, but a good actor can really draw this out for the audience. As Jimmy, Renner is pretty terrifying. With the potential to go off at any moment, we don’t really notice it at first, but this guy is a bit of a loose cannon, which gets developed as the movie progresses and as Doug starts to recognize Jimmy more and more as a liability. He’s a criminal and probably a psychopath but Renner captures his intrigue and makes the relationship between him and Doug real for the audience, and all with the help of a charming Boston accent. Continue reading on the next page... 3: The Assassination of Jesse James Here’s a role that came before Renner’s big surge of recognition in The Hurt Locker, and so it’s not one I or many people will probably remember him terribly well for. It’s one of those parts that you look back on and think oh hey, I noticed how great this one character was back when I watched it, and I had no idea that actor would turn out to be Jeremy Renner. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is an odd little movie, at once gorgeous-looking and deliberately (read: slowly) paced and enigmatically presented. Renner plays the strange little scoundrel and cousin of Jesse James, Wood Hite. Overshadowed by the roles played by Brad Pitt and Sam Rockwell, and rightly so, Renner delivers a solid and idiosyncratic performance as Wood, using his lesser stature to great effect and eventually serving as the catalyst to the main action of the story through his feud with Dick Liddil. Renner gets the inferiority complex of the character just right. Continue reading on the next page... 4: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol The first among the current wave of franchise pictures Jeremy Renner is riding, the latest Mission: Impossible installment solidified him as a dependable performer, able to bring a certain earnestness mixed with mystery to his characters with what has become great consistency. This intrigue is essential to the Brandt character, spelled out pretty clearly by the exchange with Tom Cruise and played in all the promos for the movie before its release: “Who are you really, Brandt?” “We all have our secrets. Don’t we, Ethan?” He holds his own against the powerhouse that is Tom freaking Cruise, which is noteworthy as Renner was being tossed around as possibly replacing Cruise as the headliner for the franchise. He’s fun to watch, but with a couple other franchises on the go, including another leading part in The Bourne Legacy that will likely lead to future commitments to that role, one hopes that Renner doesn’t get stretched too thin. Although, with the energy he shows alongside Cruise in this thing, maybe he can handle it. Continue reading on the next page... 5: The Bourne Legacy This one came out after The Avengers, so Renner was slightly redeemed after his seeming non-existence as Hawkeye earlier last summer. It was kind of a tall task for him too, replacing Matt Damon as the flagship bearer for the Jason Bourne series. How do you replace Jason Bourne in a franchise about Jason Bourne? The answer, evidently, was through smart writing and a solid performance to go with some tremendous action set pieces and potential for further development as the story goes forward. This was a fairly large risk, at least in terms of the movie being absolute crap, and the prevailing opinion seems to be that they came out on top, with Renner bearing a lot of responsibility for this film’s success. It sucks to see actors who have turned in really good, interesting work start to look like they’re fading away into schlock and oblivion. With his most recent turns as Hawkeye, his failure to bring the funny on SNL, and now the disastrous Hansel & Gretel, it appeared maybe Renner could be headed down that road. Then again, he’s likely to return in the next Mission: Impossible installment, and he’s also teaming up with James Gray in a new project due out this year, plus a David O. Russell project in the works for 2014, so perhaps things will swing back upwards for the currently slumping and visibly annoyed Jeremy Renner. Additional thoughts on Jeremy Renner? Do you have doubts that he'll rebound? Share your thoughts below.