3) “You Have To Bite It” – Atonement
Cumberbatch might have played a space-age supervillain in Star Trek Into Darkness, but his first major morally-deficient role in a movie was very different. In Joe Wright’s wartime drama Atonement, the Sherlock stars features as a – spoilers – pedophile and rapist.
As wealthy businessman Paul Marshall, he takes a liking to the adolescent Lola (Juno Temple), and is eventually revealed to have raped her and later forcefully taken her as his bride. It is Marshall’s crimes that initiate the tragic plot of the film, as Briony (Saoirse Ronan) lies that she saw James McAvoy’s Robbie in the act which leads him to be torn away from his beloved Cecilia (Keira Knightley).
Cumberbatch excels at playing this hugely repellent character. One small scene, however, sums up how good he is in the part. When he gives Lola a chocolate bar, he stares at her with barely disguised lust and breathes the line: “Bite it. You have to bite it.”
Weirdly enough, it was this role that convinced Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss to cast him as Sherlock Holmes.
Published: Jan 30, 2017 03:12 pm