6 Films That Prove Keanu Reeves Should Do More Comedy

Parenthood

While Ron Howard’s iconic 1989 ensemble movie cast Keanu Reeves in a less-than ground-breaking role, the actor still takes the opportunity to turn in scenes that are both heart-warming, and very, very funny. The cast is led by Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen as a married couple struggling with the stresses of parenthood and employment. The wider cast features Martin’s character’s family, and the very different struggles they are dealing with. One of his sisters, played by Dianne Wiest, is a single-mother to High School senior Martha Plimpton, and early teen Joaquin Phoenix. Plimpton is dating Reeves – a ‘slacker’, who wants to hang out with his brothers and pursue his dream of drag racing.

Within the framework of the wider film, Reeves and Plimpton create a hysterical and hormonally volatile late-teenage relationship that repeatedly explodes in various ways throughout the movie. Initially seeing Reeves’ character through the disapproving eyes of his girlfriend’s mother, we are gradually given the opportunity to warm to him – just as she does – as he reveals increasingly vulnerable aspects of himself to the family. Ultimately, his character perfectly encapsulates the combination of warmth and comedy that forms the foundation of the film, as he details to Dianne Wiest his experience of living with an abusive father – but not before he informs her that he has solved the problem of her young son’s obsession with “slapping the salami,” by telling him, “that’s what little dudes do.”