There are a number of former child stars who have gone on to produce a surplus of great work, and whose star seems to be continuing to rise—I’m thinking of Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, Jason Bateman, Michelle Williams, even Christian Bale, and countless others. They obviously have become better with age, growing in ways you would hope anyone passing from childhood to adolescence to adulthood would do.
I liked the youthful Jake Gyllenhaal. Donnie Darko is one of the greatest teenage movie characters of all time, and there’s a youthful energy he brought to the outstanding work he did on Jarhead, Brokeback Mountain and Zodiac. But I have to say, the Gyllenhaal of these past couple of years is a new, fascinating veteran of the industry, and it comes out in two fantastic movies that relied heavily on powerhouse performances by a mature actor.
End of Watch would have been a different movie, more like Jarhead, if we had a younger Gyllenhaal in the lead. There remains a manboyishness to his character in this film, but this is only in his downtime—when in pursuit of a suspect, the maturity kicks in, and the years he has spent together with his friend and partner played by Michael Pena burst through the screen.
Similarly, his work on Prisoners, likely his best work to date, is a good comparison to Zodiac, where he was believable as this innocent-seeming puzzle solver. This time, he’s in control of the investigation, and while he’s still faced with establishing his bona fides to the more senior Hugh Jackman character, his credentials and credibility are convincing. His characterization in this role is superb, and at age 33, his upside is obviously enormous.
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