MovieChat Forums > Born to Be Blue (2016) Discussion > Ethan Hawke is GREAT in this

Ethan Hawke is GREAT in this

posted 8 years ago by DarlesChickens
8 replies | jump to latest

In BORN TO BE BLUE, Ethan Hawke gives one of the strongest, most mature performances of his career. It’s a spot-on bit of casting as Hawke’s chiseled, hollow face bares a striking physical resemblance to Baker’s. But that casting stretches well beyond looks. Baker was a notoriously laid back guy and Hawke captures that same understated grace throughout Born To Be Blue. Hawke’s performance is a study in understatement, straight down to the near whispery speech patterns: http://www.cutprintfilm.com/reviews/born-to-be-blue/

[–] !!!deleted!!! (46827070) 8 years ago

I hope Hawke gets an Oscar nomination for this.

[–] anne-536 8 years ago

Totally agree.
Special credit for his acting the accident/rehab portion.

[–] Brendan86 8 years ago

His best performance on a film. Some great, vulnerable scenes.

[–] stoneangelrose 8 years ago

I am an Ethan Hawke fan as well as a big fan of the Chet Baker documentary 'Let's Get Lost'. My expectations, however, were very low a) because I was not sure I would be able to believe Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker, despite the physical similarities, and b) because I was such a fan of the documentary, I did not think any movie could compare. I was wrong on both counts. I really got lost in the movie and the performances. I totally bought Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker. I still think about the movie. I brought a good friend who is a musician and he could not stop raving about it. He even texted me the next day to thank me again for suggesting the movie. Anyway, I have gotten somewhat off topic so: yes, Ethan Hawke was great in this. :)

[–] AtoZ2014 8 years ago

Ethan Hawke was great, the movie was great, and the choices made by the director/writer were great. It captures the jazz very well.

It also captures the problem of addiction very well.

[–] Locke_John 8 years ago

Ethan knocked it out the park, again. Oscar nom please.

[–] babaroga73 8 years ago

Yep, I watched him in a good portion of his films , and he was always good to great. But this time, he tottaly knock it out of the park.

[–] konitzlee 8 years ago

I haven't watched the movie yet so I can't speak and I'll trust your judgement, yet I did see the trailer, and in it you could see Ethan "playing" the trumpet; being a trumpeter myself it was clear as rain that he wasn't infact playing the trumpet, he was actually pretty bad at faking it and that ruined it for me. Conversely performance by Don Cheadle in "MIles ahead" was VERY credible (as far as the playing is concerned) and you could definitely tell that he was putting effort into making that realistic.