Having attractive blue eyes and transforming acting talents, James McAvoy now has a very unique position in Hollywood after more than 20 years in the field of film.
James McAvoy was born on April 21, 1979 in the port city of Glasgow, Scotland. His parents divorced when James was 7 years old and he lived with his mother and grandparents. At 15, destiny brought James to Saturday art when a film director came to James’s school. Extremely interested in the topic that this director presented, James met him after a presentation to work as an assistant, looking for opportunities to enter the world of cinema.
And James has achieved more than expected! Was accepted immediately after auditioning for the film on child prostitution, The Near Room, directed by David Hayman. The first role put him on the film path, and constantly breaking through the movie after that. Here are the top most worth watching movies of James before the horror movie “Glass” of 2019.
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
A young Scottish doctor named Nicholas Garrigan decided to go to Uganda on a journey and accidentally met General Idi Amin. He stayed and helped the general by admiration and attraction to the charisma of a strong, cynical, and powerful leader. However, over time, Nicolas became aware of Amin’s nature, malice, and cruelty. He eventually decided to flee from the brutal country of Uganda.
While trying to correct a mistake and find a way out of Uganda, the young doctor suffers from an accident of falling in love with one of Amin’s wives, Kay Amin, and getting her pregnant. Knowing the news, Amin sent his subordinates along with his juniors to kill his wife for adultery and considered it a righteous act and took revenge on Nicolas by persecuting him. Nicolas then escaped on a flight, escaping from Uganda and the tyrant Amin.
Try the movie The Last King of Scotland as a Scottish doctor, James has shown well the inner of the doctor “conceded” brutal empire. The work after its premiere has received much praise from critics and James won the first important award of his career – Scotland BAFTA.
Becoming Jane (2007)
The film, directed by Julian Jarrold based on Becoming Jane Austen’s biography by researcher Jon Hunter Spence, tells the story of the young British writer Jane Austen’s childhood and her first love that greatly influenced the writing style. her writing later.
In the film, Anne Hathaway plays Jane – a passionate girl who loves a boy named Tom Lefroy played by James McAvoy. Their love encountered opposition from Jane’s parents because they wanted their daughter to marry someone of social status, not a bohemian guy like Tom. It was his beautiful first love with Tom that inspired the female writer to write the emotional work Pride and Prejudice.
Atonement (2007)
Joe Wright’s film is a harrowing and haunting story of a lie that has changed more than a lifetime, its consequences lasting over six decades, starting in the 1930s. is considered to be more emotional than the novel of the same name by writer Ian McEwan published in 2001.
Briony – a 13-year-old girl, noticed the appearance of Robbie (James McAvoy) with her sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) became “dangerous” and abnormal. The love letters and the unexpected encounter in the library further confirm that threat, leading to the final decision being made. Briony, with all her innocence, accused Robbie of the assault and rape cousin Lola Quincey. The allegation pushed Robbie into prison and separated him from Cecilia forever.
When released in 2007, Atonement received countless compliments and won the Golden Globe for “Best Psychological Film”. At the Oscar, the film also received a gold statue for “Best Soundtrack”. After 7 years, Atonement is still considered one of the best psychological film adapted from the best novel of all time.
Wanted (2008)
Based on the comic book series of Mark Millar, Wanted tells about Weslwey (James McAvoy) – a young but bored man in life. Until the female killer Fox (Angelina Jolie) appears and let Wes know that his father is a first-rate assassin and that he has just been killed. Fox led Wes to join the fraternity assassin and taught him how to shoot guns, martial arts to avenge his father. However, one day, Wes discovered behind the assassin group also has a heavenly secret unlike what he once thought …
Wanted converges a lot of subtle panes to make the viewer feel like they are on a speedboat, always straining to take on any fierce challenge. Even the images of bullets in Wanted are also made in a way that makes the audience both unbelievable and deeply impressed. Almost all of these scenes are shot slowly, specifying the trajectory of the bullet forming a perfect and precise curve to every millimeter in the air.
Sound is also an attractive point of Wanted. Only with the pounding heartbeat, the mood, and psychological changes of the main character Wesley are vividly and truthfully depicted.
Trance (2013)
Exploiting the mystery of the subconscious world, Danny Boyle’s film constantly distracts speculation and forces viewers to stay awake to distinguish reality, lies, and hallucinations. The story in turn is led by three different people – Simon (James McAvoy), a staff of a center specializing in an auction of artworks; Franck (Vincent Cassel), a French guy leads a criminal group and Elizabeth (Rosario Dawson), a hypnotic expert. The audience must be very careful if they do not want to be “led” because the three guides are not equally reliable.
Trance attracts audiences with many unexpected details, many clues are “intentionally” installed throughout from the beginning to the end of the film. Viewers will always have to brainstorm speculation where the truth of the thing. Every time the audience is about to come up because they think they know the truth, a new episode arises to upset everything.
To recover the memory, Simon was constantly hypnotized, created hallucinating. The audience is also confused by the character and can no longer distinguish between real and fake. The film also mentions an obsession with perfection and a desire to possess. Until the film closes, the audience will be puzzled by the question raised at the end of the film – with a bad and sweet memory whether to keep or not to keep?
Victor Frankenstein (2015)
Victor Frankenstein is the latest film inspired by the classic literary work of female writer Mary Shelley. In this film, however, director Paul McGuigan decided to retell the classic story from Igor’s perspective, focusing more on Victor Frankenstein himself and his associates. They are talented but eccentric people, ambitious to use science to challenge the power of God.
During a performance in London, Lorelei had a serious accident. Thanks to the available medical knowledge, the hunchback saved her from a critical situation. The event makes him the mysterious scientist Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) is eyeing. Victor decided to free the hunchback from the circus, recruited him as an assistant and named Igor. From there, Victor and Igor began to build ambitious research works: creating life from death.
Expressing the character of genius scientist, England star James McAvoy made the audience “goosebumps” because the acting was too real. He showed the audience the image of a Frankenstein that is both humorous, sarcastic and talented, but also easy to lose his temper and become frighteningly crazy.
The Last Station (2009)
The Last Station is a biography film adapted from the historical novel of the same name by American writer Jay Parini, which tells the last year of the famous Russian writer Lev Tolstoy in the eyes of the young secretary. Valentin Bulgakov. However, this author was based on true facts about Lev Tolstoy’s death. In 1910, Lev died at Astapovo station after fleeing the night from his wife, Countess Sofya Tolstoy after 48 years of marriage became unfamiliar. He abandoned his family and wealth to start the life of a wandering ascetic.
The reason for running away was that Lev Tolstoy had to witness the struggle for ownership of the work after his death. On one side, his trusted but authoritarian student, Vladimir Chertkov, wanted to persuade him to sign a new will leaving all ownership of the work to the public. On the other side is Countess Sofya Tolstoy – a beloved wife who has been with him for 48 years but has an idealistic conflict with her husband; She wanted to retain the copyright of her work to ensure material affluence for the family.
The Last Station is not really an easy movie to watch. But just by looking at the Golden Globe nominations and Oscar nominations for veteran actors Christopher Plummer (as Leo Tolstoy) and Helen Mirren (Sofya Tolstoy) can see the quality of the film’s performance. That’s not to mention the very important role in James’s role of Valentin Bulgakov (I will mention in a separate post later). Those who are fans of James, should spend some time watching movies because this role requires sophistication, not exaggeration, not exaggeration and if acting skillfully will be extremely boring.
Split (2017)
The film revolves around Kevin (James McAvoy), a young man with multiple personality psychosis. Inside his mind are 23 personalities with 23 distinct personalities. Kevin kidnaps three teenage girls during the day, believing they will be a bridge to help him “awaken” personality 24 – Beast (The Beast). Locked in a dark basement, alone and helpless, the three young women had to find a way to survive before the monstrous man.
The new horror film was made at the hands of the famous M. Night Shyalaman. It gained a lot of praise thanks to the careful exploitation of the psychological aspects of the multi-personality disorder. In addition, the Indian director cleverly intertwined many “exorcisms” such as haunted films as an explanation for the haunting phenomenon from a psychological perspective.
In addition to the physical requirements, the role of a character with multiple personality disorder in Split is also a big challenge for James McAvoy’s acting ability. Although an actor is appreciated for his acting ability, James has carefully invested a lot of effort and effort to be able to complete the difficult role mentioned above. And without supporting the efforts of the male actor, Spit marked the transition of James McAvoy in more intense films.
Glass (2019)
Glass is considered a sequel to both the horror films Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016) under the direction of director M. Night Shyamalan. The movie is the confrontation of three main characters, including David Dunn (Bruce Willis), the criminal genius Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), and multi-personality murderer Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy).
All three are being treated in a special hospital under the supervision of female psychiatrist Ellie Staple. Mr. Glass is the most mysterious and dangerous mutant in the movie. He was the one who caused the boat flip to activate superpowers in the old David Dunn. Then Mr. Glass was taken to a mental hospital. And David Dunn lived a life of seclusion until he saw news of the multi-personality murderer, Kevin Wendell Crumb, with the same ability.
Director M. Night Shyamalan revealed that although it took 17 years to connect the two parts, he finally had the answer to the fan’s question: “Will there be a sequel to Unbreakable?”. In addition, the film also stars young actress Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke (the only survivor from the personality of Kevin’s The Beast), Spencer Treat Clark (David’s son), Charlayne Woodard (as Elijah’s mother).
