Actors That Need to Be Saved from Themselves, Professionally: Wes Bentley

Hello again, my dear readers. Today I write the first installment of a new recurring series I like to call "Actors That Need to Be Saved from Themselves, Professionally." In each new post, I will detail the tragic downfall of some truly talented actor's career. I'm not interested in their personal lives here, just the awful movies that blemish their resumes. Originally this was going to be a single post, but seeing as there are so many actors in need of saving nowadays, I thought I should expand the project. Let's take a look at our first case...

Ask anyone to name the first thing that comes to mind when you say American Beauty, and he or she will probably respond with, “That beautiful creep with the plastic bag!”  That beautiful creep would be none other than Wes Bentley. You’d think that after creating such a compelling and slightly unsettling character this guy would have a lot of great roles ahead of him. Not so. He’s only appeared in 13 movies since American Beauty – which was 10 years ago – and they include such illustrious titles as The White River Kid and Ghost Rider. That’s right, Wes Bentley has stooped to starring with the very bane of my existence, Nicolas Cage. People say that he’s notoriously picky when it comes to choosing scripts, but if so, poor Wes doesn’t seem to have a shred of common sense. What on earth made him think that a movie with Ray Romano (The Last Word) was a solid decision?

Perhaps more disappointing than his costars is his long list of crappy horror movies. Stuff like P2 isn't just painful to watch, it practically betrays what Wes was all about in the early days. See, the great thing about Ricky from American Beauty is that you have such a hard time telling whether he’s actually a freakish psychopath or just misunderstood. Playing a straight-up slasher really takes away from what Wes accomplished with that role, especially when it’s in a movie about a freakin’ parking garage.

Is it too late to stick him in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland? He could fit in so easily, it's not even funny. If he wants to avoid being typecast as the weirdo though, how about the Fahrenheit 451 remake? Guy Montag is a pretty interesting character, and trying out a new genre (sci-fi) might do Wes some good.

I know I’m investing a lot in a guy who was in one movie I liked, but he had such a promising start. That’s why pictures like this just kill me. There’s Wes, so close to a good movie yet so far away.