Photo courtsey of Michel
The opening scene of The Believer is something of a sucker punch. A boy is singled out on the subway and beaten by a stranger, but it's only afterward, as the lens lingers on the assailant, that the real blow comes: The skinhead thug is the movie's protagonist. Thankfully, Ryan Gosling, the Canadian actor who stars as Jewish neo-Nazi Danny Balint, brings an unusual sensitivity and fierce intelligance to the complex role.
Though he's never had any formal dramatic training--the 20-year-old got his start as a member of the Mickey Mouse Club--Gosling imbues his brutally conflicted character with a seeker's soul. "Danny loved his faith so much that he felt weak by it," He explains. "I see beauty in ugly things." That's a blessing, because since the film, which airs on Show-time this September, left audiences gasping at Sundance, Gosling has found work portraying some very flawed individuals. Next, he stars as a Loeb-like killer in FoolProof and as an emotionally numb football player in The Slaughter Rule. Though Gosling locates his affinity for the imperfect in his own imperfection, those who've worked with him disagree. "When I'm with him," rhapsodizes Believer writer-director Henry Bean, "I feel sure, for the first time in my life, that I'm in the presence of genius."---Lauran Waterman
