Aaron Eckhart makes men with conviction worth listening to, even when we have reason to doubt them. We rate him most highly when a film challenges their authority; uncomplicated goodness can leave him with too little to play.
Fi1m perspective
Harvey Dent believes what he is saying, and Aaron Eckhart makes that belief worth attending to in The Dark Knight (2008). His conviction is distinct from Christian Bale’s intensity as Bruce Wayne, giving Christopher Nolan two credible people to disagree about how to act. We were gripped by those disagreements because Eckhart makes Dent’s position worth considering. Nolan gets a persuasive performance from an actor willing to play an earnest man without making him dull.
That persuasiveness was put to less respectable use as Chad, the sociopathic executive in Neil LaBute’s In the Company of Men (1997). The early association with LaBute established a useful tension between Eckhart’s charisma and the conduct of the men he played. Erin Brockovich (2000), which brought him wider recognition, gave him a gentler supporting part as George. It also exposed a limitation: he can be too willing to accept a character’s goodness as sufficient material.
George is the biker next door who ends up looking after Erin’s children while she works, and Soderbergh’s film writes him as a saint. Eckhart plays him as one. Alongside Julia Roberts, who carries the film, he fulfils a practical need in the story without making George comparably interesting. We would not blame an actor for everything a script neglects to provide, but there is little here to complicate the devotion. His sincerity needs something to push against.
The tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor in Thank You for Smoking (2005) gave that persuasive manner a satirical purpose again. By The Dark Knight, he was making idealism credible in a film whose speeches sometimes labour their points. His contribution matters even with Heath Ledger’s Joker supplying the more frightening urgency. Eckhart helps Nolan keep the moral questions attached to people, which is why Dent deserves attention beyond the larger personalities around him.
Rabbit Hole (2010) offered an intimate family grief drama, while Clint Eastwood’s Sully (2016) placed him opposite Tom Hanks as Jeff Skiles. The later career has also made regular use of his authority in action films and thrillers. That is sensible casting, though we would rather see his persuasive manner tested than simply used to establish who is in charge. Start with Dent; the speeches are sometimes heavy, but the man delivering them is worth believing.
Biography
Aaron Eckhart is an American actor. Born on 12 March 1968 in Cupertino, California, he moved with his family to the United Kingdom at an early age and spent time in Australia during his teenage years. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film.
While an undergraduate, Eckhart met director and writer Neil LaBute, who cast him in several plays and subsequent films including In the Company of Men (1997), Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Nurse Betty (2000) and Possession (2002). He gained wide recognition for his role as George in Erin Brockovich (2000). Other notable performances include Nick Naylor in Thank You for Smoking (2005), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, and Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight (2008).
