Dylan Baker makes respectable men difficult to trust without advertising what is wrong with them. We value his restraint most in Happiness, though the sinister authority figures that followed can make his casting feel too predictable.
Fi1m perspective
Dylan Baker keeps Bill Maplewood bland and respectable in Happiness (1998). As a psychiatrist and father sexually attracted to children, he gives us no comfortable way to separate this man from ordinary family life. We were horrified by how familiar he seemed, because Baker makes that respectable manner so convincing. He asks us to attend to the person without making his desires any less appalling.
His film debut was Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), but Happiness brought him to prominence and helped establish the casting pattern that followed. He has since worked steadily in independent films, studio productions and television, often as a doctor or official with something to conceal. Sam Raimi cast him as Dr Curt Connors in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), while Revolutionary Road (2008) gave him the supporting role of Jack Ordway. That typecasting has a cost: familiarity with an actor can make an ostensibly ordinary man seem suspicious on arrival.
Todd Solondz gets the best out of him by letting the restraint last. In Happiness, Baker keeps Bill from becoming merely a provocation, and the effort to understand him remains uncomfortable because the performance never offers an excuse. The film's slow pace and repeated humiliations do become wearing; even this performance cannot make every minute feel necessary. But Baker is the strongest reason to stay with it, holding to the same plain manner when a more demonstrative performance would give us permission to stop looking.
Dream Scenario (2023) puts him back among institutional authority figures as Richard in Kristoffer Borgli's satirical ensemble. Its first hour is sharp and funny, but the explanations that follow weaken it. It is a worthwhile choice for anyone drawn to uneasy comedy, though it gives us less reason to linger on Baker than Happiness does. Start with Happiness if you can bear the subject; Baker will not make it easier for you.
Biography
Dylan Baker is an American actor. He was born on 7 October 1959 in Syracuse, New York, and trained at the College of William and Mary, Southern Methodist University and Yale University.
Baker is known for film roles including Dr Curt Connors in Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), Bill Maplewood in Happiness (1998), Jack Ordway in Revolutionary Road (2008) and Richard in Dream Scenario (2023). His television work includes appearances in The Good Wife, The Americans and Homeland. He received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for The Good Wife.
On stage, Baker was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for the original production of La Bête in 1991. He made his directorial debut with 23 Blast in 2013.
