Rob Lowe makes eager professionals appealing and can turn his polished good looks into something faintly alarming. We rate his warmth, and his willingness to look ridiculous when a part requires it.
Fi1m perspective
Rob Lowe's Sam Seaborn in The West Wing (1999) is eager enough to risk getting on our nerves, but Lowe makes that eagerness attractive. He lets us enjoy a man who wants to do his job well without making every exchange feel like a request for approval. Aaron Sorkin's writing can be pleased with itself, and Lowe cannot remove that problem. What he provides is warmth between the speeches, particularly the sense that these colleagues enjoy one another's company. Alongside Allison Janney's drier C.J. Cregg, his enthusiasm has someone to play against.
The Outsiders (1983) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985) had established the young star before the 1990s brought a career slowdown and more supporting work. Some of those parts found a use for the looks beyond asking us to admire them. Wayne's World (1992) put his leading-man image to comic use. The return to prominence with The West Wing made sustained enthusiasm an asset. He benefits from that ensemble: we can spend time with Sam without every scene depending on his charm.
Steven Soderbergh uses him sparingly in Behind the Candelabra (2013), as plastic surgeon Dr Jack Startz. The face is pulled tight enough to make his own treatment look like a poor advertisement, yet he is selling it to others. We laughed when he spoke, then felt uncomfortable because the surgeon had already subjected himself to what he was offering his patients. Lowe allows his appearance to be ridiculous without asking for our reassurance that he remains handsome underneath it. Soderbergh's refusal to smirk helps keep the part unsettling as well as funny.
Parks and Recreation (2009), which he joined in 2010 as Chris Traeger, gives his precise delivery and professional optimism a more openly comic purpose. The danger with such bright, capable men is sameness, and we would not recommend a performance merely because Lowe looks comfortable in it. The parts worth seeking out make the enthusiasm appealing or allow the vanity to become peculiar, as Sam and Startz do in quite different ways. Start with The West Wing; save Behind the Candelabra for when that agreeable face begins to seem too reassuring.
Biography
Rob Lowe is an American actor. Born Robert Hepler Lowe on 17 March 1964 in Charlottesville, Virginia, he began acting in the late 1970s and rose to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Brat Pack, appearing in films including The Outsiders (1983), Oxford Blues (1984), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and About Last Night... (1986).
On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn in The West Wing (1999–2003) and as Chris Traeger in Parks and Recreation (2010–2015). He played Dr. Jack Startz in the 2013 film Behind the Candelabra, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination. His brother Chad Lowe is also an actor. He has been married to Sheryl Berkoff since 1991.
