Chris Klein

In Election (1999), Chris Klein's Paul Metzler is an athlete with little guile, surrounded by people whose motives deserve rather more scrutiny. Alexander Payne makes the school election painfully funny, and Klein gives us somebody whose decency we need not keep questioning. We were unexpectedly moved by Paul's sincerity because the adult supervising the contest is so much less deserving of our sympathy. Klein does not need to make Paul clever to make him worth caring about.

We would not put his contribution ahead of Reese Witherspoon's and Matthew Broderick's combative leads. But his less knowing presence is useful in a film that occasionally lets its malice become caricature. Paul is allowed to be dim and likeable at once; the performance does not ask us to congratulate Klein for playing someone so innocent. Payne gets something precise from an actor who might otherwise have been hired simply to look wholesome.

This was his film debut, and American Pie (1999), in which he played Chris 'Oz' Ostreicher, supplied the breakout. The clean-cut teen roles established him quickly, but also left a narrow set of expectations to work against. He returned as Oz in American Pie 2 (2001) and American Reunion (2012). Those ensemble appearances made use of the affability rather than demanding that he disguise it. We see no reason to dismiss that as an easy assignment.

There have been attempts to get away from the wholesome athlete: the war drama We Were Soldiers (2002), the villainous Dusty Dinkleman in Just Friends (2005), and later the antagonist Cicada in The Flash (2018–2019). Television also gave him Dr Bill Townsend in Sweet Magnolias (2020–2023). Different sorts of parts are welcome, though collecting them is not itself a reason to value an actor more. We would still send someone curious about Klein back to Election, where playing a decent boy among less decent people is a substantial job.