Kevin Kline makes a man's confidence funny by letting us see how much work goes into keeping it up. We value his precision most when it exposes embarrassment; occasionally, it makes us too aware of the actor.
Fi1m perspective
Kevin Kline's Ben Hood in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm (1997) sounds more certain of himself than we feel he ought to. That small discrepancy gives Kline plenty to play. Ben wants to seem comfortable with his choices, and Kline lets us notice the effort without making him a fool from the outset. We laughed uneasily because his confidence seems unlikely to survive much scrutiny from the person he is talking to.
His film debut, as Nathan Landau opposite Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice (1982), was followed by the ensemble work of The Big Chill (1983), in which he plays Harold. Lawrence Kasdan became a recurring collaborator across six films, with room for Kline's instinctive, improvisational work. The broad comedy of Otto in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) makes his technical control easier to spot. The quieter work in The Ice Storm needs that precision too, though it gives us less reason to notice it.
Lee gives him a useful setting: adults intelligent enough to account for their behaviour but unable to understand it. James Schamus's screenplay leaves Kline room to make Ben's explanations funny without making them convincing. Alongside Sigourney Weaver's reserved Janey Carver, his need to seem at ease becomes particularly revealing. Kline keeps the uncertainty present, so that we can recognise the embarrassment beneath the confident talk. The film overworks its weather symbolism, but the actors do not need that help to make these people uncomfortable company.
That control does sometimes become too conspicuous. Kline can seem to know rather more about a character's shortcomings than he should let on, inviting us to notice his cleverness as well as the man's mistakes. The restraint of Ben Hood is preferable: Kline allows the man's uncertainty to matter rather than treating it merely as a joke. Start with The Ice Storm before trying the broader comedy of A Fish Called Wanda.
Biography
Kevin Delaney Kline is an American actor. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he studied at Indiana University Bloomington and the Juilliard School before joining John Houseman's The Acting Company in 1972.
Kline began his career on stage, winning Tony Awards for his performances in the musicals On the Twentieth Century (1978) and The Pirates of Penzance (1981), and a third Tony for the play Present Laughter (2017). His film roles include Sophie's Choice (1982), The Big Chill (1983), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Dave (1993), In & Out (1997), The Ice Storm (1997), and Beauty and the Beast (2017). He is married to actress Phoebe Cates.
