Michael J. Fox makes confidence funny by letting embarrassment catch up with it. We rate him most when a film puts that quick, likeable presence under pressure, rather than expecting charm to do all the work.
Fi1m perspective
Watch Michael J. Fox register disbelief in Back to the Future (1985): he stays caught up in Marty's trouble, never pausing to congratulate us on noticing the joke. The situation is absurd, but he plays the embarrassment as if it matters, which it does to Marty. We laughed at his encounters with his young parents because Fox lets the discomfort show without making either parent contemptible. His confidence keeps the adventure moving; his awkwardness makes the family comedy work.
His breakthrough as Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties (1982) established the television comedian before Marty McFly made him a film star. Robert Zemeckis uses his speed particularly well opposite Christopher Lloyd's Emmett Brown, whose excitement could easily overwhelm a less alert partner. Fox keeps pace without trying to match the size of Lloyd's performance. Their exchanges remain conversations, rather than two actors competing to be the funniest person in them.
Back to the Future has a slightly laboured opening, but editors Harry Keramidas and Arthur Schmidt keep its later complications clear and its jokes properly timed. Alan Silvestri's score takes the adventure seriously, and Fox and Lloyd give that enthusiasm a reason to be there. Neither the cutting nor the music has to manufacture our interest in Marty.
Elsewhere, the likeability can make life too easy for a script. The Secret of My Success (1987) relies too readily on the charming lead to carry familiar comedy. Bright Lights, Big City (1988) makes room for vulnerability and a more flawed character. That is a better use of an affable actor than simply assuming we will enjoy his company whatever he is given to do.
He returned to leading television comedy with Spin City (1996), working again with Family Ties creator and producer Gary David Goldberg. The Frighteners (1996) also found a use for his manic energy in horror-comedy. Start with Back to the Future, where the clever plot has the good sense to keep making life difficult for him.
Biography
Michael J. Fox is a Canadian-American actor. He is best known for portraying Marty McFly in the Back to the Future film trilogy (1985–1990).
Fox rose to prominence as Alex P. Keaton on the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989). He also starred in films including Teen Wolf (1985), The Secret of My Success (1987) and The Frighteners (1996), and led the ABC sitcom Spin City (1996–2000) as Mike Flaherty.
In 1998 Fox disclosed his 1991 diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2000 to support research into the condition. He made later television appearances including on Rescue Me (2009) and The Good Wife (2010–2016), and in the series The Michael J. Fox Show (2013–2014).
