More than a Joker: Jack Nicholson's most underrated roles

Jack Nicholson

Writing about the sudden death of director Mike Nichols got me thinking about Jack Nicholson, who collaborated with the director on a handful of films, most of which were underrated at the time of their release -- like the brilliant sex comedy-drama Carnal Knowledge (1971).

Nicholson may be my favorite actor of all time although that designation changes from time to time. He has been unfairly painted as someone who goes "over the top" and while some of his most famous performances are "big"-- I think he's earned the right to be broad because he's been so terrific over several decades.

Sadly, he appears to have prematurely retired from making movies. He hasn't appeared on the big screen since 2010 and hasn't had a role really up to his talents since 2006's The Departed. Still, this wily movie star has left an incredible body of work to feast on.

In fact, he has made so many great movies that his biggest hits: Terms of Endearment, Chinatown, Batman, etc., sometimes overshadow some of this other masterpieces.

Most movie audiences first became aware of Nicholson because of his scene stealing performance in Easy Rider. It's a film of its time, but Nicholson is really the actor that makes it work, if for no other reason than because he is actually acting while Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper seemed to be genuinely stoned throughout it. But his first truly breakthrough role was in the hit film Five Easy Pieces.

This movie has largely been forgotten by modern audiences but it was one of the great character studies of the 1970s. Nicholson plays a man born into privilege with a talent for playing classical piano, who eschews his past to live the life of a blue collar guy. Circumstances draw him reluctantly into his old world and Nicholson gives a sensitive, emotional performance as a man who doesn't fit into any crowd.

His next triumph was the low key 1973 road movie The Last Detail. Nicholson plays a navy man tasked with transporting a prisoner who is also a fellow soldier, who has committed a petty crime. Nicholson starts to show flashes of his profane, devil-may-care latter day persona here but director Hal Ashby also knows how to play off Nicholson's quieter more introspective side. It's a little movie who's stature has only grown in the years since its release.

Nicholson in The Passenger

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest may have been Nicholson's greatest triumph in 1975, but a close second would be his excellent work in Michelango Antonini's fascinating thriller The Passenger.

It's not paced like a typical suspense film but if you give yourself over to it's gorgeous visuals and dream like storytelling this story about a journalist who switches identities with a dead man to restart his life is endlessly rewarding. And it features one of the most famous one-take tracking shots of all time.

I've written many times about how The Shining is one of my favorite films of all time, and Nicholson gives an unforgettable performance in the film. But that Stanley Kubrick classic's success became a double-edged sword for the actor because ever since that 1980 film's release all of his performances are compared to it. Still, he managed to be fantastic against type in Warren Beatty's 1981 epic Reds.

Nicholson plays a jaded but romantic Eugene O'Neill, a depressive drunk who nevertheless shows a tenderness to Diane Keaton's lead female character, that Beatty's hero cannot. Nicholson scored an Oscar nomination for the role.

Four years later he was delightful as a dimwitted gangster in the black comedy Prizzi's Honor. If you can get past the odd prosthetic upper lip he dons for the role, you will have a ball seeing Nicholson take on the unlikely role of mafia hitman who falls in love with the wrong woman. It's also a film that captures his unique chemistry with his longtime real life romantic partner, Anjelica Huston.

He also generated sparks with Michelle Pfeiffer in the underrated thriller Wolf. Much has been made about Nicholson's unconventional looks and his tendency to star opposite women who are far more fetching (and younger) than he is. And yet, his charm and charisma are undeniable. You can't help but be drawn in by him.

That ability to hold the screen is put to great effect in Sean Penn's 2001 police procedural The Pledge. Penn gathers an all-star cast (including Helen Mirren, Mickey Rourke, Benicio del Toro and Aaron Eckhart) to provide support but this is Nicholson's movie. He plays a retiring detective who becomes obsessed with his last case and starts taking that preoccupation to unhealthy extremes. It's an extremely unconventional thriller with a Nicholson performance low on histrionics, and he knocks it out of the park.

My favorite late career Nicholson performance though was in About Schmidt, one of Alexander Payne's most underrated comedy-dramas. The titular hero, a put-upon, inherently dishonest insurance man fits Nicholson like a glove and he has a ball with his unreliable narration and fits of fury. The film, which has occasionally been accused of looking down on its characters, has a surprisingly emotional wallop of a finale, which makes every scene that proceeded it more powerful.

Nicholson doesn't cry a lot on screen, so when he does at the end of About Schmidt, you feel it.

I think he may be my favorite actor because he brings both the emotion and the entertainment with virtually every role he plays. Even when the films he's in aren't terrific, he's never boring in them. And considering how much I watch movies, it's good not to be bored. I do think although he is approaching 80 he still may have great work in him, but only time will tell if he'll bring his instantly recognizable mug back to the movies.