But at least he 'got' Conor.
*shrugs*

I just don't get why people think they have to devote so many column inches to mockery before they give him some credit.

btw, Sandra Bullock won both an Oscar and a Razzie. In the same year. Just not for the same movie. Halle Berry won a Razzie in 2005 and an Oscar in 2002. So much for the relevance of any awards.

Plenty of good actors have been nominated for razzies (DiCaprio, Colin Farrell), but I'm not sure how many with strong reputations have been nominated for 5 different films like Keanu.

I hope this doesn't come off as Keanu-bashing. I love the man, he's one of my favourite actors, just not for conventional reasons.

Oh, no, The Matrix did not require a tremendous amount of acting talent. It just required the use of non-verbal language in about the same proportion as spoken lines. It just required Reeves to go through a full hero's journey arc in each of the movies, and another encompassing act through the trilogy. About the same as Viggo had to do in the Rings movies, but Reeves doesn't get the bells and whistles and traditional epicness.
It just required Reeves to play a character who truly finds his own voice in the last 15 minutes of the third and last movie of the trilogy. That basically means living with the character for what? Six years?
But acting talent? Hell, no. None required.

Your article does come off as Keanu-bashing. And your posts here come off like fishing for an argument.

In terms of actor's intention, I am speaking broadly, in the sense that an actor does not intend to be laughed at in serious moments, which is what the bulk of YouTube clips on Keanu feature.

To borrow from The Matrix, here in the real world we have a healthy appreciation for what Keanu is; a tremendously entertaining and lovably charismatic actor whose value is often not derived from intention.

Ryan Gosling's performance in Only God Forgives was great - considering the structure of the movie and the meaning it wanted to convey. It's not everyone's cup of acting, though.

Of course it's my prerogative to consider Revolutions a meaningful movie. Just like it's your prerogative to consider your own matrix the 'real world'.

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Which films of his would you say he should get credit for his straight up acting?

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In no particular order:

Constantine
The Replacements
Speed
Devil's Advocate
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Hardball
The Gift
The Matrix trilogy
The Lake House

et al.

It's a curious world in which "tremendously entertaining and lovably charismatic" = an utter lack of acting talent. I mean, yeah, that's totally plausible and not inherently contradictory at all.

Luca's point about watching performances in context is crucial. When I saw clips of Conor O'Neil before seeing the movie, I was...worried. When I saw the entire movie and the skill with which Keanu renders a desperate, angry character and then turns him into a charming, decent person who's finally found his purpose in life and then so powerfully conveys his grief and heartbreak...I was amazed. So it has continued for me in every performance of his I've watched.

You don't need to see him the way we do. Neither do you need to condescend to us because of the way we see him.

"If you want to confuse The Matrix Revolutions with a meaningful movie that's your prerogative."

"He's very good in Speed, The Matrix etc but I don't think anyone's arguing that they required a tremendous amount of acting talent."

"a tremendously entertaining and lovably charismatic actor whose value is often not derived from intention."

"I don't think anyone is confusing Keanu with an Oscar winner"

"Which films of his would you say he should get credit for his straight up acting?"

and followed by:

"I hope this doesn't come off as Keanu-bashing. I love the man, he's one of my favourite actors, just not for conventional reasons."

methinks thou dost protest overmuch. and sadly, you left out Keanu's well-documented dishevelment and attempts to control Sarah Palin with Jedi mind tricks.
Jack is right "You don't need to see him the way we do. Neither do you need to condescend to us because of the way we see him."

Seeking out a group of people who appreciate Keanu as an actor as a person and running him down to them is really, really low. Find a better hobby, please.

"Willful blindness? I don't think anyone is confusing Keanu with an Oscar winner, the man has been nominated for 5 razzies. He's good value though, he's an entertaining and lovable actor. Which films of his would you say he should get credit for his straight up acting?"

as your introductory post on this forum speaks volumes, perhaps unintentionally? I'm sure that you can find the door that leads back to the Matrix and the rest of your kind.

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If you want to confuse The Matrix Revolutions with a meaningful movie that's your prerogative

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...oh no you didn't. :|

But that aside, you come across as a casual viewer. Nothing wrong with that, but that's not us. The fans here are all pretty hardcore; most of us have been following Keanu's life and career for years, and for me at least it's as much an academic interest as an entertainment one - the fanboy obsession faded a few years ago, and now it's largely academic fascination that keeps me going.

All that lets us see other things in Keanu's acting that the average viewer would not. Should a good actor be able to convey the same greatness of performance to everyone? Perhaps. But there aren't many, if any, actors whom everyone agrees is great. For Keanu, perhaps the pool of those who appreciate his acting-as-intended is a smaller one. But if any actor manages to deliver great, meaningful performances to even just a small group of people... that still means something, and is worth something.

I've seen good and bad performances from Keanu. I thought Dracula was horrible, and everyone in it. I also don't like Point Break, because I'm a heathen that way. I do often find his acting to be inconsistent if you're looking at it purely from a craft level. But in terms of range... his most successful and critically acclaimed films were River's Edge (angsty teen drama), Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (comedy), Point Break (action), My Own Private Idaho (indie gay film), Speed (action), The Matrix (scifi), The Gift (supernatural drama), Man of Tai Chi (Chinese martial arts film). Most actors - even Oscar-winning ones - find their niche in one genre, and that's it. Whereas Keanu manages to get typecast as two such different characters as Neo and Ted, from two such wildly different films.

And then there are his characters. Keanu is currently one of the very few actors where all I need to 'get' one of his characters is to hear a single line in a movie trailer. Perhaps his portrayal of that character might be awkward, even (ka forbid) wooden. But somehow despite all that, he manages to effectively convey so much about that character with just one expression or a line of dialogue or a movement, enough that I can write out an entire characterisation based on a few seconds of a scene*, then watch the movie and find it almost a perfect match. If he were truly a bad actor, that wouldn't be possible.

*I'm a writer. I do stuff like that all the time for the lolz and character-study practice.

Perhaps it takes time, and the disturbingly in-depth Keanu-knowledge we possess (hey, everyone needs a hobby. I also play five instruments.) that allows us to subconsciously make connections between things we see in his acting and stuff we know about his life and work, and through that discover emotional links and meanings that the average viewer would not be able to. But even if that were the case, it doesn't change that we do end up finding intentional meaning in his work, and meaning that is pretty much agreed upon among his fans, suggesting that it's not actually all in our heads.