Chris and Phil Present has chosen Keanu Reeves as the topic of their second piece on under-appreciated actors. They refer to Keanu as the Peter Pan of our age in reference to his youthful appearance.
The piece explores some of his more memorable works and addresses some of his detractors. When all is said and done, though, they got to the heart of the matter in characterizing the Reevester:
It would be insane to argue that Reeves is a great actor, he’s not, he’s something better. Reeves is a bonafide film star. The camera loves him, as it should, he has always been an extremely good looking man, and yet somehow one we would be happy to leave in the company of our girlfriends (or boyfriends). Keanu wouldn’t make a move. He’s just too nice. Like all great filmstars Keanu has a quality, difficult to define, that pulls people to him, that fascinates us. But what is it? It’s not exactly cool like McQueen, it isn’t urbane elegance like Clooney, or macho bombast like Schwarzenegger. Reeves isn’t a meta-star like I would argue Eastwood was, and Statham is, someone aware of their limitations who plays to their audience. In Statham’s case in a rather obvious take-your-shirt-off-and-roll-in-oil-way, in Eastwood’s a complex examination and subversion of image. Reeves seems blissfuly unaware he even has an image, wandering around like some sort of super-attractive younger version of the Dude from The Big Lebowski in downtime between roles.
The article is here.