And I don't really need to tell you what that observation was because the subject of this post has done it for me.
I didn't glean a lot from Glengarry that I hadn't on previous viewings, in the movie itself, but I do have a perspective on it that I wouldn't have had, at least not to the same extent, the last time I watched it in 2011.
In 2011, Ryan Gosling was still a relatively new presence in our lives. Oh his "breakout" role -- to the extent that you can call such an independent film a breakout -- was ten years earlier in The Believer, after which he started getting roles with some regularity. And I had definitely already seen a half-dozen of his movies by 2011.
But maybe Ryan Gosling wasn't so ingrained in my head that seeing the merely 34-year-old Alec Baldwin in Glengarry was enough to remind me of him.
That version of Baldwin sure reminded me of Gosling this time, though.
I spent about three agonizing minutes -- and his one outstanding scene isn't much longer than that -- trying to figure out who this version of Baldwin reminded me of. It wouldn't have been an older actor, I figured, and when I realized it was someone younger I landed on Gosling relatively quickly.
Of course, I'm not the only one to make this observation. Although I created the side-by-side images above myself, the internet had some other ones to share as well if I hadn't wanted to do the work, such as this one:
The similarity here might be even more striking, but that's an even younger Baldwin, and besides, I wanted the Baldwin from Glengarry.
It isn't just the appearance, either, but the mannerisms. I could easily see Gosling doing that same bit Baldwin does where he mocks the salesmen, pretending he's them throwing back an invisible drink at a bar, complaining to anyone who would listen about how sales is a "tough racket." Gosling would nail that.
Naturally that got me thinking who else I would select if I were going to recast Glengarry Glen Ross with doppelgangers 30 years later.
Now, finding actual doppelgangers for Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and Jonathan Pryce isn't going to be a cinch, so I think I'll go easy on myself and choose actors would look sort of similar, but also do similar things with their craft. And so as to not spend too much time on this post I won't agonize over my choices too much.
I'll start with the easiest:
Ricky Roma - Oscar Isaac has felt like the heir apparent to Al Pacino throughout his career, so I'm not going to look any farther for my new Roma.
Shelley Levene - Possibly the inspiration for Gil the struggling salesman on The Simpsons, Shelley "The Machine" Levene is a little harder to cast because Jack Lemmon was a true original. However, the name that came to mind is Brian Cox. Now, without even seeing Succession I know that Cox has often played men who dominate or are very much self-actualized, which does not describe Shelley. But Cox could do Lemmon's profane rants and is certainly more than capable of playing desperate.
George Aaronow - Here's Arkin's character. I can't help but look for somebody tall and skinny with a bald head, and for some reason Matt Frewer keeps coming to mind. He may not work a ton these days but I think he could do the character's neurotic, doomsday energy.
Dave Moss - I couldn't think of a good match for Ed Harris so I cheated a little bit on this one, googling "Ed Harris lookalike." However, the photo result I got was a false positive that actually led me to my answer. A photo came up for Harris and Viggo Mortensen appearing at a promotional event for the movie Appaloosa, which I haven't seen. I checked on IMDB and they don't play the same characters at different ages, or even related characters. (And I just realized they are also both in A History of Violence.) But I was surprised at how much alike they looked and I think Mortensen could equal Harris' intensity.
John Williamson - We don't want to spend any time thinking about Kevin Spacey these days, but for this exercise we're going to have to. Who's our best example today of a smarmy, menacing creep? It's probably not Jude Law, but for some reason that's the name I keep coming back to. Law likes to take on challenges and has a sinister quality to him that I think would work.
James Lingk - The naive, gullible client who probably wanted to be Ricky Roma's best friend more than he wanted to buy real estate from him was played there by Jonathan Pryce. I'm having a real hard time thinking of someone to play this mousy and timid character. However, for some small similarity of appearance and the fact that they are both British, I am going with Jim Sturgess. Why not?
I hope no one makes this movie because it would be terrible.
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