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What did we expect them to do with Gary Sinise, in any case? Hey, we loved him right from the get-go, when we saw his performance as the short, sharp, frustrated but ultimately compassionate George Milton opposite John Malkovich's lumbering numbskull, Lennie, in the 1992 film Of Mice And Men. Both actors were great, and brilliant together, but Malkovich's role was so much more fun: the looming, dimwitted man-child, the kind of role that serious (and self-serious) actors fall over each other to nab. (Watch out! Here comes Adrien Brody, grasping for that draft of The Village!)
Which is what made Sinise's performance in Of Mice And Men so admirable. Malkovich got to play the show pony, while Sinise played a real guy. This quickly became his calling card: complex, interesting men, often stuck in decidedly un-complex and un-interesting movies. His Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump -- the stiff-backed soldier who winds up bitter and legless in a wheelchair -- was the one sour candy in a movie full of sickly sweet confections. Sinise took a piece of gee-whiz technical show-offery -- Look Ma! No legs! -- and made sure that what we could still see, what was left of the man, was never less than human.
Of course, we knew Sinise would have to take some goofy roles -- slumming as villains or madmen (as he did in Ransom; as Malkovich had done in In The Line of Fire). Which was, of course, fine with us, because great actors always make pulpy movies that much better. Casting Sinise as a weaselly villain in a thriller is like telling the class math whiz to take a break from the chalkboard and go play in the sandbox for a while. Watch him through the window and just wait to see what crazy castles he'll create.
So what did we expect, then? Sinise's odd combo of strangely alluring good looks (admit it, he's handsome) and a strangely malevolent mien (admit it, he's rodent-like) don't exactly plug themselves easily in to the standard array of Hollywood parts. It's Gary Sinise as...Zorro! Or how about Sinise as the lead in Spy Game, opposite Brad Pitt? Or Sinise in You've Got Mail? Or Sinise as the new James Bond?
All of those are, of course, ludicrous -- yet wouldn't his presence have made each one of those films way more interesting than it was?
Sinise had a brief period in the mid-90s when he popped out great performances as real-life historical figures in made-for-cable movies: first Truman (as Truman) then George Wallace (as George Wallace). But no one ever found Sinise a role like Hannibal Lecter, or even like John Malkovich. (Being Gary Sinise? Now that would not have been better. We can't imagine him fretting over loden bath towels.) Pretty soon he wound up as that really good actor who plays bit roles in bad films, because these movies have budgets big enough to overspend on a name actor to play the psychiatrist. (In a related story, The Forgotten just opened.)
We might have hoped he'd go the Malkovich route, moving to France to design his own clothes and direct movies we hear are good but never get around to seeing. And we're happy Sinise didn't wind up on a sitcom as a dad named Gerry who gets shit from his boss and lip from his kids. (Though Malkovich on that sitcom -- that we would watch. With Bebe Neuwirth as his wife? Networks, are you getting this down?)
And Sinise is almost fifty now, so we don't begrudge him the regular paycheck and predictable hours that come with signing on to C.S.I.: NY, though we realize it pretty much signals the end of the interesting part of his career. Cop shows are where interesting actors go to die, or at least to retire. (Vincent D'Onofrio, make room at the canasta table for your new friend.) A cop show to a great actor is like a newspaper column to a legendary reporter -- you know, the guy who broke big stories back in the '70s, and now makes six figures to write twice weekly about how he still can't figure out that new-fangled barbecue!
We have no doubt that Sinise will make this latest C.S.I. offering better with his presence. As fans of Sinise, we're happy for him but sad for us. Maybe he and Malkovich will hook up for one last buddy project. (Maybe a sitcom? George & Lennie, about a crusty sports writer saddled with a lumbering man-child? Bebe Neuwirth as the sexy neighbor?) Until then, we'll just watch him wistfully as he prods at dead bodies, and we'll wait for the inevitable day when Ed Harris accepts the lead in C.S.I.: Chicago, opposite his trusty new sidekick, Nia Vardalos.
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