For years I only knew Robert De Niro as the Meet the Parents guy, a star of movies like The Score or Analyze This who had this enormous reputation that I didn’t quite understand. Then I saw all his work from the 70s and 80s, including his work with Martin Scorsese, and the extent to which he revolutionized acting like no one since Marlon Brando became crystal clear. Then the question switched from ‘What’s the big deal about this Robert De Niro guy?’ to ‘What the hell has this Robert De Niro guy been doing for these last 20 years?’
The truth is that he’s sort of always been solid, well into the 90s with Cape Fear, Heat, and Jackie Brown, and put in some fine work in the 2000s to get paid, but it would appear at this point in time that we’re on the brink of a potential De Niro resurgence, beginning with Silver Linings Playbook. His performance in this movie is off the charts, consisting of the trademark understated nature of a De Niro character in the way he shyly reveals some of his superstitions revolving around the Philadelphia Eagles, and the simultaneous propensity to let deep emotion slip out of that stiff and secretive facade. It’s a part he’s been long overdue for, and hopefully a trend that continues in the coming years and projects for him, because the man behind Jake La Motta and Rupert Pupkin and Jimmy Conway isn’t out of this thing yet.
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