Brendan Fraser Honored With ShoWest Award

By Katey Rich

Brendan Fraser was almost poised for a blockbuster triple-header in 2008, with Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Inkheart all slated for release this year. Now that Inkheart has been pushed to early 2009 his schedule is a little clearer, but that hasn't stopped ShoWest from presenting him with the award for Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film.

ShoWest, organized by the very same Nielsen Film Group that produces Film Journal International, is the annual convention of theatre owners that takes place in March in Las Vegas. There will be much, much more reporting on ShoWest in this space, including updates from the show floor from my editor, Kevin Lally. A key part of ShoWest is the final night banquet, where Fraser and other honorees will be presented with their awards. There will be a number of other announcements about who will be joining Fraser at the banquet in the upcoming days, but first let's take a look at what earned Fraser his honor.

In addition to his busy slate of movies this fall, Fraser is being recognized for his diverse body of work over the last decade-- it's fair to say he's come a long way since 1992's Encino Man. "From his roles in action-packed blockbusters such as The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and George of the Jungle, to his critically acclaimed roles in such independent films as Crash and Gods and Monsters, Fraser has delivered many inspirational performances over the past decade," said ShoWest's co-managing director Mitch Neuhauser when announcing the award.

Ten years ago, after a series of small supporting roles in the wake of Encino Man, Fraser broke out as a dramatic actor in Gods & Monsters, the critically acclaimed drama about Hollywood director James Whale, played by Ian McKellen. "The real surprise is Brendan Fraser as the guarded but vulnerable yard man," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. As Whale's gardener and love interest, the Washington Post wrote, Fraser brought "unexpected depth and nuance to his portrayal."

After a starring role in the sublimely silly comedy Blast to the Past the next year, Fraser truly rocketed into stardom with 1999's The Mummy, the adventure epic that made nearly $400 million worldwide. The movie, co-starring Rachel Weisz, inspired a 2001 sequel, The Mummy Returns, which fared even better-- $433 million total worldwide.

But Fraser didn't settle for being a big-budget star. Immediately after The Mummy Returns Fraser starred alongside eventual Oscar-nominee Michael Caine in The Quiet American, Philip Noyce's period drama about two men caught up in a love triangle in Vietnam in the 1950s. Again, the critics were enamored with Fraser's talents.  "Fraser is funny and effective as a foil to the old pro," wrote the Chicago Reader. Fraser's biggest critical success, though, was to come a few years later, when he and a huge ensemble cast joined an independent movie that was to become the Oscar-winning Crash. Playing a Los Angeles district attorney whose relationship with his wife suffers after they are held up at gunpoint, Fraser again had the opportunity to stretch his acting skills in a new direction.

This year Fraser is back in action mode, with the Mummy sequel and the high-tech adventure movie Journey 3D, but he can be seen in a dramatic role right now, in Jieho Lee's The Air I Breathe. There are few stars out there who can headline an ensemble independent film and two big-budget blockbusters in one year, but as Brendan Fraser has proved in his last decade-plus of acting, there aren't too many kinds of roles he can't take and make his own.