<em>The Sympathizer</em> might have won Robert Downey Jr. his first Oscar two years ago, but the multi-talented actor’s wide-ranging performance in The Sympathizer actually surpasses what he achieved in Christopher Nolan’s big-screen historical thriller. This HBO miniseries sees RDJ shapeshift between an array of different characters with inimitable virtuosity, in a Cold War thriller as darkly funny as it is gripping.
With gleeful irony, The Sympathizer tells the true story of how the Vietnam War ended, from the perspective of a North Vietnamese spy who accidentally gets extradited to the United States. He learns to enjoy aspects of his new life in California, which comes with just as many absurd hypocrisies as the one he’s left behind.
Downey Jr. is all over The Sympathizer’s cast, playing lawmakers, covert lawbreakers, artists, priests, and teachers. Much like Peter Sellers in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove – another compelling Cold War satire – he steals the show in just about every direction.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Performance In HBO’s The Sympathizer Is Even Better Than Oppenheimer
It’s a reflection of the difference mega-money campaign clout makes in Hollywood that Robert Downey Jr.’s performance in The Sympathizer was almost entirely overlooked last year, whereas his portrayal of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer was showered with gongs and plaudits. Part of the problem is that the performance comes in an HBO miniseries which itself slipped under the radar.
Nevertheless, RDJ’s work in The Sympathizer is an extraordinary achievement, reflecting the talent of an actor whose versatility has often been underappreciated. It can’t be understated just how much of this brilliant show is brought to life by Downey Jr.’s wildly creative characterizations and wicked sense of humor.
Robert Downey Jr. Plays 5 Different Characters In The Sympathizer
To say that The Sympathizer gives Robert Downey Jr multiple roles to play is some understatement. In all, the actor portrays no fewer than five different villains, each with contrasting physical and psychological characteristics. Firstly, there’s gruff CIA agent Claude, whom Downey Jr. based on Gene Hackman. Claude couldn’t be further from his self-absorbed New Hollywood auteur Niko Damianos.
Damianos wants to shoot a movie in Vietnam about the war while telling locals how little they know about cinema. Meanwhile, right-wing U.S. Congressman Ned Godwin has a clawlike shriveled hand, akin to the central motif of Dr. Strangelove’s title character.
He’s worlds apart from the accidentally orientalist Professor Robert Hammer, who embraces Vietnamese culture in all the wrong ways. Downey Jr.’s fifth character is an unnamed priest, who turns out to be the father of Hoa Xuande’s central protagonist.
The Sympathizer Is Adapted From A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel
Besides Robert Downey Jr.’s all-round masterclass in comedy acting, The Sympathizer is a scathing Cold War satire about the hypocrisies at the heart of the Vietnam War and the ideologies behind it. The show was adapted from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel of the same name, which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize.
Viet is a Vietnamese-American born in South Vietnam, which might have a lot to do with the powerful, emotionally ambivalent ending of The Sympathizer. His book is an ingenious piece of storytelling in its own right, which is well worth reading.
However, there’s no doubt that Robert Downey Jr.’s various characterizations of obscene white Americans add something extra special to the HBO screen adaptation of Viet’s novel. The Sympathizer is a sublimely funny and thought-provoking miniseries that deserves at least as much attention as Oppenheimer.
