The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award
Norton’s debut; Vail’s competence and motives; Aaron’s artificial persona; Gere’s limited casting range
In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:41Read transcript
- Norton’s debut is proposed as possibly the greatest first-part announcement apart from Orson Welles in Citizen Kane.
- Vail may not be a great lawyer: he invents a third-man defense and then blames assistants for not producing a third man.
- The benefit of taking an apparently open-and-shut case is unclear; belief in helping Aaron only seems convincing later.
- Norton’s deliberately constructed Aaron may be intentionally hammy; repeat viewing makes the persona’s plausibility uncertain.
- Gere may simply have lacked the right roles, but his strong established persona limits whether he could play Field of Dreams, Maverick or the Sleepless in Seattle father.
- Philadelphia’s Hanks role divides opinion because Gere may lack native empathy; the Denzel role seems a better match.
- Norton’s possibly unmatched debut is reiterated.