'A Winter's Tale': Assessing Colin Farrell's Up And Down Career
Colin Farrell is back with 'A Winter's Tale', which is hoping to draw in audiences over Valentine's weekend. As the Irish actor tries to regain his leading man status we look back over his career of ups and down and tabloid headlines.
Farrell followed up his 2003 success the next year with a role in Oliver Stone’s ‘Alexander’ alongside Angelina Jolie and Val Kilmer. The big budget, three hour epic was a box office and critical failure and even gained Farrell a ‘Worst Actor’ nomination at the Razzie awards. His next historical endeavour ‘The New World’ was received more positively but failed to draw at the box office. The screen adaptation of 80’s TV series 'Miami Vice' fared better at the box office but critics were once again divided. However the performance of Farrell's that was recieving the most press attention in 2006 was his sex tape which he made in 2003 and was leaked online three years later.
After varying results with his recent Hollywood endeavours, Farrell took on the lead in British black comedy ‘In Bruges’, playing an Irish hit man in hiding alongside Brendan Gleeson. The film would lead to his first major award win as he was named Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards. He followed up the success with the lesser known ‘Triage’ where he played a war correspondent. He returned to the mainstream with a role in 2011’s ‘Horrible Bosses’ playing one of the bosses alongside Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Spacey. The film would become one of the highest grossing comedies of all time, taking over $209 million at the box office. His follow up comedy 'Seven Psychopaths' would be less sucessful. Farrell then took on two remakes, ‘Fright Night’ and ‘Total Recall’ both of which failed to perform at the box office.
This year sees Farrell with three films scheduled. First for release is ‘A _Winter's Tal_e’ which is so far receiving negative reviews. The other two films Miss Julie and Solace should be released later in the year. It seems unlike that ‘A Winter’s Tale’ can reinvigorate Farrell’s career, which although not on a downturn, he is far removed from the fame he enjoyed a decade ago. Still the actor is more likely to make headlines from his interview revelations than his movie roles, which is a shame considering he has all the talent and charisma to make him still a bankable Hollywood star.