Keanu Reeves is a unique actor and personality that has been working in Hollywood since the ’80s. A couple of times, his career looked to be over before he reappeared with an incredible new franchise. In this piece, we’re not talking about his action roles, so no John Wick, The Matrix, or Point Break; today is all about Keanu Reeves’ best non-action movies, ranked.
10. Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
Something’s Gotta Give is one of Nancy Meyers’ best films ever, and tells the story of playwright Erica (Diane Keaton) and womanizer Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), and how they might fall in love. Reeves plays the third angle in this love triangle as Dr. Julian Mercer, who also has the hots for Erica. Reeves plays the character with security and sexiness, which makes many people still don’t understand Erica’s choice at the end.
9. Bram Stroker’s Dracula (1992)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula tells the story of the famous vampire through the lens of Francis Ford Coppola. Reeves plays Jonathan Harker, and although he might’ve been outperformed by incredible actors like Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins, the performance is better than it’s remembered. Reeves might’ve been trying to get the accent perfectly, and that might’ve stilted his performance a bit, but his Harker still works. Director Francis Ford Coppola said about Reeves’ accent: “We knew that it was tough for him to affect an English accent. He tried so hard. That was the problem, actually — he wanted to do it perfectly and in trying to do it perfectly it came off as stilted. I tried to get him to just relax with it and not do it so fastidiously. So maybe I wasn’t as critical of him, but that’s because I like him personally so much. To this day, he’s a prince in my eyes.”
8. The Neon Demon (2016)
One of the fun things about Reeves is he’s on the joke of what people think of him, so he can be a character actor and play amusing small roles in movies he likes. It happens in Always Be My Maybe, and it happened in The Neon Demon. The film follows Elle Fanning as Jesse, an aspiring model whose dream might get much darker than she expected. Reeves plays the motel manager where Jesse stays, and is sleazy, scary, dumb, funny, and, in a couple of moments, all at once.
7. Permanent Record (1988)
Permanent Record is a sad story in which Reeves plays Chris Townsend, a high school kid that is devastated when his best friend commits suicide. Reeves has never been rawer, as the character breaks down crying in many scenes, and it’s totally believable. His character doesn’t understand why his friend killed himself, and he is lost and devastated throughout the film, and these emotions are shown in every Reeves moment on-screen.
6. The Gift (2000)
The Gift had an incredible cast for being a supernatural B-movie directed by Sam Raimi (from a script written by Billy Bob Thornton). The film is led by Cate Blanchett as a clairvoyant, and also has Hilary Swank, Greg Kinnear, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris, and Keanu Reeves. The actor plays a full-on bad guy; a violent, scary, boyfriend to Swank’s character. It’s a great performance because you don’t see any of Reeves’s usual attributes, as he transforms into a real, scary, menacing man, and someone who enjoys being all those things.
5. River’s Edge (1986)
One of his earliest roles, 1986’s River’s Edge tells the story of a group of teenagers, and how they’re so desensitized to violence, that none of them panic or do anything when they learn one of their friends has killed his girlfriend. Reeves has a very internal performance where you see his wheels turning as the movie moves along. Even though he doesn’t panic either, he’s remorseful for what has happened, and his conscience is making things difficult for him. So much so, that he ends up being the one talking to the cops. An understated breakout performance for Reeves.
4. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
One of the first of many Shakespeare adaptations Kenneth Branagh did, Much Ado About Nothing was a success with an incredible cast. Branagh, Emma Thompson, Michael Keaton, Denzel Washington, and a young Kate Beckinsale all appear along with Reeves, who plays a bad guy for once. He’s Don John, the evil half-brother of Don Pedro (Washington). Reeves might not look like the typical Shakespearean actor, but he gives it his all as the bad guy, who will lose in the end.
3. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Richard Linklater always does unique movies, and A Scanner Darkly is no different. Adapted from a Philip K. Dick novel of the same name, the movie uses rotoscoping (the animation technique where animators draw over the shot footage) to make it have an incredible visual style. The film is one of the most devastating films about substance use, and it wouldn’t work without Reeves’s performance. Reeves always marches to his own drum, and in this film that works wonders, as it shows how addicted, paranoid, and on his own wavelength he is, giving the movie an even weirder vibe.
2. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Two dumb high school slackers who only like to play in a band, travel through time, and meet important historical figures, so they can pass their history exam. They must pass so they can save the future. The crazy idea behind Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure only works because of Reeves and Alex Winter’s performances. They’re dumb and simple, but also full of love and friendship for each other, making it a buddy comedy, with these two not-so-bright characters. This was Reeves’s breakout role, so much so, that many people thought he was as dumb and simple as his Theodore “Ted” Logan. Reeves told The Wrap, that he and he and Winter clicked because “we both had ideas about what we were doing, and serendipitously, our ideas were the same.”
1. My Own Private Idaho (1991)
In My Own Private Idaho, Reeves plays Scott Favor, a sex worker and friend to River Phoenix’s Mickey Waters. Maybe it’s because of his partner in crime Phoenix, but Reeves has never been better, showing incredible chops as the character who can’t return his friend’s feelings, and is just going along for a bit, knowing he has an inheritance waiting for him when he gets back. Even then, the actor shows the angst his character has, as everyone wants something from him, and he doesn’t even know himself that well. It also has one of the most devastating endings in a movie ever. This is one of Reeves’s best movies, one that showed he could play realistic, hurtful, incredible characters on screen.
