Article: Oedipus redux

It has long been supposed that Robin Williams's screen persona - fluffy grown-up, eternal urchin - was somehow indicative of the actor's state of mind. In Jack, Williams plays a 10-year-old with an accelerated aging process which gives him the appearance of someone four times his age. "On the inside, he's a kid," a teacher notes. We are being directed to nod along with this as a fair approximation of both character and actor, but it's simply not true of the latter. Williams has discovered his outer, not inner, child. On the outside, he's a kid all right, with his keenly observed mannerisms and insistent whinge. But on the inside, he's a calculating charlatan who has finally been undone by ...

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