Thursday, August 20, 2009

Separated at Birth?

Last night I watched a pretty mediocre movie on DVD, Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona. I felt a little obligated to watch it because I made some disparaging comments about Allen's recent output in a previous post, and remembered that this movie was somewhat well-reviewed when it came out a year or so ago. It did have some good performances in it, and actors I generally like; and it was set in Barcelona, with the location well-used as a backdrop for the story. These elements didn't add up to much, however, and I spent much of the film trying to think of whom Javier Bardem (the male lead) reminded me. Finally, it dawned on me that he was a Spanish dead ringer for Robert Downey Jr. Both are extremely gifted actors, and though Bardem projects a bit more physical presence (that is, he's bigger), they really do resemble each other to an incredible degree. Here are two photos (among the first to pop up for each on a Google image search)-- do you see what I mean?

Javier Bardem

Robert Downey Jr.

On a quick glance, could you definitely say these were two different individuals?

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