JCVD (2008)

I didn't know anything about Jean-Claude Van Damme before this movie and I had rather assumed I didn't want to...but I kind of love him now.

Van Damme plays Van Damme -- but rather than going the caricature route, he plays himself as a decent guy who's tired. He's tired of fighting his wife in court, tired of fighting for decent roles, and tired of fighting for respect on both the set and in the street with fans.

The main story concerns JCVD as part of a robbery with hostages. It's tense and the timeline is effectively fractured to tease out information, but the main show here is Van Damme. There is a particular scene in which he is literally elevated above the story to deliver a monologue directly into the camera. The speech is heartfelt and affecting and, while the movie would've worked without it, that's the part I recall most often and it's the part that made my heart go out to both Van Damme the character and Van Damme the person.

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