I just feel more alive in what I’m doing,” Jake Gyllenhaal, star of this week’s excellent “Nightcrawler,” told Indiewire back in February.
While that could easily sound like so much actorly cod psychology, so much soundbite-friendly chatter from a PR-trained star with a movie to shill (it was on the eve of the release of “Enemy”), two main factors put the lie on that possibility. First, if there’s a single trait that characterizes the meta-story of Gyllenhaal’s career to date, it may very well be sincerity. He has not always succeeded, and his choices have not been flawless, but it feels like he has essayed each role, whether it’s his shimmery, minor key Oscar-nominated turn in “Brokeback Mountain,” or the bluff, buff, bronzed action hero of “Prince of Persia,” with a whole heart. It’s not difficult to believe that Gyllenhaal takes his responsibility to his films seriously, even when they have failed to serve him in return.