My stomach flips every time he looks at the camera in the second one
Because there’s the nervous energy of the Richard Brook character
and that look he gives is almost beatific
a plea to be recognized, certainly, but there’s also a longing for forgiveness
Because Moriarty’s Richard Brook knows he’s in over his head
But is relying on the permanence of narrative recording to clear him
And then we obviously have the Moriarty underlayer
Under the helplessness
And that’s what makes my stomach drop
Because the two characters are pushing through one another in that single gaze
And he can be beatific and lost and also looking at Sherlock
Saying
“Your Move”
And I also love the way he says “I’m the story teller.”
Opening his arms, palms-up
Not a threat
Just a story teller
But the best part is that he’s telling the truth
Because he is just the guy telling the story
And in our culture we never pay much attention to the power of narratives
How they’re made, not found in the world
But this whole sequence is about narrative construction and the powerplay inherent therein
How the way we tell a story is just as powerful as the people in the story
And I just love Moriarty-as-Richard-Brook’s belief in self-evidence here
Moriarty’s constructed him to feel completely separate from the narrative process
As though it could really be as simple as
It’s on DVD
