Joseph Gordon-Levitt: diffidence short-circuits empathy

Meghan O'Rourke deconstructs the unusual talents of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. In three key performances the former child actor (remember him from "Third Rock From The Sun") has demonstrated a resistance to sentimentality that has thus far not hardened into sullenness. O'Rourke: "His characters are too intelligent, too merciless in their own self-evaluation, too implicated in their own destinies, to be patronized." If you haven't seen Mysterious Skin or the uneven-but-destined-for-cult-status Brick, do so.