3) He can play awkward neurotic down on their luck losers
It’s easy to imagine Matt Damon playing both parts of director Neill Blomkamp’s hero in his movie previous to Elysium, District 9—he has shown a propensity for pulling off bumbling verbosity just as well as he can deliver searing destruction on villains. But without his softer side, his ability to play not only non-super hero type characters but downright impotent fools, he would be just another Jason Statham/Vin Diesel sort of actor. Instead, we have a star who can express exasperation better than anyone else in movies, something he can employ as a hero or a villain, or a weird amalgam of both.
This is why I think my favorite Matt Damon performance comes in The Informant! Teaming with the always dependable Steven Soderbergh, who also worked with Damon on the Ocean’s series, Damon plays in-over-his-head whistle blower Mark Whitacre. It was a role he famously gained weight for, and while his physical appearance lends itself to a lot of the movie’s comedy, his delivery of dialogue is some of the most subtle and hilarious work he is sure to have done to this point in his career.
The movie features a number of well-known stand-up comedy performers, and Damon’s earnestness and attempts to seem cool even as his web of lies begins to unravel, along with his bizarre voiceover narration, make the comedic aspects of the film come to life. But we’ve seen him act goofy in other places, like Dogma and Ocean’s Eleven, but also as recently as Behind the Candelabra, where the sincere campiness is part of the whole Liberace-inspired performance.