CarnalNation

Race, the latest David Mamet play to open on Broadway, stars the effortlessly brazen James Spader. Spader, of course, has fashioned an entire career playing slick, sexy scoundrels whose looks allow them to get away with behavior a lesser nebbish like Woody Allen would get locked up for. For nearly three decades(!), and in a feat incomparable to any other actor of his generation, Spader has repeatedly and subversively performed his own form of jujitsu on Hollywood typecasting. Consistently he's cashed in on his leading man, pretty boy looks while simultaneously embodying character actor assholes—in the process exposing the very essence of sex appeal. In contrast, a star like Tom Cruise is a good guy at heart, forever excusing his high wattage looks in an "Aw shucks, don't hate me because I'm beautiful" appeal. Spader is Cruise's polar opposite, both refusing to apologize for the genes life dealt him and not caring one iota whether we like him or not. Frankly, my dear, he doesn't give a damn. Spader's sexiness—as opposed to mere physical attributes—lies in his flaunting of genuine self-confidence through his characters.

Which has gotten me thinking about other handsome thespians who, like Spader, have taken on disturbing roles and rather than downplay their looks, have used them to enhance the distaste in a Terence Stamp-Teorema kind of way. In that classic film, Pasolini made the perfect choice for his serial-seducing Jesus lead. Even today Stamp exists in that rare echelon of actors with such otherworldly beauty as to be downright unnerving. Pasolini knew that a character's eeriness is made even creepier by the contradiction that is felt when the beauty also remains crystal clear. So, with this Italian theorem in mind, here's my own wintertime picks for the best in chilling hotties.

James Spader
Start with his breakthrough role as Steff in Pretty in Pink and work your way through the Spader canon all the way to Mr. Grey in Secretary. Then ask yourself, Cruise's Joel in Risky Business or Spader's Rip in Less Than Zero? Who would make the better lay?

Aaron Eckhart
In the Company of Men. Misogyny never seemed so appealing. Neil LaBute rocked the indie world with his film about two guys who screw with a deaf chick, yet the plot wouldn't have been remotely believable had LaBute not framed Eckhart's good looks front and center. After all, Christine wouldn't have been reeled in by Chad's sinister seduction had he been a corporate raider who resembled Walter Matthau.

Matt Damon
The Talented Mr. Ripley. Set aside the criminal impulses and what's not to like about Mr. Ripley? Matt Damon's underachieving Tom dukes it out in a charisma battle with Jude Law's privileged Dickie, but it's no contest. Sure, Dickie's a prick, but let's be honest. Would we really be rooting for that talented psychopath if he didn't have the face of an angel?

Javier Bardem
No Country for Old Men. Even with the Prince Valiant hairdo given to the assassin Anton by the ever-prankish Coen brothers, there's no getting past Bardem's own physiognomy. The actor has that old Mastroianni magnetism—and he uses it to keep our eyes riveted to the screen. Beneath the stone cold killer lurks the heart of a Latin lover, and we wait with bated breath for the slightest buried human impulse to emerge.

Ralph Fiennes
Schindler's List. Even playing one of the psychopathic Nazis most brutal loonies—with a large gut to boot!—Fiennes is mesmerizing because he taps deeply into lust, in this case the lust for blood. It's a startling performance not just in the way handsome Fiennes' ugly Goeth indiscriminately murders, but in the way he indiscriminately loves (a Jewish woman) that which he kills.