"Catch "Iron Man" in his other fine roles"

For more than a decade, Robert Downey Jr. has had "the most talented actor of his generation" epoxy to its name. There was a time not long ago when he also seems to be trapped in a continuous loop of addiction, incarceration and rehabilitation. Now 43, he has turned his life around and actually seem to live up to the accolade.

As the star of "Iron Man", Downey not only has the career advantage of being in a megahit, is also a major reason for its success. How many great players never appear in these Lollapalooza superhero? More to the point, how many of them actually adorn these films with a powerful performance?

This should come as no surprise to anyone that has followed the career of Downey. He was in his mid-movies, but I've never seen work unless full. Even when you're in a vehicle as slight soap-opera parody "Soapdish" (1991), one of his early comedies, has a brightness.

Downey best performance remains his image of Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough "Chaplin" (1992), where its intensity is paired with a lyricism that sometimes rivals Chaplin's own.

Downey succeeds, not only because it has dominated the movements of Chaplin, but also because he never loses sight of the man behind the Little tramp. His work here is a marvel of empathy.

Even before "Chaplin", Downey's work often had a Chaplinesque quality. From James Toback "The Pick-Up Artist" (1987), he is a serial womanizer who gets his comeuppance when a player falls to the daughter (Molly Ringwald). Playing a Lothario with the soul of an innocent, Downey captures the madness of romance, as well as his passion.

In the "true believer" (1989), has its own Mr intensity compared himself, James Woods. Woods plays a legendary 60's radical, once lawyer who has sold all tickets; Downey starry-eyed secretary is his, his conscience.

Downey made a full-scale performance in Toback's "Two girls and a boy" (1997) as Blake Allen, an actor in New York involved seriously with two friends, none of whom knows the other until they accidentally meet in his loft (when virtually the entire film takes place). Downey is superior in the form motormouth here, wheedling his way inside and outside half-truths with aplomb smarmy. Against all odds, also makes the soulful guy.

Downey paired with Toback again two years later in "Black and White." Brooke Shields plays a documentarian white investigate why children are so high in hip-hop, and Downey plays her husband gay. This is a daringly camp performance, never more than a comic scene where he comes to real life and Mike Tyson receives nearly pulverized by their problems.

In the wonderful comedy "Wonder Boys" (2000), which stars Michael Douglas as a dissolute novelist and university professor, Downey has an indelible cameo as the writer of the Goat, FOP official, appearing for the campus literary weekend with his cohort transvestite trailer. (At the same time, and worlds apart, Downey began his celebrated two years of season on television "Ally McBeal").

In "Zodiac" (2007), Downey is a San Francisco Chronicle reporter to get rid of its fixation with the serial murderer. Most characters are obsessed with movies boring because the obsessiveness is monochromatic. Downey offers a rich palette.

He always does.