After starting our five-day Oscar talk marathon with the least glamorous of the 10 categories we’re considering — Editing and Cinematography — we’re swinging to the opposite end of the interest spectrum today to hash out the most glam categories — Lead Actor and Actress. Ladies first:
Best Actress
Nominees: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Viola Davis (The Help), Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn).
Chris Herrington: Close and Mara are the Just Happy to Be Here nominees, one getting what’s likely last her nomination and the other getting her first but likely not last nod. And given the lack of traction for the film itself, I don’t see Williams’ Marilyn Monroe riff gaining much traction either. Which brings us to Streep and Davis. If Meryl Streep can’t win an Oscar for a great Julia Child impression in the good Julie & Julia, she’s not winning one for a good Margaret Thatcher impression in the desultory The Iron Lady. Please. So, this one is easy. Will Win: Viola Davis.
Should Win: And this is an even easier pick for me than it will be for the Academy. I think Rooney Mara does very good work in Dragon Tattoo. Noomi Rapace was very memorable in the first, Swedish, adaptation, and the title performance seemed like the one area where David Fincher’s version was doomed to fall short of its predecessor. But, ultimately, I think Mara’s conception of the character is better — more hurt and skittish, with a keener since of the victimization at the root of the feminist avenger surface. But, still, it’s Viola Davis. I agree with everybody that Davis’ performance is better than the film — or rather, I would argue, that it deepens the film — and since I think much more highly of the (still problematic) movie than most, I think Davis’ gravity, groundedness, and imperfect humanity as middle-aged maid Abilene is one of the highlights of the movie year.
Got Robbed :It’s become cliche to say there aren’t enough good roles for women in contemporary movies, and it’s often true. But what makes this slate of nominees so depressingly mundane and unimaginative is that, this year at least, there are so many good choices left out. And that doesn’t include a couple of lauded performances I haven’t been able to see — Anna Paquin in little-seen indie Margaret or Yun Jung-hee in equally little-seen South Korean import Poetry. So, if it were up to me, I’d toss out everyone but my winner-regardless Viola Davis — yes, including even Rooney Mara — and add four new contenders. And such are the riches that even then I wouldn’t have room for Tilda Swinton’s typically bold work in the dicey We Need to Talk About Kevin, Elizabeth Olsen’s subtle shifts in Martha Marcy Mae Marlene, Felicity Jones pumping some blood into an otherwise lifeless Like Crazy, or Kirstin Dunst humanizing her director’s corrosive world view in Melancholia.
Instead, my alternate picks, in ascending order, would be: Kristin Wiig’s finding physical grace in alleged gross-out comedy — her limber-legged sex scene with an overeager Jon Hamm, her priceless impersonation of an expectant penis, her flapper walk through a roadside sobriety test — in Bridesmaids, where she’s been unjustly overshadowed by Melissa McCarthy’s broader supporting work. Charlize Theron topping her own Oscar-winning performance in the easier Monster by not caring what you think in the nervy comedy Young Adult. Juliette Binoche’s emotionally hungry and flamboyant performance in my beloved Certified Copy. And my ultimate pick here: Keira Knightly not hiding but transforming her natural beauty — all jutting jaw, sharp elbows, and hungry eyes — as patient-turned-student, the true lead in David Cronenberg’s deft, subtle study of the birth of psychoanalysis A Dangerous Method. What a great year for lead actresses. What a relatively unexciting group of nominees.
