Juliette Binoche: Chocolat
Joan Allen: The Contender
Julia Roberts: Erin Brockovich (winner)
Ellen Burstyn: Requiem for a Dream
Laura Linney: You Can Count on Me
I tend to conclude the “What’s Missing” portion of these posts with foreign films that deserved some love in the category. In the case of 2000, three of the four biggest misses are in films with a non-English primary language. First and foremost for me is Maggie Cheung’s performance in In the Mood for Love, which is still one of the most heartbreaking films I’ve ever seen. So much of the film’s emotional core is conveyed in her face (and that of Tony Leung) that her omission here feels wrong. Second and third (in whatever order) are Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I love both of their performances, Yeoh’s for the same reason I love Cheung’s and Ziyi’s for her rage. The fourth performance I think of as a miss is Bjork in Dancer in the Dark. I’m hardly a Bjork fan, but it’s a hell of a role and she manages it beautifully.
Weeding through the Nominees
5: I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the two stars of Erin Brockovich are Julia Roberts and her cleavage. Roberts’s performance isn’t a bad one, but I don’t think it’s worth a nomination here let alone a win. I’d take any of the four listed above to replace her. It probably doesn’t help a lot that I think the character is unlikeable and the film itself is overrated. Roberts is good; I just don’t think she’s great in this.
4: I find myself in a similar situation with Joan Allen in The Contender. This is a film I so wanted to like and in fact did like for almost the entire running time. Sadly, the film punks out at the end, and it’s Joan Allen who delivers the lines that essentially spoil the film. It’s such a good performance that is so unnecessarily spoiled at the end that I find it incredibly frustrating. I’d love to have Joan Allen ranked higher her because I’m a Joan Allen fan, but I just can’t.
3: I really liked Chocolat as a movie and I tend to like Juliette Binoche on screen (I also love Lena Olin at this stage in her career, but that’s immaterial). The problem I have here is that the role itself simply isn’t meaty enough to be worthy of much more than admitting it’s well done. This movie is more or less just Footloose based around food. While Binoche is great, she’s great in a role that simply isn’t very demanding of her talents. She’s an awfully big fish in what is ultimately a very small pond, performance-wise.
2: I don’t have a firm opinion on Laura Linney, perhaps simply because I haven’t seen her in enough. I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed by this film and this performance, but it’s actually very good and very nuanced. Linney works hard in this role to convey a range of emotional states. More importantly, where this could have easily slipped into being a quickly-forgotten Lifetime movie, she instead delivers something that comes across as real and natural. I like this nomination a lot, but it’s still not the best of its year.
My Choice
1: I’m not exactly sure how Ellen Burstyn didn’t win. This was undoubtedly a challenging role and she is staggering in it. There is not a moment she is on screen that isn’t compelling and specifically isn’t compelling because of her. It’s not something I want to watch again any time soon (or ever), but she would be a reason to see it again. There’s no way she didn’t deserve this Oscar, and while Michelle Yeoh or Maggie Cheung can fight for second in my ideal Oscar world, this statue belongs to Ellen Burstyn and always has.
Final Analysis
I have a feeling it was the character type and the general appeal of the story that gave Julia Roberts the award, not her actual performance. I agree with you on this and find her annoying and over-acted.
ReplyDeleteI think you're probably right. There's nothing particularly wrong with her performance. I just don't see it as award-worthy, or really even nomination-worthy.
DeleteI have not (yet) seen any of the five nominated performances so I won't comment on them. From the films that I have seen, I'll just say that Kate Hudson's performance in Almost Famous deserves to be part of the conversation. She created in Penny Lane one of those enduring and instantly recognizable characters at the centre of a poignant coming-of-age-with-music film.
ReplyDeleteThere are always a few that I miss. In this case, it's because I haven't seen Almost Famous yet. I'll get there eventually.
DeleteI don't have an issue with Roberts or her film, but I took that as more a "we like you; you've been doing good work; some of it better than this role; it's about time we gave you an Oscar" - similar to Reese Witherspoon's win for Walk the Line.
ReplyDeleteI agree Burstyn is the clear winner here. When I simply read the five nominees hers was the only performance that I felt stood out. The Academy sort of made up for snubbing the entire cast of Requiem for a Dream by giving Jennifer Connelly an Oscar the next year for the less impressive role in A Beautiful Mind. Leto finally got his Oscar last year for Dallas Buyers Club. Wayans has never again taken a dramatic role that I can think of and that's too bad. I was seriously impressed with him in this. Burstyn had at least won an Oscar earlier in her career.
And I agree on the first three of your alternate suggestions. Had they been nominated Ziyi probably would have been slotted into the Supporting category anyway, though. They tend to do that when one movie has good performances from two of the same gender. If Connelly had gotten the nomination she derived for the same film as Burstyn she probably would have been in the Supporting role, too.
That should be "if Connelly had gotten the nomination she DESERVED..." Man, can't type lately.
DeleteYou're probably right about Zhang Ziyi. In my view, either of them could've been given a nomination for this film. If they'd both been nominated, Ziyi would have likely been in the supporting category, but with only one of them nominated, either could have been for a main role.
DeleteAnd, well, yeah. We know that Oscar often gives trophies to people who should've gotten them earlier. That's almost certainly the case here, and that's one of the reasons I try to right whatever Oscar wrongs there are every Friday.
I agree with your comments on Erin Brockovich and Roberts' performance in it, and with Chip's first paragraph. Seemed like that Oscar was more of a gift than anything. I've always been partial to Joan Allen's work in The Contender, but I agree, this Oscar belonged to Ellen Burstyn.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge fan of Joan Allen, and not just because she and I share an alma mater. I have real issues with The Contender, though, and it's her character that ruins it for me. That's not specifically her fault, but this is a case where I have trouble separating the two.
DeleteAgain I would line up the nominees as you did though I'd switch Joan Allen and Juliette Binoche. Binoche is a tremendous talent and she's charming in the flyaway Chocolat, was the year really so sparse that this paper thin film was the only available fifth option?, but Allen's performance has a bit more heft.
ReplyDeleteI would have taken out both Roberts and Binoche and replaced them with Maggie Cheung and Tracey Ullman in Small Time Crooks. I've never thought much of Roberts as a dramatic actress although she a delightful comedienne but I suppose Erin Brockovich is the best she's ever been in a drama, but certainly not award worthy. Her relentless march to the prize this year was disheartening. It was especially so when there was such a masterful performance in the mix. I'm a huge fan of Laura Linney and she's great in the lovely You Can Count on Me but even though I loathed Requiem for a Dream Ellen Burstyn's performance was astonishingly compelling. It should have been her uninterrupted walk through the awards ceremonies to the podium that year. At least she did win before.
I agree that Chocolat has the depth of a dinner plate. It's a beautiful movie and sweet (no pun intended) and I really like Juliette Binoche in it. But the fact that it's such a light film works against it. I can't get past Joan Allen uttering the lines that torpedo her own film, though. Sure, she did it under orders, but I'd love a chance to re-edit that movie and fix the ending. It would pull the entire film up a full star in my opinion.
DeleteIf I could add two, I'd add Maggie Cheung for a truly beautiful and emotionally crushing performance and Michelle Yeoh for what I think is one of three truly brilliant performances in what easily could have been a fantasy that simply didn't work. But I don't really care who gets nominated this year, since Ellen Burstyn's performance is far and away the greatest single performance of anyone, male or female this year (although I admit I'm saying that while still missing three of the Best Actor performances). Burstyn was thoroughly robbed by the Academy.
It's awards like this one that got me interested in writing a bunch of these cinematic wrongs in the first place. I haven't done the one that actually caused me to start this weekly post; I'll just say that it's a different Best Actress award, but this one is in my top-10 of Oscar mistakes.
After I saw Requiem For A Dream, I thought to myself "How did Ellen Burstyn not win the Oscar?" Contrary to my initial reaction when I saw and reviewed Erin Brockovich, I think Julia Roberts did a fine job with her performance. Wouldn't give her the win, but the nomination is fine as it is. I compare her win to Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, and even Jennifer Lawrence's wins where the Academy was like "you're so likable and you made us so much money, here is a statue for your efforts."
ReplyDeleteThank goodness we have wins in this category like Kathy Bates, Cate Blanchett, and Frances McDormand that don't fall into that realm.
I've only done one of the relevant years you mention at the end--Frances McDormand's win in 1996. Had they given that Oscar to anyone but her that year, it would have been one of the biggest travesties in Oscar history.
DeleteSadly, both of the acting categories frequently fall into popularity contests and frequently people win for having not won in previous years.