Best supporting actress? - who will win?

[Big Magilla]

I think it was a great performance, but I'm glad to see someone else championing Tabu for her wonderful performance in a film that hardly anybody saw. She and Irfan Khan were unforgettable, the year's most complex and endearing couple, even more heartbreaking than Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent in Away From Her and that's saying a lot.

[OscarGuy]

I'll agree, Magilla, I didn't really care much for her character. For me, her performance wasn't as rich as many would say it is. I think hers is a good performance, but not great.

For me, the year's best supporting performance and the one to receive the least attention was Tabu in The Namesake. The movie's not great, but she was masterful in it. It's a shame more people didn't recognize her for that work.

[Big Magilla]

Yes, she's a complex character, but I never felt that she really loved the daughter, seeing her more of a possession. Her tears struck me as crocodile tears from the beginning. She's angry becasue somebody took something that belonged to her. To say more would be to spoil the richly detailed plot, which piles on one surprise after another.

Watching it a a second time, knowing what's coming allows you to revel in the development of all the characters, and as Flipp says, Ed Harris and Amy Madigan give truly wonderful performances as well, Madigan in particular. Also, good as he is in The Assassination of Jesse James, Casey Affleck gives a richer, more complex and accomplished performance here. The extended ending on the DVD gives him a voice-over last line that wasn't use in the release print. If there was any doubt as to what he was feeling at the end of the film, the line hammers it home.

[ITALIANO]

Yes and no, Italiano. I think the character has more depth than Magilla indicates, but she does start off very selfish indeed. It really gives nothing away of the plot to say she was rather vicious and nasty.

Oh ok good.

[flipp525]

--SPOILERS--

I was just watching the clip they have up on YouTube of Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone. Helene McCready is certainly reminiscent of vicious, nasty, flawed characters from older films -- love to hate em's, as Big Magilla stated. I think what Ryan was able to pull off though, was that she found the underlying vulnerability of her trashy, outspoken character which is her "love" for her daughter. As deplorable a person as she is, her primal fear of losing a child somehow makes her a sympathetic character. Now, I didn't necessarily feel comfortable with little Amanda's fate in and I'm not sure we're supposed to. At the end of the film, as you see Helene getting ready to vamp it up again for a night on the town, her mojo is clearly back and her one true possession (her daughter) is in the house. The vicious cycle continues. Was it the best possible outcome? Questionable.

As an aside, re-watching the film, I was also struck by the fantastic performances of Amy Madigan and Ed Harris, two of the unsung heroes of this film.



Edited By flipp525 on 1202922721

[anonymous1980]

I watched Gone Baby Gone again last night on DVD. The more I see of Amy Ryan's performance the more I love it. It's a throwback to all those bad girls of film noir. She's so deliciously wicked, so intrinsically evil, one of those characters that as they used to say, you love to hate. She gets my vote.

She's a nasty person and a cunt of a mother.

But she never strikes me as EVIL. She does indeed love her daughter. She's just incapable of doing it. That's the beauty of Amy Ryan's performance. She makes you hate her as a human being but still feel sorry for her as a mother who lost her daughter.

[OscarGuy]

Yes and no, Italiano. I think the character has more depth than Magilla indicates, but she does start off very selfish indeed. It really gives nothing away of the plot to say she was rather vicious and nasty.

[ITALIANO]

I watched Gone Baby Gone again last night on DVD. The more I see of Amy Ryan's performance the more I love it. It's a throwback to all those bad girls of film noir. She's so deliciously wicked, so intrinsically evil, one of those characters that as they used to say, you love to hate. She gets my vote.

Well, I hope this is clear from the beginning of the movie of course... otherwise Big Magilla would have obviously clearly signaled a SPOILER.

[Uri]

I watched Gone Baby Gone again last night on DVD. The more I see of Amy Ryan's performance the more I love it. It's a throwback to all those bad girls of film noir. She's so deliciously wicked, so intrinsically evil, one of those characters that as they used to say, you love to hate. She gets my vote.

But isn't the all point of GBG was that strict distinctions like yours are not relevant? Ryan played a very hurt, flowed, wounded complex person. By calling this character evil, associating her with those stylish, beautifully artificial vixens of the noir school is in a way avoiding the harshness of her and the circumstances she's a product of.

[Uri]

It's not that I have anything against Dee. From the little I saw of her, she's indeed a very impressive actress, although I don't find her performance in AG to be a good indication of that. It's just that the way people seem to look at her nomination is such a textbook case of politically correct narrative that I find it very intriguing. It's a manifestation of what seems to be a very American (sorry) mechanism. Being such a fundamentally conservative culture, to avoid acknowledging conceptual revolutions there's a need to create in retrospective a false sense of continuity. Canonization of obscure female artists of the past is needed by contemporary feminists as a proof that women can be artists in the present. And the same happened with the place blacks had in the history of cinema. There was no black Hepburn or Davis or Taylor. (Dorothy Dandridge's myth was largely built in retrospect). Ruby Dee and her contemporaries were denied the chance to become screen legends because they were black. By declaring her as one now, people fail to deal with that issue. It's like when a list of best actresses is made, there will always be an Angela Basset among the Streeps and the Fosters, although based on her actual career (not talent), had she been white she'd never been on such list. So giving the Oscar to Dee would be such an easy and not that expensive price to pay for a false appearance of acceptance and equality, wouldn't it?

[Big Magilla]

It certainly helps that Blanchett's scenes are the most audacious of Haynes' career at least since 'Safe'.

I hated "Safe" too. I agree with you on Holbrook, though, would love to see him win.

I watched Gone Baby Gone again last night on DVD. The more I see of Amy Ryan's performance the more I love it. It's a throwback to all those bad girls of film noir. She's so deliciously wicked, so intrinsically evil, one of those characters that as they used to say, you love to hate. She gets my vote.

[Damien]

I don't really care if people at parties would stand around and drunkenly do Dylan impressions while I can only assume you all were waiting for fire to be invented.

The fire was only so we could light the joints.

[Sabin]

I have no idea. They could conceivably vote for anybody. Blanchett is certainly the most visible contender but the love it/hate it factor works against her. I think everybody who likes the film will likely vote for her and the others may split between them. Because I am predicting that Hal Holbrook will win for 'Into the Wild' (stupid, I know, but everybody who is a father or has a father HAS to be devestated by this performance enough to vote for him), I'll play it "safe" and predict Blanchett. At least for now.

I don't really care if people at parties would stand around and drunkenly do Dylan impressions while I can only assume you all were waiting for fire to be invented. I agree with BJ that it is the spirit of mischief and annoyance, and very clearly so. I have no issue with her performance. I loved 'I'm Not There' warts and all (quite a few glaring warts) and the movie clearly finds its orbit around Blanchett's performance. It certainly helps that Blanchett's scenes are the most audacious of Haynes' career at least since 'Safe'.

[Damien]

It would be more accurate to call Hal Holbrook and Ruby Dee acting legends than screen legends.

Ruby Dee is also beloved as a social activist legend -- whenever the cry went out for justice, she and Ossie were always there on the front lines.


Ummm, Hal Holbrook is a Mark Twain legend.



Edited By Damien on 1202887051

[Big Magilla]

It would be more accurate to call Hal Holbrook and Ruby Dee acting legends than screen legends.