Best Actress 2000

1998 through 2007

Best Actress 2000

Joan Allen - The Contender
1
2%
Juliette Binoche - Chocolat
0
No votes
Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream
29
59%
Laura Linney - You can Count on Me
14
29%
Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich
5
10%
 
Total votes: 49

bizarre
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Re: Best Actress 2000

Post by bizarre »

My choices:

1. Sylvie Testud, in "Murderous Maids"
2. Marie-Josée Croze, in "Maelström"
3. Björk, in "Dancer in the Dark"
4. Julia Roberts, in "Erin Brockovich"
5. Julie-Marie Parmentier, in "Murderous Maids"
ALT: Zhou Xun, in "Suzhou River"
anonymous1980
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Voted for Burstyn. But I can't begrudge Julia her Oscar.

Still mad Joan Allen and Juliette Binoche took spots that SHOULD have gone to any two of these great ladies: Bjork, Gillian Anderson, Michelle Yeoh and Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty is probably my favorite performance of hers and I loved Chicago).
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Post by Damien »

I voted for Burstyn, but Roberts was a fine choice, too. Juliette Binoche gave a wonderful performance that year. Unfortunately, it was in Alice and Martin, not Chocolat.


My Own Top 5:
1. Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth
2. Juliette Binoche in Alice and Martin
3. Vanessa Paradise in Girl On The Bridge
4. Wei Minzhi in Not One Less
5. Nathalie Baye in An Affair of Love
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Post by kaytodd »

I voted for Linney but I thought the best lead performance that year, male or female, was Zellweger in Nurse Betty. The film itself was kind of an unfocused mess that tanked at the box office and that probably hurt her with Academy voters. I loved all the colors she so skillfully displayed. Sweet and seemingly submissive to her creep of a husband, innocent and delusional during her journey and when she first arrived in L.A., a truly stunning scene when her fantasy world came crashing down (What a beautiful scene. You could see in her face she was ready to break down when she realized the truth and started to remember everything that happened. But her character was aware of all the people watching her and what she had gotten herself in to so she struggled and kept it together.), and steeliness when she got the gun from Morgan Freeman and pointed it at him. During the entire time, you always felt Betty's basic goodness.

I liked Chocolat and Binoche's performance. But I cannot think of a scene in when Binoche did anything approaching Zellweger's breakdown or her final confrontation with Freeman.
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Post by Mister Tee »

For me, the clear choice was Gillian Anderson in House of Mirth -- well beyond what I ever expected from her, and substantially superior to the five nominees.

Binoche was merely lovable in Chocolat -- she barely stretched an acting muscle -- and wasted a spot.

Allen is, as always, a good actress, but The Contender is a paperback potboiler, resting at last on some second-rate mystery novel outcome, which is insulting in a film that purports to raise serious gender issues.

I have to part company with the group on Burstyn. I find her Yiddische mama frequently over the top -- at times it reminds me of Diane Keaton's intentionally bad impersonation in Sleeper. If it's your cup of tea, bless you; I basically didn't much care for Requiem overall.

Roberts does a great job of integrating her screen persona with a larger-than-life real character. It's Julia Roberts-plus, and I can't begrudge one of our few female stars an Oscar for what's so clearly a career peak.

But the impartial judge in me would have to pick Linney from this group. Some of her line readings -- "I fucked my boss"; responding to the priest's "Well, it(adultery)'s a sin": "Good; I think it should be" -- have stuck with me a decade now, a pretty good sign the performance made an impression.
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Post by The Original BJ »

A lot like '99's race for me -- a group of mostly strong performances, with one absolutely unnecessary nomination for an otherwise good actress.

I'd easily vote for Ellen Burstyn, for her harrowing performance in Requiem, maybe the finest work of a very fine career. The kitchen table scene with Jared Leto is one of the best pieces of screen acting this decade -- technically intricate, and devastating in power.

But Laura Linney is also splendid, in the role that catapulted her to the big leagues. In many ways, it's the quintessential Linney performance -- full of the warm humor, tender humanity, and underlying intelligence that pervades her work. I do very much hope she wins an Oscar soon.

Julia Roberts is hugely entertaining in Erin Brockovich. She managed to take the most appealing aspects of her star persona -- that big grin, a smarter-than-I-look fiestiness -- and use them to create a memorable but still very real screen character. I wouldn't have voted for her over some of the better actresses in this lineup, but I remember smiling pretty big when she won, and I don't understand some of the harsh resistance to her win.

Joan Allen is a good actress, and she's solid in The Contender. (I remember thinking she had the nomination sewn up by the time we got to the "I stand for..." speech in the film.) But I have all kinds of problems with the movie, and Allen's character in it. The Contender is such a have-it's-cake-and-eat-it-too kind of film: it acts like it's an ostensibly feminist statement, but spends so much time wanting us to imagine Allen in lurid situations. Then, it tries to put forth the argument that it doesn't matter what Laine Hanson did or didn't do in college (which it doesn't)...only to make sure the AUDIENCE gets a simple, comforting answer to the did-she-or-didn't-she question. Rod Lurie's protagonist is a concept, not a human, and this limits the effectiveness of Allen's work.

Juliette Binoche has given numerous strong performances in European films this decade, but her nomination for Chocolat was a true groaner. It might not be the worst Best Actress nomination this decade, but it sure feels like one of the most unnecessary, for a real lightweight performance in a turgid film.

Given the available options -- really special work by Gillian Anderson, Björk, and Renée Zellweger -- there's really no excuse for citing Binoche this year.
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Post by Sabin »

The Contender is as bad as Chocolat is innocuous. For such an outstanding year for leading female actors (Björk, Yeoh, Anderson) who could have conceivably grabbed a nomination, Allen and Binoche are especially disheartening. But Roberts, Linney, and Burstyn are outstanding. It's hard to begrudge Roberts her win even though Linney and Burstyn are far better. I just rewatched Requiem for a Dream and was surprised at the size of Burstyn's role. At least half of it is spent alone with the television, but her role carries a ridiculous degree of emotional resonance. I'd be happy with either one winning but I have to go with Burstyn.
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Post by ITALIANO »

When Juliette Binoche started, still very young, as an actress, she made some daring, quirky movies - the kind of intellectual fare the French blindly love but don't always travel easily abroad. Some of these movies were actually very interesting, especially those made by her then-boyfriend, the original, very personal director Leos Carax; others, including the one which made her a star, the famous Rendez-vous, were successful but not especially impressive. She was, even back then, very good though, and had one of those faces French actresses have - faces the film camera can't not fall in love with - perfect for the movies, really. She was also sexy, edgy, challenging - all aspects that suddenly faded away the moment she crossed the ocean. Americans traditionally like their European stars to be healthy, comforting, smiling, wholesome (if only they knew how complicated we can be!), and Binoche was only the last in a long line of foreign imports to adapt to this rule. Still, the Oscar she won wasn't undeserved - but then came Chocolat, which infamously got a good number of nominations including Best Picture and in the end, I'm afraid, harmed more than helped her international status. I wouldn't say that she's of a badness of Bullock proportions in this movie, and she's always pleasant to watch, but it's definitely not the high point of her career.

Roberts certainly isn't a better actress than Binoche or Joan Allen, but (maybe because Erin Brockovic is still a much better movie than either Chocolat or the forgettable The Contender), in this Best Actress race hers still was a better performance.

Not the best though. Ellen Burstyn's comeback and Laura Linney's first important starring role were superior, and by far. Not easy to choose, but this time I picked Linney, if only because I feel that she's exactly the kind of actress who, for several reasons, never wins an Oscar - the real one, or the one we give in this game.
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Post by Snick's Guy »

so close for me between Burstyn and Linney, but Linney's subtle, yet nuanced performance wins my vote
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Post by Reza »

These polls are coming at a rather breakneck pace.

2000 is not one of my favourite years for lead performances by an actress. My favourite performance of 2000 would be Charlotte Rampling for Under the Sand, a film that was not eligible for the Oscars until the following year.

Voted for Roberts here.

My top 5:

Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich
Madhuri Dixit, Pukar
Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me
Ellen Burstyn, Requeim for a Dream
Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
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Post by Eric »

Magilla, no one wants to push through these but you. What's the rush?
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Post by Big Magilla »

Easily Burstyn.

Linney and Roberts at least deserved their nominations.

Allen and Binoche were fill-ins in a year in which there wasn't a lot of choice, but the performances of Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; Gillian Anderson in The House of Mirth and Renee Zellweger in Nurse Betty did offer alternatives.
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Post by mlrg »

very easy choice

Ellen Burstyn - Requiem for a Dream
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Post by Damien »

Whoa, moving much too fast with these! Who said we had to complete Best Actress by Sunday? It's much more worthwhile to have the latest poll remain the newbie for at least a week so that more comments will be posted and and greater discussion ensue.
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Post by Hustler »

Those who know me a little bit, know my choice: Dame Burstyn.
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