Virginia Madsen and Laura Linney are streets ahead of the other nominees giving full blood, lived in performances in their respective films.
Sophie Okonedo was fine but hardly award worthy. Cate Blachett is a great mimic but thats all. She is all technic and hence gives a performances as Hepburn that we know from her screen appearances, but she doesn't show us the real Hepburn. To be fair the screenplay for The Aviator is fairly limp and acting opposite a miscat Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't help.
Natalie Portman was dreadful in Closer. Aside from not being remotely believable in ther role, at times she looked mortified speaking some of that dialogue.
My choices were:
1. Virginia Madsen for Sideways
2. Laura Linney for Kinsey
3. Lynne Redgrave for Kinsey
4. Laudi Arbid for In the Battlefield
5. Sandra Oh for Sideways
Other notable performances included Eva Amurri in Saved, Veronica Cartwright in Straight-Jacket and Anne Heche in Birth.
Best Supporting Actress 2004
-
Precious Doll
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4453
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
-
The Original BJ
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4312
- Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:49 pm
I had been so delighted by Natalie Portman's turn in Garden State earlier that summer, I'd really looked forward to her much-hyped performance in Closer that December. But I truly loathed the movie, and found her miscast. Portman has a doe-eyed quality that made her all wrong for this character -- the role required someone a little trashier, someone who you believed had been around the block a little while. The strip club scene in particular feels like the work of a young actress trying hard to play a stripper, not someone who actually lives and breathes this life. Ironically, I was perfectly happy she received a nomination this year, but I could never vote for her for this.
Sophie Okonedo was quite lovely, and she's exactly the kind of hard-working supporting actress I'm always thrilled for when acknowledged by Oscar. I didn't think her character was very deep, but her emotionalism moved me, and I can't say I minded her nomination. I'd never vote for her, though.
The other three ladies were all top-tier candidates, in my book, and I didn't have any problem with Blanchett winning. I think she's the life force of The Aviator, stealing every scene she's in with energy and humor, and, late in the film, real heart. It's a wonderful performance, full of range and memorable moments...though I'm not sure she really recalled Katharine Hepburn for me. I'm not one who believes mimicry is the most accomplished form of acting, but, in a close race, the fact that she didn't entirely capture the legendary actress is enough for me to cast my vote in another direction.
Virginia Madsen is really sweet and touching in Sideways. The "life of wine" monologue was justly acclaimed, but I think her presence throughout is really warm and fun. She's also a little sad -- certainly not tragic, but you can sense that Maya, though generally happy, still maybe wishes her life had turned out differently. And maybe it could still turn out differently...Madsen's memorable work is part of what makes that final shot so touching. We so badly want Maya to be on the other side of that door.
But, as good as Madsen was, I never understood how she so thoroughly dominated critics' prizes for a role that wasn't life-force dominant. Interestingly, while the critics were cheering for Madsen, while the online fanboys were touting Blanchett, and while the E! News claque was arguably flogging Portman...this board, and this board alone, gravitated strongly behind Laura Linney, as I will today. I think she's splendid in Kinsey in a role that's good-humored, fetching, and above all, deeply moving. Kinsey is a film ostensibly about sex, but of course, it's really about love, and the film wouldn't be nearly as emotionally powerful if the romance between Prok and Mac weren't so deeply felt. The chemistry between Neeson and Linney is superb, as exciting in their initial flirtations about gall wasps as it is in their years-later embrace in the redwood forest. I'm a big fan of Linney's, and this is a perfect opportunity to honor her. (I also don't have a problem with her supporting placement, as I remember some here did -- she doesn't have too many scenes without Neeson, but Neeson has A LOT of scenes without her. I don't think she's even really a co-lead...but I know others disagree.)
Sophie Okonedo was quite lovely, and she's exactly the kind of hard-working supporting actress I'm always thrilled for when acknowledged by Oscar. I didn't think her character was very deep, but her emotionalism moved me, and I can't say I minded her nomination. I'd never vote for her, though.
The other three ladies were all top-tier candidates, in my book, and I didn't have any problem with Blanchett winning. I think she's the life force of The Aviator, stealing every scene she's in with energy and humor, and, late in the film, real heart. It's a wonderful performance, full of range and memorable moments...though I'm not sure she really recalled Katharine Hepburn for me. I'm not one who believes mimicry is the most accomplished form of acting, but, in a close race, the fact that she didn't entirely capture the legendary actress is enough for me to cast my vote in another direction.
Virginia Madsen is really sweet and touching in Sideways. The "life of wine" monologue was justly acclaimed, but I think her presence throughout is really warm and fun. She's also a little sad -- certainly not tragic, but you can sense that Maya, though generally happy, still maybe wishes her life had turned out differently. And maybe it could still turn out differently...Madsen's memorable work is part of what makes that final shot so touching. We so badly want Maya to be on the other side of that door.
But, as good as Madsen was, I never understood how she so thoroughly dominated critics' prizes for a role that wasn't life-force dominant. Interestingly, while the critics were cheering for Madsen, while the online fanboys were touting Blanchett, and while the E! News claque was arguably flogging Portman...this board, and this board alone, gravitated strongly behind Laura Linney, as I will today. I think she's splendid in Kinsey in a role that's good-humored, fetching, and above all, deeply moving. Kinsey is a film ostensibly about sex, but of course, it's really about love, and the film wouldn't be nearly as emotionally powerful if the romance between Prok and Mac weren't so deeply felt. The chemistry between Neeson and Linney is superb, as exciting in their initial flirtations about gall wasps as it is in their years-later embrace in the redwood forest. I'm a big fan of Linney's, and this is a perfect opportunity to honor her. (I also don't have a problem with her supporting placement, as I remember some here did -- she doesn't have too many scenes without Neeson, but Neeson has A LOT of scenes without her. I don't think she's even really a co-lead...but I know others disagree.)
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19336
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
I have no problem with any of these nominees, though none are among the greatest performances of all time, or even the decade.
I was a little disappointed that a nomination for Julie Christie who does wonders with an underwritten part in Finding Neverland failed to materialize. On the other hand I was glad the Oscars didn't repeat the Globes' nomination of Meryl Streep in the Manchurian Candidate retread or SAG's nomination of Cloris Leachman in the atrocious Spanglish.
Sophie Okonedo was excellent in Hotel Rwanda but my feeling at the time was that the nomination was more for the character than the performance.
Natalie Portman was good in he so-so Closer, but I felt her nomination was for proving to be better than Julia Roberts in the same film.
Cate Blanchett did a great impersonation of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, but to me she was playing the Hepburn of Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, no the real woman.
Virginia Madsen has never before or after had as good a role as the one she had in Sideways an the nomination was well deserved.
I remember really liking Laura Linney in Kinsey, but now can hardly remember anything about her performance. No matter she's given enough memorable performances in films and TV productions over the years to deserve to have an Oscar at some point so she gets my vote.
I was a little disappointed that a nomination for Julie Christie who does wonders with an underwritten part in Finding Neverland failed to materialize. On the other hand I was glad the Oscars didn't repeat the Globes' nomination of Meryl Streep in the Manchurian Candidate retread or SAG's nomination of Cloris Leachman in the atrocious Spanglish.
Sophie Okonedo was excellent in Hotel Rwanda but my feeling at the time was that the nomination was more for the character than the performance.
Natalie Portman was good in he so-so Closer, but I felt her nomination was for proving to be better than Julia Roberts in the same film.
Cate Blanchett did a great impersonation of Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, but to me she was playing the Hepburn of Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, no the real woman.
Virginia Madsen has never before or after had as good a role as the one she had in Sideways an the nomination was well deserved.
I remember really liking Laura Linney in Kinsey, but now can hardly remember anything about her performance. No matter she's given enough memorable performances in films and TV productions over the years to deserve to have an Oscar at some point so she gets my vote.