Best Actor 2000

[Sabin]

A very dull lineup without Michael Douglas for Wonder Boys. That months beforehand, American Beauty was embraced so thoroughly and Wonder Boys hit the ground with a thud is most disarming. The differences between what the two films specialize tackle (irony, humanism, mid-life crisis, redemption) is the difference between fast food and sirloin.

It's ridiculous to think that I actually predicted Ed Harris would win for Pollock come Oscar morning. I remember why too. Obviously, Javier Bardem didn't have a chance for Before Night Falls and Geoffrey Rush wasn't too far ahead or behind. Russell Crowe was too notorious and was Gladiator really "acting?" Tom Hanks didn't really need three Oscars, and Cast Away's relatively poor showing was evidence of a lack of passion on the Academy's part. That left Ed Harris on his third career nomination in a film he labored over for ages. In spite of the fact that he didn't grab a Golden Globe nomination, a SAG nom, or even an Indie Spirit when his co-star was nominated, I predicted Ed Harris.

He's probably my least favorite of his group. Ed Harris' Jackson Pollock is a distant figure that more registers as Harris' own indulgences than a real performance. He may never win an Oscar, but then again he doesn't often show us new sides of himself. The only performance of his of the past couple decades that feels any kind of fresh is his knowing work in A History of Violence.

Geoffrey Rush is good in Quills in a How Could He Not Be? way. I seem to have a stronger threshold for him than some on this board, but Quills is an obvious film, poorly directed, and leaden in intent. Philip Kaufman was just the wrong man for the job, and it turns into a very coarse one man show. I do like Joaquin Phoenix very much in this film.

Part of me is glad they gave the Oscar to Russell Crowe. I'm glad he has one and he's better here than in A Beautiful Mind. He's a very strong movie star talent who happened to come along when such a thing fell out of fashion. Attachments are now the code, not Stars. But he's a very good performer and he makes Gladiator what it is. For introspective genius, I prefer his work in The Insider to A Beautiful Mind; for movie star charisma, I prefer his Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander to his Maximus in Gladiator; and for an examination on masculine goodness, his Jim Braddock has nothing on his Bud White. His speech for Gladiator is a great one, it's a good Movie Star turn but I can't say he deserves an Oscar for it. But he doesn't deserve contempt.

In retrospect, this was probably the last "Favorite Son" Performance that Tom Hanks will ever give, and it's a good one. Although I prefer what he quietly does in Saving Private Ryan (the fact that I buy him as a soldier is kind of astonishing), but he is never less than compelling in Cast Away, a problematic film with some incredibly daring filmmaking to go along with the drabber parts. To Zemekis' credit, the opening scenes and the closing ones do have a shrewd quality to them that the trailer absolutely butchers. I loathe that the film refuses to show Tom Hanks readjusting to society after being found, and I think had they done that, shown him on the ship, shown him facing other humans, he would have won. Another reason why he didn't win is...well...what's his character's name? Who is he? What's his life beyond his love for this woman? And this volleyball? He's playing Tom Hanks on an island, not a person.

Javier Bardem is the best choice. I haven't seen the film in a while but he's the only possible choice here. A beautiful piece of work filled with humor, love, and struggle. Schnabel doesn't entirely create the liberating experience that the film should be and I was never entirely drawn into Reinaldo Arenas' poetry, but he's the best choice here.

My Choices
1. Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys
2. Billy Crudup, Jesus' Son
3. Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count on Me
4. John Cusack, High Fidelity
5. Christian Bale, American Psycho

[Cinemanolis]

1. Mark Ruffalo - You Can Count On Me
2. Javier Bardem - Before Night Falls
3. Jamie Bell - Billy Elliot
4. Geoffrey Rush - Quills
5. Ralph Fiennes - Sunshine
6. Michael Douglas - Wonder Boys

[Bruce_Lavigne]

Easy vote here. Crowe gives a fine movie-star performance in Gladiator, and Bardem and Harris are both worthy of consideration. But it's Tom Hanks' transformative virtual one-man show, at times as inspirational (no ironic quotation marks called for) as any overblown Hollywood prestige film and at times surprisingly (and beautifully) melancholy, that stands as the acting achievement of the year for me. I never expected to like one of his performances this much again after the national-treasure rut he settled into after Philadelphia, but what he achieves in Cast Away is not just the best performance of a career from which I typically expect little; it's a great performance by any standard, and my winner.


My top 5:
1. Tom Hanks, Cast Away
2. Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys
3. George Clooney, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
4. Christian Bale, American Psycho
5. Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls

[rudeboy]

Pretty sure Harris was only nominated because his film was such a labour of love, a-la Salma Hayek a couple of years later. There's not all that much to his performance, and co-star Harden wipes the floor with him. This is one of my favourite Tom Hanks performances - its quite a tall order to command the screen as compellingly as he does during the island scenes, although the film completely crashes in that dreadful, drawn-out conclusion with Helen Hunt. Crowe is certainly charismatic enough to carry Gladiator but there's not much beyond his glower and this is certainly not an award-worthy performance. He's brilliant next to Geoffrey Rush, who I found practically unbearable in Quills. So I vote for Bardem. Didn't love the movie, but he brings depth and intelligence to the role and I'd say its easily the best of his nominated performances to date.

My top five

1. Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count on Me
2. Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys
3. Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot
4. Guy Pearce, Memento
5. Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls

[MovieFan]

Javier Bardem- Before Night Falls

Really don't like the other nominated performances

[Big Magilla]

Easily Javier Bardem in his best performance to date in Before Night Falls. I couldn't stand Ed Harris' yelling and screaming in Pollock and Russell Crowe in Gladiator left me cold.

Among the missing, Jamie Bell, the heart and soul of Billy Elliot and Michael Douglas in his career best performance in Wonder Boys should have been there. I can also see a case being made for Christian Bale in American Psuycho over either Tom Hanks in Cast Away or Geoffrey Rush in Quills.

[ksrymy]

There's only one sensible option here: Geoffrey Rush with Bardem running a close second. I'm about to pass out. I work early tomorrow. I'll write my review then.