Best Actor 2001

[ITALIANO]

I don't in fact agree that In the Bedroom turns into a vigilante film. Yes, it depicts an act of vigilantism, but I don't see the film endorsing it;

No, well, of course it doesn't endorse it - but it still shows it, and the man who does it, tormented or not, is the main character in the movie, and a positive one. And so, by showing it, it implicitly understands it. I don't. I couldn't. No European father would react that way, and my new pro-American self can only hope that no American father would do that either. But this American movie chooses this old narrative device, which unfortunately I'm afraid most Americans - Damien is obviously an exception - didn't feel unconfortable with. And yes, I know, there are doubts and dilemmas and unhappiness - but it's not like they HAD to end the movie that way, they chose to. And they lost me as a viewer - simply. Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room finds a different solution to a similar situation.

[HarryGoldfarb]

A Beautiful Mind is laughably bad these days. And once you know that John Forbes Nash is hallucinating, then Russell Crowe's performance is all the more hilarious. I will say that the Academy clearly loved this film at the time, so to deny the most key element in this film an award is a bit dubious. As I said in last year's thread, the man has done better. I prefer his work in Gladiator immeasurably to this piece of wacky mental illness.

Amen

[HarryGoldfarb]

Well... as I remember it, while Spacek was cited by virtually every major critic award, Wilkinson missed a lot of them, being snubbed even at the Globes. I guess his only big win prior to Oscar nominations was the New York Critics but of course, in the words of Radiohead, I might be wrong. Once he got nominated of course he must have gained some momentum but I guess his nomination was far from locked...

[The Original BJ]

But Wilkinson winning an Oscar for this great role was not going to happen. It is like trendy here to recognize him as the best of the bunch, but his nod almost didn't happened (I'm sure he was the 5th one by the time the voting period to choose the nominees finished).

Really? I thought Wilkinson was pretty much on everyone's prediction list in spot #3, behind the two front-runners, and I'd imagine that he ran third on Oscar night as well.

[HarryGoldfarb]

I don't in fact agree that In the Bedroom turns into a vigilante film. Yes, it depicts an act of vigilantism, but I don't see the film endorsing it; it evoked horror in me, and I thought that was the filmmakers' intention. But, whatever your feelings about that, I think it's hard to deny the power of Tom Wilkinson's performance. His character is not unlike Donald Sutherland's in Ordinary People: the not-normally-aggressive father who has to assert himself to keep what's left of his family together. I don't think Wilkinson has ever been more expressive, more touching than he is in this film. He's my easy choice for this year.

Totally agree... the "horror" in my place was even greater by the time he got home and reached his bed after "that"... Spacek's reaction gave me chills and it was easy to conclude Wilkinson was another victim of the situation, but specially a victim of what was "expected" from him. Everything you knew was good in him got broken. But then there is she and her feeling of fullfillment, of "justice done", really hit me. The vengeance as a deviated form of justice was explored in his character like a degrading aspect of the human nature through that long final act, but in hers it was in those few seconds and they were terrible to watch.

But Wilkinson winning an Oscar for this great role was not going to happen. It is like trendy here to recognize him as the best of the bunch, but his nod almost didn't happened (I'm sure he was the 5th one by the time the voting period to choose the nominees finished). I agree he is the best of the bunch, but his role is maybe too subtle for the Academy... that night I was expecting Crowe to win, the juicy character in the BP front-runner and the only Oscar deserving element of the otherwise expendable thing A Beautiful Mind is (not Connelly, not his average directing and specially not his screenplay for dummies. I don't have to mention Best Picture for this matter). If the film works, it is only because of Crowe. And I agree it is not that bad to deserve a hating attitude, but the Academy hurt its reputation by overloving it in the presence of so much better works. Despite his previous immediate victory, considering the competition, I thought Crowe was going to win.

Washington doesn't have anything to do with an Oscar for this specific performance, a generic one in a bad "action" flick that failed to be the summer hit it was supposed to be, praised for having an against type Denzel. How cheap was that campaign? They could have given it to him for The Bone Collector and the opinion about the quality of his "deserving film" would have been the same. Hawke is way superior...

I liked I am Sam, more than I thought I would... and Penn did a terrific job. Playing that kind and that severity of developmental disability, which exists, was incredibly risky and he succeeds by not doing it in a way that could have been offensive or clichè, creating instead a likeable/relatable character. In other hands that would have been a mess. I do believe he gave a performance deserving of the nod, even though the film is pure rubbish and one I do not want to see again.

I haven't seen Ali (actually I haven't seen any of the two Will Smith's nominated performances). I voted for Wilkinson...

[Uri]

Washington, as an actor, projects what is probably my least favorite human characteristic – he's smug. Now – one might say that in the case of TD this is exactly what his role calls for, right? Wrong. A piece about children shouldn't necessarily be a juvenile one. A portrayal of an unintelligent person mustn't turn into an idiotic act (yes Sean, I AM talking to you). So, regardless of the company he keeps this time, I really don't get those traditional detractors of Washington who're willing to embrace his turn here, which I find as annoying as ever. Smith doesn't really manage to shake off the boy-dressed-up-as-a-grown-up vibe he has about him, I'm afraid.

I never really got all the hatred toward ABM here. Ok, it's a simplistic, at times stupefied take on events and characters which deserve a much more intelligent treatment, but so are so many other American films – why this one evokes such a passionate negative response? Anyway, for what it is – a silly, dumb down romanticized version of a potentially very good story – this is an efficient, professional effort and the same can be said about its star. But yes, nothing about this enterprise should be even remotely considered for awards.

So, once again I'm left with the only one on this list I'd consider even remotely worthy of a nomination, and happily Wilkinson is indeed very good here and makes for a respectable winner. He's not my pick as the best of the year though – that would be Thornton for TMWWT (although, being the prude I am, reading the story about his daughter here make it a somehow uncomfortable choice). And I'll add Hackman (since it seams to be the consensus he's a lead, something I'm still not sure of), Pearce and Jim Broadbent, who, like Harden the year before, was relegated to supporting for the sole reason he was playing the supportive spouse of a far more celebrated fellow artist.

[Okri]

Of who was left off, I have to ditto the Osment and Pearce mentions. My favourite performance by a leading man was probably Mark Rylance's work in Intimacy, but I also loved Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love. And even Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge would've made a better candidate than three of these nominees. And I'm glad to see Damien mention Tape, which struck me as a fascinating movie (and much better than Belber's other plays)

That stated, I don't get what everyone sees in Hackman's performance in The Royal Tenenbaums - I thought he was basically outacted by the entire ensemble. Not that I'll likely revisit it- Darjeeling basically turned me against Wes Anderson.

In real time, there's no doubt I would've voted for Washington, for the exact reasons Sabin stated. I hated Russell Crowe that year, hated ABM, hated Howard, really found the whole thing excerable. I also really liked Washington (though like Damien says, it's mainly a supporting turn.) but being the main opponent to Crowe made it an easy pick.

Thankfully, we've already given Washington an oscar and it's unlikely we'll feel the need the honour ABM so explicitly (though I have no idea which film would win best picture from us, though that's obviously a conversation for another time). I have sat through I Am Sam - really don't know why people do stuff like that. Nothing wrong with Smith in Ali, nothing unique or special. Wilkinson basically towers above this line-up. He would've been worthy with better competition, but basically a no brainer.

[Cinemanolis]

1. Tom Wilkinson - In the Bedroom
2. Russell Crowe - A Beautiful Mind
3. John Cameron Mitchell - Hedwig and the Angry Inch
4. Ewan McGregor - Moulin Rouge!
5. Ethan Hawke - Tape

[Mister Tee]

Much as I love Memento, I don't think Guy Pearce's performance is so special as to merit a spot on this list. Gene Hackman in Royal Tenenbaums is the one who was most robbed.

Though it's anathema to say here, I think Billy Bob Thornton was quite good in Monster's Ball, as well as in The Man Who Wasn't There. You'd think major performance in two notable films would have helped him make the cut, but, in reality, a split between them probably hurt him.

I can't speak to Sean Penn's I Am Sam performance because, even a decade later, I haven't been able to muster the grit to make myself sit through it. My reaction to clips, and the responses of everyone I trust, lead me to believe there's little chance I could stomach it. Someday, I suppose, I'll buckle down. Meantime, I won't let it interfere with my voting.

There's nothing especially wrong with Will Smith's Ali, but, like everything about the film, it feels a little mild -- like something viewed through a low-grade fever. That's certainly perferable to an over-the-top showboating turn -- which is easy to envision. But not enough for even consideration here.

I probably could have accepted a Russell Crowe win for A Beautiful Mind had he been on a three-year nominations-but-not-yet-win streak. Despite my quite loathing the second half of Ron Howard's film, I thought Crowe's work was the best thing about it -- nowhere near The Insider, but well above Gladiator. But the fact that he'd already won for Gladiator made me root heavily against him. Here, of course, I vote against him simply because there were much superior candidates.

Training Day was a movie that kept changing for me. The first third seemed to present a central character who, like Patton or Popeye Doyle, could be viewed as hero or villain depending on one's political stance -- was he a corrupt human being, or exactly what was needed to deal with street crime? That ambiguity vanished as the film went on, and the story devolved into a more standard but still engaging "set up the rookie to take the fall" scenario. In the last act, though, the film went totally off the rails -- the story approached hysteria, and the final shootout was pretty much comical. Denzel Washington's central (if not necessarly lead) Alonzo Harris fluctuates more or less in sync with the film: he's fascinating to start, but over the top by the finale. I'm with BJ that I prefer Denzel to have won for this rather than the execrable The Hurricane, but it's way below Malcolm X. And way below my actual best actor choice of the year...

...who I share with many of you: Tom Wilkinson. I don't in fact agree that In the Bedroom turns into a vigilante film. Yes, it depicts an act of vigilantism, but I don't see the film endorsing it; it evoked horror in me, and I thought that was the filmmakers' intention. But, whatever your feelings about that, I think it's hard to deny the power of Tom Wilkinson's performance. His character is not unlike Donald Sutherland's in Ordinary People: the not-normally-aggressive father who has to assert himself to keep what's left of his family together. I don't think Wilkinson has ever been more expressive, more touching than he is in this film. He's my easy choice for this year.

[Sabin]

Denzel Washington's victory has been unfairly downgraded from an Anybody-But-That-Asshole-Crowe alternative to an Affirmative Action act of Academy tokenism. I suppose there's truth in both of those statements. With Oscars going to Halle Berry and Denzel Washington the same night as Sidney Poitier won an Honorary Oscar, you couldn't really plan a more progressive-appearing show. I would rather see Denzel Washington's win be remembered for different reasons: it was an incredible turn of face from the boring saints and audience surrogates he had been playing for the better part of a decade, and also as fairly iconic in an unassuming piece of entertainment. Ten years later, A Beautiful Mind has been forgotten while Training Day is still quoted and enjoyed. It's good work for Denzel Washington that has propelled him to a preferable state in his career. His win is better than another for Crowe, but he's not the best in this field. Usually the Academy honors the flashier small turn for lead or the more superlative lead in support, but rare do they flip-flop as they do here. Training Day is clearly Ethan Hawke's story and Denzel Washington comes and goes, but they flip-flopped placements.

A Beautiful Mind is laughably bad these days. And once you know that John Forbes Nash is hallucinating, then Russell Crowe's performance is all the more hilarious. I will say that the Academy clearly loved this film at the time, so to deny the most key element in this film an award is a bit dubious. As I said in last year's thread, the man has done better. I prefer his work in Gladiator immeasurably to this piece of wacky mental illness.

Speaking of mental illness, I have yet to see I Am Sam after all these years, but I will say this...he/it sure does look retarded. There was a surplus of strong contenders glaringly overlooked this year. At the time, I believe I predicted that Gene Hackman would register for The Royal Tenenbaums, which had become a modest winter hit though nowhere near as strong an Oscar contender as I had hoped. I'm still a little confused as to how that film became so under-appreciated by so many people. It didn't get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedic/Musical Picture, although Hackman did win. I think I had Hackman in over Will Smith, whose two acting nominations are neither imperatively deserving or as dull as one would imagine from a star of such limited range. Will Smith is very good in a flawed, dull film. The script never really allows him to dig terribly deep, but he's very good and his nomination is deserving enough. Jon Voight's on the other hand, is laughable. Especially considering how much stronger Foxx and Van Peebles were in the same film.

That leaves Tom Wilkinson for In the Bedroom. I have not seen the film since it's release, and I'd be very interested to see how it holds up. In the Bedroom shift into a revenge piece turned off quite a few, and I think I might be more turned off were Wilkinson, the film's true anchor, not so compelling. This represents a great turning point in his career, though not necessarily for the better. Wilkinson before In the Bedroom was a series of subtle, affecting supporting turns. Afterwards, he was very broad, especially in Michael Clayton where I was supposed to buy Clooney and he as college chums (though he was masterfully used by Roman Polanski in The Ghost Writer). His Tom Fowler is just masterclass, and he carries the strength of the earlier scenes of In the Bedroom along with him to the end. Easily my choice.

My Choices
1. Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom
3. Haley Joel Osment, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
4. Jack Nicholson, The Pledge
5. John Cameron Mitchell, Hedwig and the Angry Inch

[Bruce_Lavigne]

Voted for Wilkinson, easily the best of the bunch and of the year. I didn't mind Washington's win, though; Hollywood wouldn't allow him to go without a Best Actor trophy, and I'm glad he has it for a role where he actually got to loosen up and deliver a performance that's honestly enjoyable rather than just emptily Respectable.


My top 5:
1. Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom
2. Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
3. Jack Nicholson, The Pledge
4. John Cameron Mitchell, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
5. Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn't There

[ITALIANO]

It's true that the last part of In the Bedroom, when the father becomes Charles Bronson and provides the movie with a much-needed (by Americans) release of tension - and of violence - is dreadful and rather childish, and it's a pity, because till then the movie, while not a masterpiece, had seemed quite emotionally honest and deeply-felt. Plus, Wilkinson's performance is quietly strong, and in the end I've voted for him here. Only Will Smith - more committed than believable as Muhammad Ali, but still with some powerful moments - could be an alternative choice.

If Denzel Washington had to win an Oscar, Training Day was probably the right role, as it is, I think, his best nominated performance, at least in the Best Actor category. But even as a bad guy, he's still too obviously decent and, most importantly, did Denzel Washington have to win a (second) Oscar?

Russell Crowe is better than the movie he's in, but not much better - no actor could be much better, given the material. Yet he's definitely much better than Sean Penn. His nomination for such a minor thing as I Am Sam was the clear sign that the Academy liked, really really liked him, and that more nominations and even Oscars would have soon come. Because, honestly, the movie is terrible and the performance borders on the grotesque - a special kind of grotesque, which happens when serious American actors apply their Actors-Studio techniques and emotions to pure unadultered junk: they become unintentionally comic.

[Bog]

Damien would give an Oscar to Ethan Hawke just for reading e restaurant menu...

If I recall though Sidney Lumet/"Blob" vehicle hatred > Undying love for the sexy Ethan Hawke because I think he felt Hawke gave a subpar performance in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

I could be completely crazy though...

[OscarGuy]

And the Nobel Peace Prize for urinating on Sarah Palin.

[mlrg]

1. Ethan Hawke in Tape and Training Day

Damien would give an Oscar to Ethan Hawke just for reading e restaurant menu...