Best Actor 2002

[nightwingnova]

Adrien Brody was excellent, but the character was, as noted, not terribly complex or revealed.

Jack Nicholson gave one of his great performances - his outsize persona and mannerisms strapped down while he lives the blandness, emptiness, pathos and reflectiveness of his retired, feeling useless, lonely character.

[HarryGoldfarb]

I had (as usual) very big expectations with some films when this specific race was starting... One of them was Sam Mendes after-American Beauty project, the incredibly casted Road to Perdition. Based on the trailer alone I thought Tom Hanks was in the run for leading actor, specially considering the good year he was apparently going to have having also the supporting role in the ecqually anticipated Catch me if you can. When I finally watched RTP, it didn't hold up that well, neither did Tom Hanks (and for that matter Jude Law nor Newman himself, even though I really appreciated the film to some level). On the other hand, the Spielberg film grab me in a special way, from the imaginative intro to the relaxed rythm/timing in the story-telling, one that didn't prevent it from having a nerve of its own. Di Caprio deserved a nod, and I was really happy when the Globes recognized him only to be very disappointed by the time of Oscar nominations announcement.

It wasn't until a few years later that I catched About a Boy, and it immediately became one of my all time favorite films (the use of the songs is pitch-perfect). I couldn't know it prior to the show, but Grant also deserved to be mentioned as a nominee. He is not an actor I deeply esteem, but so far he has these two notable snubs, the other being Four Weddings and a Funeral.

I didn't care for Gere in Chicago. He was amusing but that's all (actually, in my opinion the whole Chicago cast gave pretty good performances, entertaining ones, but in no way they were profound examples of great acting, even the so loved here Zellwegger. If Zeta Jones won my vote in the Supporting Actress was almost by default).

I stilI haven't seen 8 Mile, but I remember that at some early point Eminem was being considered in the race. I was incredibly happy though when he won (against all odds) best Original Song...

I'll bring two unmentioned names to the conversation: Darío Grandinetti and Javier Cámara, both for Talk to Her... If the film had the strength to be recognized in two major categories, then I guess it would have been possible for any of the two leading (impressive) actors to get a nod. But if Cecilia Roth couldn't get it for All About My Mother, then probable the strength was only in Almodóvar.

From the group of nominees, the first one out is Nicolas Cage, an actor I've concluded I don't like that much. Adaptation borders in the mess territory and despite the raves I have read here, his performance never striked me as remotely good.

Overexposition can do harm to some actors: their iconic personas may prevent them to achieve something "better" than the expected greatness they are capable of. Jack Nicholson was Jack Nicholson playing, somehow, against type. Not the expected happy outspoken Jack, but an actually elder and grumpy Jack. Despite the out of place hair, the outloud quietness of the performance, the in your face exercise of playing it down, the whole perfromance was incredibly underwhelming and disappointing. He was, according to E! (one of my few sources in those days) the one to beat and when I saw him I couldn't believe the "effort", the obviousness of the stunt. I don't hate the film but I wasn't impressed at all by it nor by his actors.

Gangs of New York was interesting to look at like for 30 minutes but then it was a very excruciating experience... After all those disappoinments I was really considering there was something wrong with me! This 10 nominations worthy film was insufferable... and yes, Day-Lewis was the best of it, but that's not necessarily a good thing. He is always a great presence in my estimation. One of the things I like about this polls is the different views on controversial performances, and after some very articulated posts I find myself considering rewatching this film for no other reason than to re-evaluate Day-Lewis job. But as I remember it, his was a cartoonished character that only worked to some level beacuse of the intelligent actor DDL is.

When I enter the topic and saw the nominees list, I wanted to vote for Caine. But his performance is fuzzy in my memory and his film, as I remember it, is incredibly generic (not that I'm judging the films they are in, but...). Nonetheless, I prefer this kind of light impact in my mind than the bitter taste the previous three left me.

So I ended up voting for Brody. A by default not very enthusiastic vote but my only possible one. I'm not a big fan of The Pianist, a film I "admire", for lack of a better word, more than I like. But his performence always ringed true to me. He wasn't using the usual gimmicks to convey the required emotions, and the faults of the film are mainly in the writing department (a plain surviving story with hardly a sustainabe reason...). The film reduce its main (and for the most of it, only) character to an animal instinct driven one. But the guy, the actor who portraited those unease circumstances succeeds by creating a very human (in the "possible" sense) character. There is a scene I do remember affecting me very deeply: the separation. One of the things that helps him is his unique anatomic features, his singular face, and specially his unknown status (to me) by that time: unlike any of the other four characters, I didn't spend a second of my time comparing him to any other work he had made. I guess that gave him extra points. The Pianist is a film I don't intend to watch again any time soon but it is the better film of the bunch, and unlike the other four films a piece of (minor?) art in its own right. By this math, Cage and Nicholson are out of my list, replaced by DiCaprio and Grant. Grant would have been my winner...

[ksrymy]

First threeway tie?

Brando, Olivier, and O'Toole were tied for a while in 1972 race.

[MovieFan]

Damn, I knew Brody would win

[Sabin]

First threeway tie?

[bizarre]

I'm happy to see so much attention given to Lior Ashkenazi's performance in "Late Marriage". I consider him in 2001, but he's great in that magnificent film.

[Sabin]

Damien wrote
4. Hugh Grant in About A Boy

There is a scene in About a Boy where Hugh Grant is going to break up with one of the single mothers that he has been seeing, and then she breaks up with him first. And he has to keep from smiling. It's an incredible moment of graceful comedic timing that feels thrown away, and yet that's the charm of About a Boy and Grant's performance in it. I can't rank it as highly as John Cusack's Hornby surrogate but it's nonetheless excellent acting that warranted a nomination.

The Weitz Bros' screenplay managing a nomination over Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's writing for About Schmidt was Oscar morning's sole pleasant surprise.

[Uri]

I guess there is no point in starting a Mies van der Rohe admiration society – the less-is-bore school seems to be at least as popular here as the-less-is-more one. Anyway, it's interesting since this year contains what could be arguably seen as the most introvert and the most extrovert performances ever to be nominated in this category, and I happen to appreciate both Brody's minimalist Zen turn as well as Day Lewis' over the top post Freudian take on a pre Freudian world. But the other nominated actors here can be evaluated along these dichotomic lines too – Caine is obviously on the introvert side, Cage, as too often is the case with the way twins are depicted, offers it to us in a straight forward manner while Nicholson's turn is an extrovert's attempt at playing introvert – a failed one in my book, but I see that quite a few people here like it.

[Damien]

Going from Worst to Most Deserving:

Daniel Day-Lewis is not only easily the worst of these nominees, his is one of the worst nominations in the history of the Academy Awards. Ridiculously over-the-top with not a single second of believability to it, his performance is absurdly awful, although I suppose it's perfectly fitting for the incoherent mess that Scorsese passed off as a movie. Shame on the critics groups who awarded this execrable piece of over acting with prizes.

Jack Nicholson isn't as aggressively awful in About Schmidt as he was in As Good As It Gets. Still, his hambone acting is highly annoying and he doesn't create a coherent character (for which the lousy script is also to blame). He's also badly miscast -- it's impossible to accept this personality (by this point in his career, i can't really still call him an actor) as a button-down, emotionally repressed, middle-class midwesterner -- the part called for a Gene Hackman or a James Garner.

Nicolas Cage serves Adaptation quite well, and is amusing in his dual role. But as the film goes along, it becomes more and more enamored of its own "cleverness," and becomes less and less interesting. The same goes for the lead performance -- by the last part of the movie, you just don't care.

The Pianist is easily the best of the films these five actors appeared in, and Adrien Brody does what Polanski needs of him. But that's the problem for our purposes here --the character is so passive that Brody seems above all to be used by Polanski rather than contributing anything more than his presence.

Michael Caine is a great and subtle actor (even if he is on my shit list for supporting Cameron and the Tories in the last British election). In Joseph Mankiewicz's 1958 version of The Quiet American, however, Michael Redgrave more ably conveyed the world-weary, astute, self-doubting man that Graham Greene created in his novel than Caine does here. Still, on it's own terms, this is a lovely performance, and given the weakness of the competition, is the most deserving winner. But I prefer him this year in Fred Schepisi's Last Orders, a beautiful film which was overlooked then and is pretty much unknown now, and a movie which evidences Schepisi as a master of the widescreen.

My Own Top 5:
1. Daniel Auteuil in Sade
2. Jeremy Renner in Dahmer
3. Greg Kinnear in Auto-Focus
4. Hugh Grant in About A Boy
5. Ving Rhames in Undisputed

[ksrymy]

Eminem winning

That was 2003, buddy.

No -- actually. same night.

You're right. I remembered first hearing it at a New Years Party in 2003 so that's why I'm a tad bit confused.

[Mister Tee]

Eminem winning

That was 2003, buddy.

No -- actually. same night.

[kaytodd]

Close race between Cage and Day-Lewis for me. A lot of people have dismissed Day-Lewis' performance as Bill The Butcher as a big slice of hamola and I can kind of understand. The film is overheated and operatic and Daniel's performance fits right in. But I have rarely seen a character that seemed more "lived in", where the actor so totally became his character. The main thing I took away with me the first time I saw GONY was how felt like I was watching someone who has lived his whole life as Bill The Butcher, in a way that I did not remember experiencing before while watching a film, if that makes any sense.

But I voted for Cage, and not just because it was the best performance of twins I had ever seen (IMO, much better than Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers). The differences between Charlie and Donald are so subtle but so clear at the same time. Like identical twins in real life, they look very much alike and share many mannerisms but, because they were distinct individuals, there were visible differences in appearance, speech and mannerisms. They dressed alike, but, when they were sitting still doing or saying nothing, you know which one was Donald and which was Charlie. And they were both complete, complex and rich characters. A stunning achievement I wish Cage would at least try to do again.

[ksrymy]

Eminem winning

That was 2003, buddy.

[Okri]

Brody, easily. His win was one of the best on a pretty awesome night (Almodovar beating Vardalos, Eminem winning, Roman Polanski, Cooper, etc).

Glad to see dws mention Nesbitt - he was amazing. As was Campbell Scott, Aurelien Recoing (Time Out) and Edward Norton.

[Cinemanolis]

1. Jack Nicholson – About Schmidt
2. Edward Norton – 25th Hour
3. Campbell Scott – Roger Dodger
4. Daniel Day Lewis – Gangs of New York
5. Adrien Brody – The Pianist