Best Supporting Actress 1986

[flipp525]

Not a bad year at all.

Maggie Smith gives texturing to another E.M. Forster older lady character, this time the spindly chaperone Charlotte Barlett who ends up being one of the most pivotal in the film. I think the nomination here was award enough, but the performance itself is dependably great from one of the best actresses around.

It's been quite awhile since I saw Children of a Lesser God, but Piper Laurie's performance as the mother ill-equipped to deal with her daughter's deafness was a standout, even when held up against Marlee Matlin's courageous work in the same film.

Tess Harper is shrill and annoying in Crimes of the Heart, but I guess that's the character. Not something I'm especially impressed by. Her spot could've gone to a more deserving female supporting performance for this year.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an interesting case. Throughout the 80's and early 90's she had a string of high profile performances included Gina in Scarface, Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss. She somehow landed an "of-the-moment" nomination for The Color of Money (even though, let's face it, Paul Newman and Tom Cruise brought her along). Then, aside from the lead in 92's Consenting Adults and some sporadic television and stage work, she basically disappeared from the silver screen. The character of Carmen is the stereotypical girlfriend role that often gets swept along for this kind of film. But she was always an interesting, committed presence and managed to make even a cliché role come off better than it probably was on paper.

But Dianne Wiest should (and will) win this poll in a walk. Although she's not even the best female supporting performance in Hannah and Her Sisters (that would be the heartbreaking Barbara Hershey), her work as Mia Farrow's narcissistic, coke fiend, actress sister Holly is an indelible creation that perfectly captured a sort of frenetic, self-involved wanderlust of the mid-80's. Neurotic, yet endearing, she is at her best in the scene sitting in the back of the car before Sam Waterston has dropped her off ahead of Carrie Fisher who he clearly likes better. The line readings for her voice-overs in that section are exquisite.

Others worth considering: Barbara Hershey in Hannah and Her Sisters; Tilda Swinton in Caravaggio; Ellen Greene in Little Shop of Horrors; Meg Ryan in Top Gun; Chloe Webb in Sid and Nancy.



Edited By flipp525 on 1285541027

[Greg]

This is another year where I've seen all five of the nominees. For me, Dianne Wiest is the standout of the nominees; and, the standout scene for Wiest is where she and Woody Allen attend a punk-rock concert together.



Edited By Greg on 1285526567

[Big Magilla]

I'm starting this one early because I won't be around for the better part of the next two weeks and wanted to get this one in before I leave on my Italian Treasures tour.

If someone else would like to conduct the polls for 1987, 1988 and 1989 in my absence, please do. Otherwise I'll pick up where I left off when I get back.

For me, this boils down to a race between Maggie Smith and Dianne Wiest, both of whom were eminently award worthy in their respective films.

Wiest, of course, won the lion's share of the critics' awards with non-nominee, the equally brilliant Cathy Tyson (Mona Lisa), taking the L.A. Film Critics Award. Smith won the Golden Globe in one of the rare instances where I give a slight edge to the Globe winner over the critics' and Oscar's choice.

Having re-watched A Room With a View a couple of days ago in preparation for my pending stay in Florence, I was beguiled once again by Dame Maggie's expert playing of the fastidious spinster who in the end does the right thing by the young lovers.

Of course by then she already had two Oscars, and with an equally brilliant performance by relative newcomer Wiest in her tour-de-force portrayal of Mia Farrow's self-absorbed sister in Hannah and Her Sisters, stood little chance of winning a third.

I suspect Wiest will prevail here as well, but hopefully Smith will get enough votes to keep this from being another runaway for the Oscar winner.

Piper Laurie has a few good moments in Children of a Lesser God, the least of her nominated performances, but the role isn't substantial enough to win in a year with two extraordinary performances.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio doesn't do anything worthy of an Oscar in The Color of Money and Tess Harper's nomination for Crimes of the Heart always struck me as a make-up nod for her snub in Tender Mercies three years earlier.

Cathy Tyson (Cicely's niece) should have gotten Mastrantonio's slot and either Barbara Hershey (Hannah and Her Sisters) or Bette Midler (Down and Out in Beverly Hills) should have gotten Harper's.

But once again, there is nothing like a Dame - my pick, then as now, is Dame Maggie Smith.