Best Actor 2008

[Jim20]

ACTOR
Benicio Del Toro, Che
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn, Milk
**Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler**

[Reza]

My picks for 2008:

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Sean Penn, Milk
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
Josh Brolin, W

The 6th Spot: Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[Uri]

This is indeed a race over which there's one performance towering dominantly. Penn created an extremely vivid, charismatic person, independent yet totally representative of the actual human being he's portraying and in that process managed to reinvent his own persona as an actor. One of the best winners in this category.

Rourke was the only other real contender on this list. His film didn't really work for me, but his presence – and it's more about that than acting, though his real acting ability is evident here – is such a unique one that it makes watching The Wrestler a rewarding experience (along with Tomei's fine turn).

Langella's performance exhibited the benefits as well as the disadvantages of recreating a role one has played on stage for the screen – it was slick, highly efficient yet somehow not fresh enough turn.

I'm probably the most avid Benjamin Button fan round here, and I found Pitt to be spot on in the center of it, but it's all about being there and allowing everything else around him to enhance his passive presence which is what the film was about – a study of the way life and time are presented as a cinematic experience and how a very certain representation of the human race is the product of it. It's a celebration of whatever is it that makes Pitt a movie star rather than whatever there is that makes him an actor (which he actually is).

As BJ said, it's nice for a good, journeyman of an actor such as Jenkins to have a nomination on his resume, but this was such a banal film it's a pity he got it this time. He was his usual fine self, but there was really nothing in it to justify this sudden recognition.

I'll add Andrew Garfield for Boy A – a perfect showcase for a very young actor, and on the other extreme end of the acting spectrum, two veteran superstars. Last Chance Harvey was a harmless yet totally dismissible nothing of a movie, yet while Thompson, who was perfectly fine, couldn't transcend it, Hoffman did. It's such a loose, free performance only an actor who has nothing to prove can give.

And then there's Eastwood. I had to struggle at first watching GT. It was all about "no it can't be that simplistically presented to me" kind of reaction. Than, once I was willing to accept it as a comment Eastwood was making on his persona and the kind of cinema he grew up as an actor in, I was totally willing to appreciate what he was doing and at the end I was totally captivated. By particularly any other actor this would be an abomination. It's a performance only an Eastwood is allowed to give, and as such it's quite spectacular.

[Mister Tee]

I have little to say that hasn't already been articulated by others.

Leonardo DiCaprio was, for once, truly deserving of a best actor nod. For the first half of Revolutionary Road, I thought HIS performance was the film's standout. Very sad he was omitted.

I don't deeply dislike any of the actual nominees, but I found most of their films half-hearted.

Richard Jenkins is a fine actor -- I always loved his contributions to Six Feet Under. But The Vistor is a wispy piece of liberal uplift that doesn't give him all that much beyond the shouting scene at the end BJ mentions.

I like Benjamin Button well enough -- would have liked it better tighter -- but I think Brad Pitt's nomination is mostly an adjunct to the best picture nod. Considering how many strong performances Pitt has delivered lately, it's strange this would be the one the Academy noted.

Frost/Nixon may be Ron Howard's most enjoyable movie since Apollo 13...but it's still a Ron Howard movie, with all the mediocrity the phrase implies. Frank Langella does a good job, but there's something formulaic about the script's approach that prevents him from really cutting loose, the way Hopkins was able to in Stone's version.

I feel like I wrote so much about The Wrestler/Mickey Rourke at the time that repeating it now is unnecessary. For the record: I thought the film was shockingly over-praised -- one of the most predictable/cliched scripts I've run across in recent times. And, though I retain a fondness for Mickey Rourke from that long-ago Diner period when he seemed he might be something special, I didn't see the depths others claim to have. In fact, it barely seemed like a Mickey Rourke performance. The Rourke of Boogie in Diner was rough-hewn but had a touching sweetness at his core. Randy the Ram was a role Bruce Willis (a respectable but less-singular actor) could have matched note-for-note.

It's all moot, anyway, as Sean Penn gave far and away the performance of the year, possibly the best of his career. I was perfectly happy with Penn's prime Oscar history till then (nomination for Dead Man Walking, win for Mystic River), and needed something above-and-beyond to rate him worthy of a second trophy. That, he delivered. This is not just a complete immersion-without-imitation into Harvey Milk's persona, but by far the loosiest, funniest work Penn had done since Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The fact that Milk is also a far better film than any of the others nominated is icing on the cake. For performance alone, Sean Penn gets my vote.

[The Original BJ]

I was really disappointed Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't nominated for Revolutionary Road -- I think he's nearly as terrific as Kate Winslet in the movie.

I didn't catch The Visitor until DVD, after months of hype for Richard Jenkins, and I didn't get what the fuss was about at all. I thought he barely had anything to do, save for one late-film outburst that served as one of the more politically dubious moments in the movie. It's nice that a hard-working vet like Jenkins has a nomination, especially in the high-profile lead category, but I wish it had been for something more interesting.

I'll defend Brad Pitt here -- I think his presence in Benjamin Button is haunting and mysterious, and he anchors very solidly an overreaching but excitingly ambitious movie. I also see this nomination as recognition for the actor's taste -- few A-list male movie stars have served as muse to so many great auteurs as Pitt has over the past decade-plus, and the actor's involvement in these projects is probably a major reason most of them got funded in the first place. Pitt's Benjamin Button is definitely not a winner, and not up to the level of his Jesse James a year prior, but it's more than place-filler for me.

Frank Langella was just wonderful in Frost/Nixon, adopting a different approach from Anthony Hopkins, but one more appropriate to this project. Hopkins's intensity was a great match for Nixon under fire; Langella's more relaxed, good-humored work is a strong fit for a Nixon who has realized that life goes on, even after the presidency. His sparring with Michael Sheen is very entertaining, even taking quotes we all know ("When the president does it, that means it is NOT illegal") and making them hit with fresh impact. In many years, he might have been my winner.

I like The Wrestler more than many here, and think Rourke's work is pretty terrific. He's completely believable as the kind of gruff, macho beast that puts on a show in the ring, but, as Damien says, he also shows Randy the Ram's sweet, tender side. I think his work with both Tomei and Wood is incredibly touching, and he also shows very well the (literal) heartbreak and struggle he has when he fears he will have to give up the only thing at which he has ever been good. I would have been content to see Rourke win, mostly based on performance, but also for his honorable comeback. (His loss also robbed us of the moment when Rourke could have dedicated his Oscar to his dead dog, Loki, which would have been a hoot.)

But Sean Penn is just the best, and as in '03, his by-a-hair Oscar triumph marked the happiest moment of the evening for me. We often talk here about actors deserving prizes when they seem like a completely different person, and I can think of few instances where that applies better than Sean Penn this year. I couldn't believe that this loosely funny, jovial, and full of life Harvey Milk was played by the same actor who had previously stunned me with his brooding intensity in Dead Man Walking and Mystic River. Penn perfectly captures the way Milk used humor to win friends and allies in unexpected places, and the actor gives a commanding, powerful, and inspiring performance in the process. Penn has some solid competition, but the Academy absolutely made the right choice this year.

[Damien]

This is probably the year in which the Academy's choices line up most closely with my own. 3 of the 5 nominees are in my Top 5, and the one who isn't -- Frank Langella -- comes in at number 6 for me.

Brad Pitt is serviceable in Benjamin Button. But Benjamin Button is a movie that just seems to do nothing more than merely exist. It's well-mounted, well-acted, beautifully persuasive in period detail, but it serves absolutely no purpose as it meanders along. Scott Fitzgerald's short story is a very dry comedy of manners that in its brief length makes numerous subtle-yet-acute observations about human behavior, self-identity and relationships. The movie takes this wondrously wry source material and turns it into sentimental goo. Pitt is an underrated actor, I believe, but here he gets stymied by David Fincher and writer Eric Roth.

Frank Langella makes a very entertaining Richard Nixon. The performance is not deeply nuanced and multi-layered like Anthony Hopkins (a far inferior actor generally to Langella)'s version, but a very human (which for Richard Nixon is a major accomplishment) and almost mischievous disgraced individual.

Richard Jenkins gives a beautiful low-keyed performance which captures the varying and evolving emotional states of the character without telegraphing any of them in a modest but lovely film.

The Wrestler is not a very good movie -- it overflows with cliches and Aronofsky's visual flourishes are meaningless. But Mickey Rourkev gives a beautiful, Pirandellian performance, the unexpected sweetness of which knocks you out. He creates a tender and vulnerable character without being shy of showing the man's shortcomings -- and the actor also has a sense of humor.

Any of those three would be most deserving in many years, but in 2008, there was no denying the greatness of Sean Penn's performance. How he is able to seamlessly transform himself completely another person is something I'll never understand. Watching the movie, you forget that you're watching an actor -- you feel that you are actually seeing Harvey Milk. Magnificent work, and my choice over some other pretty wonderful work.

My Own Top 5:
1. Sean Penn in Milk
2. Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler
3. Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
4. Javier Bardem in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
5. Mark Ruffalo in What Doesn’t Kill You

[FilmFan720]

This year belongs to Sean Penn, who gives the greatest performance of his career in a remarkable film. When I first heard he was doing this, I was petrified. Harvey Milk demands a charisma, a lightness and a sense of humor that we haven't seen from Penn, the self-grandizing great actor, in decades. He found all of that again, though, and turned out a more complex portrait that I was expecting. It is a great performance that stands head and shoulders over the crowd.

Frank Langella is wonderful recreating his stage triumph, and Mickey Rourke is very strong in a horrible film, overcoming some of the worst plot contrivances in a long time, although you can't really tell where the acting ends and he is just being himself.

Brad Pitt gives one of his stronger turns in Benjamin Button, but the visual effects do some of the heavy lifting for him, and Richard Jenkins is fine in a throw-away piece.

[Cinemanolis]

1. Sean Penn - Milk
2. Leonardo Di Caprio – Revolutionary Road
3. Colin Farrell – In Bruges
4. Michael Fassbender - Hunger
5. Michael Sheen - Frost/Nixon
6. Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

[Big Magilla]

Sunday and Wednesday are fine as long as we keep to two per week. I think this one seems to have come up so fast because peopel were still posting in 2007 and even 2006 as of yesterday, plus ther were the extra Best Actress and Supporting Acress polls of the last two weeks.

[ksrymy]

Can't we spread these polls out more. Magilla used to have the perfect schedule for them. I believe it was Monday and Thursday.

I thought it was Sunday not Monday. I sincerely apologize.

[Big Magilla]

This is one of those rare recent years in which I agree with all the nominees in this category.

I'm usually not a fan of Brad Pitt, but I thought he was perfect in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was my favorite film of the year. I even thought Cate Blanchett, who I am usually highly cirtical of, was terrific and award-worthy, as well Taraji P. Henson who does wonders with a tony role. Contrast the actor's (Pitt's) face on other other actors' bodies with that of Chris Evans' face on another actor's body in captain America and you can see the difference between brilliance and incredulity.

I still think Frank Langella's best performances were as the cad in Diary of a Mad Housewife and at the opposide of the spectrum as Bill Paley in Good Night, and Good Luck, but his Nixon is wiley, funny and consistently on the mark in Frost/Nixon.

Richard Jenkins is a superb character actor who is always interesting. He's heartbreaking and unforgettable in his rare starring role in The Visitor.

Mickey Rourke is an actor I usually can't stand looking at. He always looks to me like someone who hasn't had a shower or a bath in at least six months and hasn;t seen a dentist in years. That said, he does an amazing job in The Wrestler, although I think the best perfromance in that film belongs to Marisa Tomei. I'm not sure how Rourke would have come off opposite a lesser actress.

MovieFan perfectly states my opinion of Sean Penn. He marginally deserved a nomination for Mystic River, didn't deserve a nod for either Sweet and Lowdown or I Am Sam, but he should have won for Dead Man Walking and, yes, he earned his second Oscar for Milk.

[OscarGuy]

So recent, but Penn wins mostly because it's a towering achievement. I'm not often a fan of his, I think he's a bit too screamy in Mystic River, but he did a superb job with this film.

Other terrific male lead performances in 2008: Mark Ruffalo in Blindness, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon, Robert Downey Jr in Iron Man (before he ran it into the ground like Depp did with Jack Sparrow), Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road, Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Richard Jenkins in The Visitor.

Having to rank them: Penn, Rourke, Langella, Sheen, Ruffalo.

[ITALIANO]

Oh well, this happened just yesterday. Sean Penn, easily.

[MovieFan]

Penn gets my vote. Im usually not a fan of his acting, but his performances in this and Dead Man Walking were deserving of the Oscar. Hes amazing here though, its so unlike anything he had done before and he pulls it off brilliantly. Rourke is a very close runner up though

[mlrg]

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler