Best Actor 2009

[koook160]

My nominees:

**Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart** WINNER
Matt Damon, The Informant!
Brad Pitt, Inglourious Basterds
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Sam Rockwell, Moon

This one was a complete crapshoot between Bridges, Renner, and Rockwell. I just went with my gut on this one. Bridges was truly sympathetic and likable in his performance, and I guess I appreciated that. But so was Rockwell... argh.

[FilmFan720]

There are three great performances nominated this year, and I would gladly award any of them.

Morgan Freeman and Jeremy Renner were both fine in fairly bland, forgettable films. They are both exceptional actors, but this was nowhere near the best material either has gotten in their career.

People around here like to pick on Crazy Heart, and Jeff Bridges, because they see it as a Tender Mercies knock off. I don't really care. The film leaves a lot to be desired, especially the ridiculous subplot with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who may give the worst Oscar nominated performance of the 2000s. Still, Bridges imbues every moment he is on screen with honesty and charisma, and you can't turn away from him. Even with lesser material, he is our greatest living American film actor, and it completely shows here.

George Clooney gives the best performance of his career in Up in the Air, the best of these nominated films. It is a part that plays right into all of Clooney's strength, letting him be charming and sexy while trying to fill in a hollow inside, but also challenges him to a lot of depth and shading that he doesn't get elsewhere.

Still, the performance of the year was Colin Firth. I haven't read the novella A Single Man, so I can't attest to it as an adaptation, but I found the film magnetic and Firth nearly flawless in every turn. The phone call itself is worthy of acollades, and he gladly gets my vote.

No one has yet mentioned my other two nominated performances this year: the charming Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer and Patton Oswalt in the criminally underseen Big Fan.

[ITALIANO]

Crazy Heart is just another tiresome variation on that favorite American theme - the ageing, failed country singer - done without any even slight surprise, any freshness of approach. It's an unnecessary movie - its only raison d'etre being a conventional Oscar role for his star. Bridges isn't exactly bad but, again, conventional, but then he would have won even if he had been dreadful. This was clearly, and finally, his year - now, as someone said about Susan Hayward, we can all relax. (It's very possible, by the way, that Jeff Bridges's best nominated performance is still his first).

The Hurt Locker is a mystery to me. Worse movies have won Best Picture, don't get me wrong, but at least I can see why - that not only the Academy but more generally American critics fell in love with this rather routine war movie leaves me speechless. It is, I guess, the kind of war some Americans stil want to believe in - but I'm a cynical European, it's less easy for me. Jeremy Renner is the best thing about it, but nomination-worthy? I doubt.

Morgan Freeman is also the best thing about his movie, but it's the kind of performance that Spencer Tracy used to be nominated so often for in the dignified final phase of his career - prestigious but a bit predictable. And honestly this year it should be between George Clooney and Colin Firth. Both sometimes underrated actors, both at their best - in Colin Firth's case, his absolute best - and both, I'd say, obviously pleased at playing such multi-layered characters. My pick is Firth, but Clooney would also be a deserving winner.

[Reza]

My picks for 2009:

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Colin Firth, A Single Man
George Clooney, Up In the Air
Robert Downey, Sherlock Holmes
Tobey Maguire, Brothers


The 6th Spot: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

[Jim20]

Off the shouldabeens...

ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Nicolas Cage, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
George Clooney, Up in the Air
**Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer**
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

But since Gordon-Levitt wasn't nominated, I'd go with Bridges in this race.

[Sabin]

The fact that Jeff Bridges won in a competition as solid but unexceptional as this is a little easier to take. Crazy Heart is a pretty bad film, and his performance ranks among the most average of his career. He's not a character. He's a persona. It's never unpleasant to watch him, but the film is a styleless bore and he can't really rise above it. Some good music though. Jeff Bridges has an Oscar. It's not for his best work, but at least it happened.

He's better than Morgan Freeman, whose performance as Nelson Mandela is tantamount to a book on tape. He has the look, he has the voice, but the film doesn't give him anything to work with. I have not seen Hereafter, but I'm inclined to say that Invictus is the worst film I've seen Clint Eastwood do. Gran Torino is at least amusingly lazy. Invictus is a thudding bore. But similar to Jeff Bridges simply having an Oscar, I'm at least grateful that Morgan Freeman got to play Nelson Mandela.

For me, it's down to Clooney, Firth, and Renner. Either of those three would make me happy. I'll toss off Jeremy Renner first. I'm a fan of The Hurt Locker. My horse in that race was A Serious Man, but since that was never going to happen, a win for The Hurt Locker pleased me plenty. Ultimately, the problem in the film is that the film veers too far into Jeremy Renner's POV. He's far more interesting when he's viewed from afar. Really the film is about Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty having to deal with this cowboy played by Jeremy Renner who is destined to blow himself or them up. Once it stops being that, it loses some of its power. It's always compelling, and Renner is entirely convincing in the role, but it doesn't deserve an Oscar.

Up in the Air went from overrated Oscar front-runner to underrated Oscar casualty very quickly. It's easily the best thing that Jason Reitman has done, and every time I see it on television I watch it in its entirety. It could use a little more time to breathe here and there, but I wish we had twenty of them each year and I wish they were half as good. I can't join the bandwagon that Up in the Air is Clooney's finest hour (his Jack Foley remains the strongest distillation of Clooney's persona to date), but it's a very good performance and his road to heartbreak is a strong one.

But I'm going with Colin Firth. I have not read the book and I don't really care for the strange movie, which lends the proceedings an odyssey sensation where everyone is trying to pick up Firth as he deals with his loneliness. It's a stylish but alienating film, but at the center of it all is a very lovely performance that I much prefer to his work next year in The King's Speech.


My Choices
1. Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
2. Joaquin Phoenix, Two Lovers
3. Teruyuki Kagawa, Tokyo Sonata
4. Matt Damon, The Informant!
5. Tom Hardy, Bronson

[Mister Tee]

I'd have gone with the two serious-comedy guys -- Matt Damon in The Informant! and Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man.

But none of the five nominees are anywhere near outrage territory. Yes, Morgan Freeman is an excruciatingly obvious choice to play Mandela -- as one critic said, casting him in the role is practically redundant. But he does the fine job we'd expect of him: like the film, he's perfectly solid, if unexciting.

I occupy sort of a midpoint on The Hurt Locker, between Damien and the board's enthusiasts -- I think it's well-made for what it is, but it has a wildly inflated critical reputation. Renner's performance falls into the same category: I find him an acceptable but also dispensable nominee.

The other three would all have made the final cut, by me.

Up in the Air may be, to date, George Clooney's best performance -- he displays his usual savoir-faire, but also hints at awareness of the things his character's missing out on. I'm hoping, though, that the future -- from reports, the very near future -- will offer even finer work from him that will allow me to choose him as best actor. Not here, though.

I guess I now understand Okri's stance about the 1981 race: that, though he much preferred Lancaster, had he faced the situation voters did --Lancaster already a winner, Fonda unrewarded for a lifetime -- he'd have voted for Fonda. Were I a voter in '09, I'd have been part of the group that chose to lifetime-honor Jeff Bridges -- especially because I, unlike some here, think his performance is very, very good. His Bad Blake is a screw-up, but not a hopeless one like Rourke played in the Wrestler. Bridges' Blake knows how to keep himself on his feet and solvent; even if he slips on occasion, he doesn't let things spiral out of control. I also find the performance very witty, and the film itself, though a trifle, a perfectly engaging one.

Despite that, he's only my first runner-up in absolute choice terms, because Colin Firth gives a wonderful performance in A Single Man, one of the more interesting dramatic films of the year. Firth has an innately sympathetic character to play -- the telephone scene is heartbreaking not just from how he plays it, but from the incredulity we all feel that his character could be subjected to such treatment. But Firth ennobles all that sympathy by refusing to ask it from us. He keeps much of his feeling inside, but manages to let us know, in small ways, just how devastating a time this is for him. It's really remarkable work, and gets my vote for the year.

Looking at the so-far results -- I can't say I'm surprised at how it's going. What I wonder is, what effect will this outcome have on the voting for next year's batch?

[MovieFan]

Colin Firth gets my vote, far more deserving here than in The King Speech. Im not upset with Bridges win though, hes one of the most consistent and great actors and deserved his recogition, plus his performance was really great aswell, so natural.

[mlrg]

Colin Firth - A Single Man

[Damien]

I found The Hurt Locker to be a tedious, well-crafted bore. I thought Jeremy Renner was superb in Dahmer, but I figured that taking on that role was tantamount to career suicide, so when he re-emerged in the Bigelow film, I was delighted. Unfortunately, the actions of his character often stretch credulity, and try as the actor might, I never believed him for a minute.

I never begrudge Morgan Freeman a nomination, but his portrayal of Nelson Mandela is not all that interesting. It’s a rather skin-deep performance, another one where the nomination was as much for the real life character as much as the performance.

Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man is a favorite book of mine and the film is generally true to the novel in terms of narrative (until the end), but, while admirably compassionate and intelligent, it distorts the author’s intent through tone, design (the surroundings are way too upscale) and characterization. And Colin Firth can’t cut through these shortcomings.

George Clooney is simply pitch-perfect in Up In The Air, and, frankly, I think that anyone who spouted the not-infrequently heard complaint that he was “just being George Clooney” is nuts. This is a performance of great depth and subtle shadings.

Jeff Bridges has for decades been one of America’s great film actors, and I’m delighted that the release of Crazy Heart drew attention to that fact, making a lot of people realize that he’s been so consistently good that he’s been taken for granted. In Crazy Heart, he doesn’t simply act, he BECOMES the character of Bad Blake, and gets under the skin of the many moods of this mercurial man. He is alternatively charming, obnoxious, sympathetic, charismatic, hateful, ornery, and Bridges captures the nuances of each mood. There's no question about him receiving my vote.

My Own Top 5:
1. Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days Of Summer
2. Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
3. Issei Ogata in The Sun
4. Charles Berling in Summer Hours
5. Toni Servillo in Il Divo

[The Original BJ]

To recap this race fairly quickly...

I'd probably have nominated at least one of the comedy guys -- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Stuhlbarg, or Matt Damon -- though I'm not sure who. All were quite good, though the nominees were very respectable as well.

Morgan Freeman falls somewhere between perfect casting and so-obvious-it's-cliche casting, but you can't deny he's a strong fit for Nelson Mandela, and gives a perfectly solid performance. I don't think he HAD to be on the ballot, but he's nothing embarrassing, though definitely not a winner.

Jeff Bridges was far from a strictly sentimental Al Pacino choice, but nor was he a Geraldine Page "this is definitely where you should win" choice. I think he's funny and heartfelt in a well-rounded role, and his musical numbers are plenty entertaining. But I'd have awarded Jeff Bridges prior to this, and I didn't find the performance so revelatory that I feel tipped by sentiment to vote for him here. But I was thoroughly pleased to see him finally win.

Jeremy Renner gives an excellent portrayal of a man who chooses to cope with the horrors of his surroundings by doing his best to pretend that they are not happening. I thought his performance might have been too understated to register with the Academy, and was thrilled to see him recognized for his work in The Hurt Locker, and by extension, his developing career. But I'd want to honor him for something a little more dominant.

According to me, Up in the Air contains George Clooney's best screen performance to date. Michael Clayton was a solid enough riff on his persona, but here I felt the actor took all of his caddish charm and weighty sense of humanity and used them to create a rich, well-rounded character. He's as delightful as ever in a lot of the film's early scenes, and then just about breaks your heart on Vera Farmiga's doorstep in the last reel. A solid runner-up.

But I picked Colin Firth. In retrospect, it might be easier to hold off on voting for Firth, knowing what would come around the corner for the actor. But I thought he was the best at the time, and I'll stand by that choice. His work is by far the most emotionally affecting of the nominees, a delicate, pent up portrait of grief that just about left me shattered. The phone call sequence early in the film is truly a wonderful acting moment, full of poignant beats, and expert, subtle reactions. I think he's more memorable in this one scene than in any portion of The King's Speech.

[Big Magilla]

Not a bad year, but not a particularly impressive one either. The only one I would elimante is Morgan Freeman. He does a pitch perferct imitation of Nelson Madela in Invictus but it isn't much of a part, or much of a movie for that matter.

I'll give Jeff Bridges his nomiantion only because I generally like Jeff Bridges, but as I said at the time this was pretty much the same performance he gave earlier in the year as an aging ex-baseball player in Open Road xecept in that one the romantic stuff was left to Justin Timberlake playing his son, which made it a bit more relaistic.

I didn't much care for A SIngle Man, but I liked what Colin Firth did within the limitations of the script.

I very much liked Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker and championed his nomiantion, but best for me was George Clooney in Up in the Air. I thought the film failed to live up to its hype but the acting of the three principals was excelent.

[ksrymy]

I think this is a pretty solid year for leading men. Unfortunately, that means the likes of Peter Capaldi (who is arguably supporting), Matt Damon, Andy Serkis, and Michael Stuhlbarg had to be left out of the lead nominations.

First to go is Freeman. He was nominated because he played Nelson Mandela and it is entirely cliché to cast him in this role (although I'm not sure anyone else could do the role since Freeman does have a bit of a resemblance to Mandela). That is all.

Next to go off my list is Jeff Bridges. I can understand why everyone took this performance to heart: he hadn't won yet, with this nomination he joined the coveted six-nominations club, and it is, essentially, Jeff being Jeff; however, that is my problem. Bridges seems to be playing nothing special and, if anything, he is playing a more social version of Robert Duvall's Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies (which I also hated). I'm glad Bridges has an Oscar but it should not have been for this performance.

For me, it's a three-horse race between Firth, Renner, and Clooney. I own all three of these performances and enjoy them all. All three are complex, beautiful, rich examinations of character. Renner is spectacular in his film and I'm very happy for his nomination (and his nomination for The Town. I'm glad to see the burgeoning of a great actor.) but I really don't know what else to say. He was great and I enjoyed his performance. That's it. I would not have been upset if Clooney won. This is easily the greatest role he has ever played in his best film as well. He is witty, charming, and seductive; yet, with every shot of his face, you can see the loneliness he deals with every day. You can sense the exhaust and isolation that his life has become and it's wonderful to see. I don't think any actor but Clooney could have succeeded so much in this role.

But I'm a Colin Firth fanboy and the second after A Single Man was over I knew what I had just seen was amazing. You can feel for Falconer because he is such a believable human character that we've all related to him in one way or another. Whether it's because his maid put the bread in the freezer again or his students not paying attention, we feel like we're watching a Homeric epic when, really, we're just watching a single man try to hold everything together for one, final day on earth. And it's magical. Firth is subtle, affecting, harrowing, lovely, and touching and easily, EASILY gets my Best Actor vote this year.

1. Colin Firth - A Single Man
2. George Clooney - Up in the Air
3. Peter Capaldi - In the Loop
4. Michael Stuhlbarg - A Serious Man
5. Andy Serkis - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

6. Matt Damon - The Informant!