OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2004)
The Nominees Were...
Cate Blanchett, The Aviator
Laura Linney, Kinsey
Virginia Madsen, Sideways
Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda
Natalie Portman, Closer
My Thoughts: We continue our week devoted to the supporting nominees of 2004 with the actresses. I remember the 2004 Oscar race for a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons that I do was because it was the first Oscar season ever that I had seen all of the Big 6 contenders on Oscar night (I want to say I hadn't seen 1-2 nominees on Oscar nominations announcement, specifically Vera Drake and Maria Full of Grace, but my memory only serves me so far here). As a result, I had a lot of opinions going into this race, probably some more fully-felt than I might have had in retrospect (since it was the first Oscar race where I not only followed, but could have opinions about everything). This was truest in Supporting Actress, where two of the nominated roles standout as pretty inconsequential (and so much lesser than the other three) that I remember being actively angry at their inclusion in a way that I am not in retrospect, having seen far greater sins the further I've gotten into the Academy's archives. That being said, we'll cover those two first as they aren't really important to the conversation of the "best" of the year.
Sophie Okonedo won her first (and to date, only) Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda in 2004. This is an intense film, with very little levity & is exceedingly grim. It's also a movie with not enough character development for my taste, and that is most evident in the role that Okonedo is supposed to play. She is oftentimes asked to scream or cry in the movie, but otherwise there's nothing there other than a devoted wife. She doesn't lend much more to what's happening onscreen, and feels too big for the part (the best thing I've ever seen her in was her work in the recent Broadway revival of The Crucible-her acting style is much more at-home on the stage), playing for the rafters more than providing subtlety. It's the kind of performance Oscar oftentimes goes for regardless of quality, but it's not a worthy inclusion.
Neither is Laura Linney, a brilliant actor & one of my favorites from her generation who gets the least of her Oscar citations with Kinsey. Linney, like Okonedo, has to play the doting wife for most of the film. This was in the era where it felt like Linney was on the verge of an Oscar nomination (think Joan Allen in the 1990's)-not a star, exactly, but someone that you should pay attention to because this could be building to a big statue moment. That didn't happen (though she has plenty of Emmys at this point), and you kind of get why with the Kinsey nomination, where the Academy cited her for being a warm screen presence, but nothing more than that-the script has no interest in her as we explore Kinsey's bisexuality further, and she feels less-than-consequential to the resolution.
The remaining three are all triumphs, though. Natalie Portman plays the part of Jane, the closest thing that Closer has to a moral compass, very close-to-the-vest. It's the toughest part in the quartet to play, mostly because she must remain unknowable (and yet knowable upon rewatch), a trick that is part the script but mostly what she's bringing to the role. Portman doesn't make her an ingenue or try to dumb down the part, which would've been an instinctual read but taken away from the ending of the film-her Jane was in control the whole time, not just learning a lesson from the men she surrounded herself with. It's smart, cool performing from an actress officially graduating from child star into a proper adult thespian.
Cate Blanchett has the advantage of playing Oscar's favorite leading lady, Katharine Hepburn (Meryl can say what she will, but she doesn't have four acting Oscars yet, does she?). Blanchett owns this part, adopting a perfect Connecticut accent, and finding a way to balance Hepburn's onscreen persona. It's very difficult to play a famous actor like this, one whose private life was hidden from us (Hepburn is not Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley, just as well-known at this point offstage as on), but whose public face is embedded in our memories. She gives the movie a jolt of electricity, and a tenderness to Hepburn, a woman in love, but not willing to sacrifice herself for a man who might destroy her. This was the exact right time in Blachett's career to get her an Oscar, so it's a treat that it's for such a great piece of work.
Similar to her costar Thomas Haden Church, nothing about Virginia Madsen's career heading into Sideways seemed to indicate an eventual date with Oscar. Her biggest successes were in the 1980's & early 90's in films like Dune, Fire with Fire, and Candyman. But given this role, she shows what genius can look like when you take a chance on a performer who has been under-utilized. Her Maya is a difficult part-playing someone world-weary but not necessarily jaded is a tough balancing act to maintain, but she does it so well. That epic monologue about the "life of wine" would be obnoxious in the mouth of someone less earnest, but she so fully commits to this role it's difficult not to root for her, easily the best part of this acting ensemble. A total home-run.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes stayed pretty close to the Oscars with their nominations, only excluding Okonedo in favor of Meryl Streep (The Manchurian Candidate), though their winner was Natalie Portman. SAG went with Blanchett as their victor, and similar to Best Supporting Actor, hurt Portman's chances by not nominating her at all (there must be a story on Closer being a complete bust with SAG that I don't know about as it missing entirely with that cast feels strange) and instead favoring Cloris Leachman (Spanglish). BAFTA also gave their trophy to Blanchett, here favoring only Portman from Oscar's lineup, going instead with Streep, Heather Craney (Vera Drake), and Julie Christie (Finding Neverland). Conventional wisdom would dictate that Streep was in sixth place, but considering Finding Neverland's strength (and that movie's less-than-stellar reviews) I'm inclined to disagree, and think that Kate Winslet for Finding Neverland nearly landed this field (she plays a dying mother in period clothing in a Best Picture nominee...she was in the hunt).
Actors I Would Have Nominated: If the Oscars were going to take the time to cite Virginia Madsen, a product of the 1980's with a well-earned nomination, they might have continued that trend by also recognizing Darryl Hannah. Her Elle Driver in Kill Bill, Volume 2 is perfection-the exact kind of scene-stealing work that would surely have gotten a nomination in Tarantino's later years, but warranted it even in a field like 2004.
Oscar’s Choice: Portman's momentum stalled after the SAG miss, the Oscar was Blanchett's for the taking (and she did).
My Choice: There are a few cardinal rules for the OVP, chief among them is that you don't consider any other race when picking the winner-you focus solely on the five performances at hand, and don't worry about if someone already has a trophy or if you know there's a trophy coming to them. If I were considering such things, I might be inclined to go with Virginia Madsen, who is just superb in Sideways and I know will never get a role like this again. But if I'm being honest, I think Cate Blanchett is slightly more successful in The Aviator, and deserves this trophy even if I know she's already got an OVP title. Behind these two are Portman, Linney, and Okonedo, in that order.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Is everyone on Team Cate when it comes to this field, or do you want to make the case for a different lady? Why is it that Oscar is so obsessed with the "devoted wife" role (is it just sexism, or is there something more to it)? And which of Oscar's frequent favorites (Winslet or Streep) nearly added to their tallies in 2004 with a just-miss sixth place? Share your thoughts below!
1 comment:
sadly madsen didnt win!!!
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