OVP: Best Actor (2006)
The Nominees Were...
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
My Thoughts: We are not keeping track of which acting lineups are the worst, though maybe someday I'll go back & give out that prize. Best Actor of 2006, while probably not the worst, is definitely one of the least-inspired lineups in Oscar history. There were better choices even in a weak year (we'll get to them next week when we conclude our 2006 run with a My Ballot post), but Oscar didn't take them. The men of this lineup, several of them have given truly seismic, film-defining performances, but here we are at best getting to the adequate.
We'll start with the winner of the trophy, and the only man of this bunch to be a one-and-done Oscar nominee (honestly, a rarity for Best Actor), Forest Whitaker. Whitaker has spent most of his career either directing or taking on supporting parts, but here he is central stage as Idi Amin. This is a showy role, one that Whitaker cannot seem to ground, playing him to the hilt. He gets some points for being able to convey a realistic madness through the character, particularly toward the end when his paranoia's scope sets in, but there's too much scenery-chewing and not enough back-and-forth chemistry with James McAvoy. This is kind of a textbook definition of Oscar getting enamored with a biopic without really standing back to see if the movie has any merit.
Whitaker, though, brings that madness to his character that I found interesting even if it didn't ultimately work. I have nothing really redeemable to say about Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness. The picture itself is schmaltzy garbage (and that deliberate typo in the title is maddening), and Smith is the kind of actor who will lean into the schmaltz rather than elevate it. His work here as a man about to be evicted from his home who eventually becomes a millionaire brokerage firm manager is the kind of uplifting story that makes for great Today Show copy, but rarely can transform into intriguing acting, and Smith mines it for easy tears without ever giving us a complicated look at our principle character.
Peter O'Toole, at least, is trying. In his last of eight nominations, O'Toole plays a dying lothario who is romancing a young woman through wooing her since he has been rendered impotent by his prostate cancer. O'Toole is saddled with a very weird film, one that doesn't quite gel (Jodie Whittaker's Jessie is underwritten & Whittaker can't fix that), but he makes it work. O'Toole is a fine actor, and this is a solid bit of character study in a strange film. O'Toole occasionally veers into coasting on his film legend status, perhaps because even he doesn't know what to do with this atypical approach to a cancer drama, but this isn't entirely a "legend getting in for being old situation"-O'Toole is genuinely good in the movie.
This is not something I can say for Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio gave a complex, fascinating look at privilege, crime, & loyalty in The Departed, which was nominated for Best Picture & would've been among his best citations from the Academy...so of course Oscar decides to reward him for a film & piece-of-work that is every bit The Departed's inferior. It's difficult to believe, considering this is his signature as an actor, but DiCaprio's work here is without charm, unable to gain chemistry with Jennifer Connelly & he falls flat in the final hour of the movie once his opportunity for banter has left. Leo DiCaprio is a great actor, but similar to Rosalind Russell & Spencer Tracy, he was too often-cited for work that didn't play to his strengths, which is light comedy & soapy romance (Blood Diamond is neither of those things).
Our final nominee is Ryan Gosling, who was graduating here from The Notebook heartthrob into a very serious actor; it's hard to remember, but there was once a time when Gosling's ability in front of the camera wasn't yet proven. His work as an unorthodox teacher is, like all of the men in this category, in a movie that doesn't quite work. Half Nelson is the best of these movies, but it's still a cliched education drama with familiar beats. Unlike DiCaprio or Smith, though, Gosling elevates the work & makes it a much better movie. He gives a subdued, informed performance as Dan Dunne, someone who is both an authority figure but also a bit lost in his own maturity. That juxtaposition feels solid for Gosling's wheelhouse, and I'm glad Oscar was paying attention to such a small movie.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes of course break out their nominees between Drama and Comedy/Musical, so we have ten names from their ceremony. Drama gave us most of the Oscar lineup, with Gosling out and Leo DiCaprio (double-nominated) in for The Departed (Whitaker won), while Comedy/Musical went to Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) over Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean 2), Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots), & Will Ferrell (Stranger than Fiction). SAG went exactly for Oscar's lineup (winner & nominees), while BAFTA totally did its own thing-Whitaker won, but beat Leo (for The Departed), O'Toole, Daniel Craig (Casino Royale), & Richard Griffiths (The History Boys). In terms of sixth place, the only logical answer is Sacha Baron Cohen, which would've been a mind-bend kind of nomination-you could make an argument for Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine) or Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima) since they are in Best Picture contenders, but as someone who lived through this Oscar race, there was real talk about Baron Cohen getting the spot.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: Well, I would've cited DiCaprio for the right movie, that's for darn sure. I also know I'm sounding like a broken record here, but two years after the Academy invited Clive Owen to the club with his (deserving) work in Closer, why exactly did they skip out on nominating him for the best performance of his career in Children of Men?
Oscar’s Choice: Easy win for Whitaker. A bit perplexing in hindsight, but like I said above, sometimes Oscar just gets the biggest crush on a biopic performance & the fever doesn't break until it's too late (and hey, Whitaker is better than Rami Malek).
My Choice: I'm going to go with Gosling over O'Toole, since he does a bit better with incorporating his performance into the film in question. Behind them would be Whitaker, DiCaprio, & Smith.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Are you joining the stampede for Whitaker or will you stay in detention with Ryan Gosling & I? Would Maria Bakalova's bizarre awards run earlier this year have felt so strange if SBC had gotten the fifth slot here? And what is the weakest ever Oscar acting lineup? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
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