OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2003)
The Nominees Were...
Alec Baldwin, The Cooler
Benicio del Toro, 21 Grams
Djimon Hounsou, In America
Tim Robbins, Mystic River
Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai
My Thoughts: Okay, we are in the home stretch now with the acting trophies for 2003 being awarded, and as always we will start with Best Supporting Actor. This is a category that gets a bum rap from Oscar, partially because Oscar's tastes are a bit stodgy (generally awarding men in near-lead performances in their 40's & 50's for mentor roles in biopics), but it's worth noting that while some of these figures are inspired by real-life people, none of them are based on particularly commonplace celebrity names. So before I get to the bad news, I want to commend Oscar on giving us a lineup that is "biopic" free.
That being said, this is one of the worst lineups in this category, mostly because it's just so damned boring. A good personification of that is Alec Baldwin's nomination for The Cooler. Baldwin is a bit of a controversial celebrity, sometimes for reasons outside his control (it seems clear that the Halyna Hutchins death was, at the very least, not his fault since he wasn't the prop-master) and some within it (his famously violent temper), but he has acting chops (his work on 30 Rock being the true highlight of his long career). The Cooler is his sole Oscar nomination, so I wouldn't normally complain as I tend to not get too mad when longtime actors get their only nod, but this is a dull movie & it's not a knowing performance. He gets some solid monologues, and it kind of changed the trajectory of Baldwin's career from struggling leading man into successful character actor, but it's blasé. There's nothing special in this.
The same can be said for Benicio del Toro, who at least is the best in cast of 21 Grams (pity poor Naomi Watts who we'll get to in the next week). Del Toro's work here as a born-again Christian who accidentally kills two people in a car accident is definitely one that seems the most embedded into a script that feels more focused on depression & histrionics than fleshing out the cast. But it's more a performance in theory-the writing doesn't allow for you to see much beyond Del Toro's actions, wanting instead to just torture him further as the film progresses. It becomes, therefore, more promise than delivery and it's hard to give too much credit for something akin to Schrodinger's Performance.
Ken Watanabe does better, mostly because his character is given a proper arch in The Last Samurai. This is the film that led US audiences to know who Watanabe was, and this is because he generally delivers, going toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise, which at least at this point in his career was something you should brag about, and giving some fantastic monologues. The Last Samurai is not a great movie, and there are moments where Watanabe can't escape either the cringeworthy imperialism of the script (the white savior angle is inescapable in this movie), nor can he get past some of the hokier moments toward the end. But this is not a bad performance, even if it's suspect if it should've been nominated for an Oscar.
The same can be said for Tim Robbins, a very fine actor who got his only acting nomination (to date) for Mystic River (he was cited for Best Director in 1995, so we'll eventually discuss him again). Robbins' work here isn't as subtle or as mesmerizing as some of his costars (either his leading man Penn or his onscreen wife Harden), but it's still sturdy work. Robbins is given the showiest role (a victim of sexual abuse that is slowly losing his mind), but in some of the later moments of the film, this becomes a bit of his downfall (Robbins as an actor is prone to overdoing it, and can't match Penn's rage with his own blubbering fear). Still, not a bad performance, and unlike Watanabe, he gets a good movie to cover his tracks.
Which brings us to Djimon Hounsou. I have yet to see Hounsou's first major role in Amistad, the one prestige Oscar role he didn't get nominated for, but I will admit that he is not an actor I have enjoyed so far in our OVP discussions. His work as a gay man falls flat, with it frequently feeling like they're playing this dying, eccentric man's pain for laughs or for a way to further normalize the central couple, and it feels icky (even for 2003). Hounsou, like Robbins, does not handle big moments well, being prone to overacting, and that is a big deal as the movie progresses & his plotline becomes less tethered to reality. I'm hopeful that we'll end on a high note with Amistad, but so far his Oscar nominated roles were amongst my least favorites Oscar nominated in the Aughts.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Tim Robbins as their winner, beating out Baldwin, Watanabe, Albert Finney (Big Fish), William H. Macy (Seabiscuit), & Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass). SAG also went for Robbins, besting Baldwin, Cooper (Seabiscuit), del Toro, & Watanabe, while BAFTA went a completely different path choosing Bill Nighy (Love Actually) as their winner against Finney, Robbins, Paul Bettany (Master and Commander), & Ian McKellen (The Return of the King). If I had to guess (I did live through this Oscar season), I think the Seabiscuit actors split (Jeff Bridges was also an option, and we know Oscar loves Jeff Bridges), so it was probably either Sarsgaard or Bettany, and I think I'd go with the former because Oscar was less averse to nominating a film solely for an acting contender in 2003 than he is now.
Performances I Would Have Nominated: We are probably a little over a week away from the My Ballot, so I'm not going to share too much in the next few articles to save that for a grand finale, but Oscar's genre bias was truly showing in not nominating its Best Picture nominee Return of the King, which is teaming with great supporting work, for anything here. I mean, come on.
Oscar’s Choice: Robbins, never awarded after a relatively impressive 1990's that featured a few classics, was an easy choice, not only because he was from a major Best Picture contender, but also because at the time the idea of "his-and-hers" Oscars for he & then-partner Susan Sarandon was a cute idea.
My Choice: Only Watanabe & Robbins really work for me in this group, and I think I favor Watanabe ever-so-slightly against Robbins, given he does less with more, and doesn't have the crutch of a good film to get him there. Following these two I'll do del Toro, Baldwin, & Hounsou.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Do you join most everyone in going for Robbins or are you willing to stay in my corner with Watanabe? What is genuinely the best performance of Alec Baldwin's film career (i.e. if you don't like him in The Cooler, is there a point he should've been nominated)? And which Return of the King role are you most mad didn't get in here? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019
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