OVP: Best Actor (2002)
The Nominees Were...
Adrien Brody, The Pianist
Nicolas Cage, Adaptation
Michael Caine, The Quiet American
Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York
Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt
My Thoughts: We are hitting the Top 5, and one of the rare races in Academy history that featured five winners (four previous, one on Oscar night, and one guy who'd win two more in the years that followed). I've talked a lot about the Oscar ceremony in 2002 for a couple of reasons. First, I remember it vividly (we're still in the era where I was hyper-aware of the Oscar race and religiously reading magazines & articles about it online). Second, we're going to hit a time relatively soon (probably in 2024 based on the pace of these articles) where I didn't actually watch the Oscars because I wasn't old enough (my first Oscars was 1994, my first completed Oscars where I was genuinely following along was 1995) and so I want to get out my first-hand knowledge while I can. But the biggest reason is that 2002 was one of those rare years where pretty much everything was up-in-the-air...and on Oscar night, surprises abounded.
One of those surprises happened in this race, when Adrien Brody stunned everyone in the Kodak Theater (particularly Halle Berry) when he won the Oscar. As you'll see in the precursors, Brody wasn't the favorite here (it was thought to be a battle between Daniel Day-Lewis & Jack Nicholson). Still, the Academy had good taste. Brody, for all of the career setbacks that happened after this, gives an astounding, lived-in performance in The Pianist, the way that he takes this gregarious, charming man at the onset and continually has to look inward as the world takes & takes away everything that he has to give. He truly makes the film.
Nicholson was clearly hoping to get that fourth Oscar and tie Kate Hepburn in 2002, and I suspect was close to victory. His work here is not reminiscent of much of the "Wacky Jack" that we came to expect in the 1990's (culminating in his third Oscar win for As Good As It Gets), and it pays off, giving us a complete performance of an incomplete man. I love the way that he internally wrestles in the earlier half of the movie between feelings he knows are wrong and feelings that he can't help but share...it feels realistic to show a brittle man, only capable of a modicum of change.
All of these men have Oscars, but only Michael Caine doesn't have one for lead actor, a point he made in 2002 when he was pushing hard for this citation. I think Caine is very good here (I honestly think this is the best Oscar lineup in a year that's sprinkled with them-2002 is a vintage that has held up), playing a deeply complicated man trying to fight for the affections of one woman. What makes Caine's acting so specific (I'm a fan) is the way that he can switch so evenly between a calming demeanor and destroying a man's soul in the blink of an eye. In some ways I liken him to Anthony Hopkins, where he's miraculous at one skill-set, and knows just how to use it in each character, which he does here.
Nicolas Cage's performance in Adaptation to some degree marked the end of Cage's career as a serious actor for the next couple of decades (countless direct-to-video movies, a weird feud with Sean Penn, and eventually parodying himself on film would ensue), but it's a nice swan song to one of the more inventive actors of the 1990's. Cage suffers the most at the hands of Charlie Kaufman's wandering typewriter, but in the first half he's really excellent as two men, one fictional, one real, and does a good job deciphering the two figures for the audience.
Our final nomination is for Daniel Day-Lewis, in what might have been his most immersive role-to-date. Bill the Butcher, where he literally covered his eye with glass to simulate having a glass eye (what?!?) might be something he hopefully took up with a therapist (I'm sorry, I love him, but that's too method for me), but the work stands for itself. Day-Lewis is astounding, stealing every scene he's in, and honestly saving the movie himself. No one else is doing what he's doing here, creating the kind of Travis Bickle-style figure that Scorsese specializes in, but putting him in the middle of Civil War-Era New York City. What results is one of the best pieces of work from one of our most committed thespians.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes break out their nominees between Drama and Comedy/Musical, so we have ten names from their ceremony. Drama went with Nicholson atop Brody, Caine, Day-Lewis, & Leonardo DiCaprio (Catch Me If You Can), while Comedy/Musical gave their statue to Richard Gere (Chicago) atop Cage, Kieran Culkin (Igby Goes Down), Hugh Grant (About a Boy), and Adam Sandler (Punch-Drunk Love). The SAG Award went to Day-Lewis, and was nearly the Oscar lineup except Caine was skipped for Gere. BAFTA also went to Day-Lewis, and they had the Oscar lineup verbatim. Gere almost certainly was sixth place, and in a similar fashion to Dennis Quaid & Alfred Molina in supporting, his best shot (to that point) for Oscar glory didn't result in any nominations in the years that followed.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: As I said above, this is a terrific lineup-no bad performances, no even middling performances, all ranging from brilliant-to-very-good. But there's room for improvement. Specifically Leonardo DiCaprio's best bit of acting (in Catch Me If You Can) deserved some sort of inclusion here-he's never been this natural & movie star charismatic in the years since.
Oscar’s Choice: Brody, likely due to the strong movement toward The Pianist (and the fact that everyone else in the lineup already had Oscars), pulled off an iconic win that would be impossible for his career to top in the decades that followed.
My Choice: Brody gets it. In a strong lineup, he gives physically & emotionally the most captivating performance of the quintet. I'd follow him with Day-Lewis, and then Nicholson, Caine, & Cage.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Is everyone here on Team Brody (a win that looks pretty strong in retrospect) or does someone want to advocate for the other legends? Who came closer to the victory-Jack or DDL? And will Richard Gere ever find his way into this mix again? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
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