Cut the BS Breakdown - Best Actress

This is an unabashed look at each nominee in the big eight Oscar categories. We will look at all the nominees and the various categories. No prisoners are taken, so take heed and gird your loins.

Nominees:
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

Overall Feelings:
There’s something about this that I just don’t feel as a strong group. Maybe it’s because the entire Oscar season led on with Kate Winslet’s performance in The Reader was a supporting performance in every single preliminary awards before the Oscar nominations came around. I was personally blown away by Winslet in Revolutionary Road and thought she gave the best performance of the year. Since she was nominated for the former, so that’s probably my lack of passion for this line-up. I was disappointed that Jolie got in, but looking at it one-by-one besides that, a pretty decent line-up. The thing I am really curious about is if we would be talking about Sally Hawkins possibly winning if she would have been nominated.

My Personal Choice:
I cannot deny the great power of soon to be Oscar-winner Kate Winslet, but my favorite of her performances was not nominated. Since I don’t want to cheat with Winslet twice, I’ll go with the manic selfishness/insanity that is Anne Hathaway. More than any other of the performances, hers is the one that stayed with me more than any other. I can’t say it was just one thing, but a combination of a bunch. The scene describing her brother’s death, the first confrontation with Rachel, the big fight in the living room, the fight with her mother. It’s funny to think about actually, because she has fight after fight but never seems to raise her voice. Take note, Meryl Streep, yelling doesn’t mean intensity.

Who Should Have Been Nominated:
My brain says Sally Hawkins, my gut says Rebecca Hall. I have a tendency to trust my gut. It’s not so much that Hawkins did worst than Hall, I find their performances on just about an equal plain. But, I find Hall to have the more difficult of the two. I know it consisted of more than near-blind optimism, but Hawkins had a common personality to convey with every line, while Hall had to come from many different angles with her character. She’s confused, sexual, bored, engaging and so many others. Just a complex performance with a perfect execution.

Who Should Not Have Been Nominated:
I can’t give Angelina Jolie the benefit of the doubt. I am not one of those people who hates all things Clint Eastwood, but Changeling had so much potential that was just screwed away. I by no means think it was a bad film, but there was a lot that could be happening with less than what little did happen with the amount presented. Jolie had the meaty (if not stereotypical) role of a grieving mother, but didn’t do much of anything with it, short of yelling, “I WANT MY SON BACK!” What subtle nuances did she put into the role? Or, what subtext did she add? A very dull and unimaginative performance that wasn’t bad, but by no means spectacular.

Who Should Win:
It’s hard to balance my desire for Kate Winslet to win an Oscar with my love of Anne Hathaway’s performance. As much as I’d like to say Hathaway, I think she’ll get plenty more chances in the future for a nomination and win, so I’m going to go with Kate Winslet. I argued with another guy on a message board about Gus Van Sant’s chances of winning an Oscar. He argued that it was happening because of the quality of both Milk and Paranoid Park. I said that two good movies is no reason to win, but that is kind of the way I think with Winslet (unlike Van Sant, who has no chance). Her performances in both films were just too great for the Academy to ignore. If she were nominated for Revolutionary Road, I would want say she would win for that (barring a supporting nomination for The Reader. But, since she’s nominated in lead actress for that, she should win…she’s beyond due.

Who Will Win:
I can’t convince myself of anyone else but Kate Winslet. I know Meryl Streep is in the running, but there hasn’t been an award that Winslet has lost except for one. I know most of her wins or nominations have been in supporting, but look at the facts. She has been nominated 10 times for her performance in The Reader, with the only awards she hasn’t won is the Satellite Awards, Online Film Critics Society and the Oscars. The Satellite winners haven’t been announced yet, nor the Oscars. The only award she hasn’t won is the OFCS, in which she was inexplicably defeated by Angelina Jolie. There is no way the Academy overlooks that kind of success.

A Best Actress Poem:
Jolie should have gotten,
A snub for the second year,
At least she has Brad Pitt,
To take care of that rear.

Leo isn’t new,
But she’s getting pretty big,
She just needs more roles,
And at least one de-glam wig.

Streep has a nomination,
Her fifteenth overall,
Sixteen will come soon,
Probably next fall.

Hathaway paid her dues,
Her nomination, her reward,
Give it a few years,
She’ll have an award.

Winslet went on Extras,
Said she need an win,
She get what she wanted,
And be an Oscar winner herein.