Leading Actress 2001

I have seen none of these performances, so it's a fresh category for me! Interested to see just how Berry is in her win - did she deserve it or not?

2001 Best Actress

Halle Berry - Monster's Ball

This is obviously a huge historical moment for black women in film, with Berry becoming the first African-American woman to win the Best Actress award. Not bad for Berry. I've always wondered if it was given based on the merits of the performance or because the Academy finally wanted to give it to a black woman and this year just happened to be historic on a few different levels and it worked out that way. And now I know. It's a God awful win. Like this seriously won? Berry's acting in the beginning is so bad and so cringe worthy that I had to wonder if I was watching the correct movie. Her bumbling, can't do anything right, poor woman shtick is straight out of some Lifetime movie of the week. Her drunk acting before the weird sex scene is horrid and the accent is terrible and the way she says "make me feel good" is comically bad. She can't elevate the dialogue and can't give the scenes any sense of life. It's like watching someone act without a soul, there's no feeling to the character. The romance with Billy Bob Thornton is wholly unbelievable, not helped any by him being a racist douchebag who all the sudden tries to help save Berry's son's life and then falls for her? What? There doesn't seem to be any reason why they'd end up together other than they both lost their sons and are dealing with it by banging each other. But there's no chemistry and no spark and I'm left wondering why this is going on. The end of the movie is the only real acting we get from Berry and it comes way too late to salvage any sort of decent performance, let alone a damn Oscar winning one! The ending is too little, too late though. I just wonder where that complexity of the final scene(s) was throughout the rest of the movie. It would have been nice if Berry could have tried to balance more than one emotion from the beginning. I dunno, I think this may be the Academy trying to garner some goodwill or maybe pat itself on the back for being progressive 74 years too late. It's not a good win or even a good nomination. If this was left off the ballot, would anyone have batted an eye? Would anyone have fought hard for this to be included? I sure as hell hope not! I could go on writing for another hour about how disappointed this win makes me and how terrible this performance is but I need to go to bed. I'll close by saying that it's embarrassing that this is the only performance by a black woman to win Best Actress so far in the history of Oscar. Ugh.

Judi Dench - Iris

This is the third Leading Actress nomination for someone playing a character that becomes afflicted with Alzheimer's disease since I've started this project (although I haven't yet reviewed Julianne Moore's win for Still Alice). So if the old cliche is that in order to get a nomination as an actress you need to uglify yourself, maybe we should add portray a woman with Alzheimer's as well. Dench plays the famous writer Iris Murdoch in her later years as she develops Alzheimer's and has to deal with that reality. I feel like comparing the three performances that I've seen is somewhat unavoidable and necessary. Julianne Moore's work is phenomenal and deserved that Oscar win. She gives a scarily convincing performance of the gradual change. Julie Christie's work in Away From Her more delicately deals with a woman losing the battle with Alzheimer's and her husbands frustrations with the disease and having to put her in a nursing home. Iris at times goes to the extremes of the disease, showing us Dench wandering in traffic, lashing out like a child, and mumbling and shuffling around confused. The film also focuses on showing the contrast of Iris' wild, carefree younger days to try and make the juxtaposition hit the audience harder. It's a sad little film, for sure, but in comparison with the other is the weakest of the three. Dench has the more showy of the three roles and I feel like it's easy to portray the extremes I noted above. It's in the moments of lucidity and realization that are tougher to get across and Dench does an alright job at them but nowhere near as good as the other two. It probably is unfair to compare and I should take this performance on it's own merits but I've seen better and more convincing takes on it. I'm sure this was a more eye opening experience back in 2001 but I don't have the benefit of a time machine so I unfortunately can't react the same way.

Nicole Kidman - Moulin Rouge!

My dislike of Kidman should be apparent by now (although if you're reading this in chronological order, then probably not). I know that she's a talented actress and all that but she just never seems to inspire anything in me besides a meh or legit hatred. And that goes the same for this performance that was touted as being a possible win and part of the reason she won in 2002. Sure, it's alright and it's not bad at all. Kidman ably sings and dances and doesn't look terrible at it like Renee Zellweger in Chicago terrible, thankfully. It's not the highest caliber of singing and dancing, however, so that tempers a lot of enthusiasm for the performance. The good thing is that Baz Lurhman's film calls for a bit of fun overacting which I think Kidman is game enough to accomplish. That's part of the appeal of the whole film and Kidman does nothing to sabotage that feeling of theatricality. The melodrama in her performance works pretty well for the character and she's good at playing disappointed and being a fragile little lamb, so to speak. Thing is, I won't come back to Moulin Rouge! for Kidman. I'll come back because I thoroughly enjoyed the entire film and the whole spectacle of it's pastiche. Sometimes I wish I could see what other people see in Kidman because I'd love to be aboard that hype train as well. Instead, I'm always a little let down that I have to watch her bore me or worse. That's really about all I can sum up for Kidman here, it's perfectly adequate for the film but not a performance that will have me rushing out to sign up for her fan club. I'm sure others think it's fantastic but that's just not me.

Sissy Spacek - In the Bedroom

Before watching this performance, I was concerned that maybe this would be one of those reputation nominations or a veteran nomination. I know I always go on and on about those types in these reviews but I'm glad to say Spacek's performance makes it Oscar worthy on it's own merits. I read other people who thought she didn't do all that much in the role of the grieving mother. I thought she treated the character the right way. In the Bedroom is a film about grief and the different ways it affects us and how we deal with it. Spacek's character is hit hard by the tragedy of her son being killed and becomes a sullen, critical, devastated, quiet mess. Spacek and Wilkinson internalize their grief and deal with it in different ways until it's forced to come out when they confront each other. Spacek understands her character's internal struggle and plays it in a very realistic way. She gets upset at her husband because she doesn't see him grieving the same way she is and thinks he might not care as much that their son is gone. Throughout this characterization, Spacek really shines. The power in her performance resonates equally between what she says and also the silence when she's not saying anything. The two actors work remarkably well together and you can feel the tension of the tragedy on screen as well as the years of unsaid things in the marriage. It's very real and completely un-Hollywood. That's part of what attracts me to the performance so much is that it is very raw and real and an unglamorized look at a mother and wife in grief. It reminds me of Spacek's role in the Netflix series Bloodline, where she plays a matriarch that has had some tragedies in the past. It hits a lot of the same beats as this role does. Some really strong acting from Spacek that I'm ashamed to say I didn't really expect, but glad that I was wrong.

Renee Zellweger - Bridget Jones's Diary

This is a very interesting nomination! I remember that this movie was a big hit at the time and just seemed to tap into the zeitgeist at the right time for whatever reason. It's definitely not the most typical Academy choice, far from it. It's nice that every once in awhile, Oscar will surprise and nominate a comedic performance or something that is completely out of left field. They do it every so often and it restores my faith in the Academy every time. While not the most convincing of British accents (even though she was praised for it), it's easy to see why the public and the Academy would fall in love with Zellweger here. Sure, we would get tired of her in the coming years especially since she was nominated the next two but the first one is inspired. Bridget Jones the character is just a a funny, charming, goofy girl that's easily likable and very easy to relate to. She brings the comedy but also the emotional depth that the character absolutely needs to succeed. She's able to blend the two and make a pretty good character out of it, can't really ask for more. The movie itself is a quick, fun watch and Zellweger is the main attraction, unless you came for Colin Firth or Hugh Grant. I'm all for more fun nominations like this. It doesn't deserve to win but I'm very glad that it's part of the history of Oscar. The more comedic roles, the better especially for women.

After watching this group, especially after watching Halle Berry to end the group, I feel defeated. I feel let down. I feel like I need a strong Best Actress group in the near future to pick me back up because I can't take much more of the awful and mediocre performances touted as being amazing and being actual winners. Berry is the clear loser for me. It's kind of unfair that I judged Dench on the other two Alzheimer's performances but her's just doesn't stack up at all. So I can't really bump her up in my list. Zellweger was just glad to be there in a rom-com role but it's one I'd watch again if nothing else was on and I was bored. Faint praise but still an interesting inclusion. Kidman is next solely because she was adequate for the part and didn't suck. Sissy Spacek was great I thought. I'd have given her another Oscar easily in a very underwhelming group. I have no idea if I will award a black woman with the top prize as I go back in time but I feel that's a distinction that shouldn't just be handed out because the Academy feels bad or they feel like they need to get it over with. It's sad that in my Oscar world there are no black female winners yet, but I blame the Academy for not nominating enough of them to even be considered.

Oscar Winner: Halle Berry - Monster's Ball
My Winner:   Sissy Spacek - In the Bedroom
Nicole Kidman
Renee Zellweger
Judi Dench
Halle Berry