This is actually the first category that I can remember for this project where I haven't seen one of the 5 performances nominated. That's exciting because it means endless possibilities for what I might see! I'm always hoping to find a new favorite and always curious to scratch an itch for a film I've been interested in seeing for a long time like Shakespeare in Love.
1998 Best Supporting Actress
Judi Dench - Shakespeare in Love
This is one of the shortest winning performances of all time. I'd have to set my watch but it can't be more than 5 or 6 minutes. Dench plays Queen Elizabeth I and only has three total scenes in the film. I think with the performance being so short that I would expect something that completely wows me and knocks me on my ass. Dench doesn't do that but she does dominate every scene she's in, which shouldn't be hard given she's the Queen. The first scene is quick, she's watching a Shakespeare play and is hacking up a lung, has bad teeth, and looks bald while enjoying a dog do tricks. Then she gives the blessing for Paltrow to marry Colin Firth and gets in some stinging one liners. Then she reveals herself to be at the showing of Romeo and Juliet at the end and comes on stage and says that Paltrow is in fact a man to save her from any trouble and then walks out and has a nice, funny moment where she waits for her entourage to throw their coats down over a puddle but they take too long so she walks in it anyway into her carriage. The fact that I could sum up her entire performance in detail for this blurb should let you know how short it was. Did she dominate? Yes, but is that enough to give her the Oscar? I'm not sure because while she was good and entertaining, I could imagine someone else putting in lots of work giving a more well rounded performance. This was just Judi Dench playing the Queen and when everyone bows and defers to you, of course you dominate scenes. It's possible she was swept up in the Miramax lead charge of Shakespeare in Love winning a whole bunch of awards, for being older, and for not having an Oscar yet. She would go on to get 5 more nominations and counting, some of which were better, so how important was this win exactly? It's an entertaining role just like the film, but I don't think a 5 minute performance deserves an Oscar.
Kathy Bates - Primary Colors
What an interesting film to watch in this day and age, with Hillary Clinton vying for the Democratic Nomination for President. Makes it seem a little extra poignant since it basically tells the story of Bill's run in 1992. You could draw parallels with Obama or even Bernie Sanders in some regards but I'm not here to talk politics, I'm here to talk about Kathy Bates. Bates plays a friend of the Stanton's who is a no-nonsense, ball busting information gatherer. She's got a history with the Stanton's and they need her to help dig up some rumors and dirt, which she seems to be an expert at doing. Her being a lesbian is really just a throwaway gag meant to illicit a response of surprise from the audience since it has absolutely no bearing on her character or the film. Bates is as you would expect her to be. She has played this type of character quite a few times so the role seems familiar and she gives the film a little pop that is much needed. She's a smart mouthed, take no shit, southern woman who gets the job done when needed. Bates is at ease with her character and is in full command of her role, which means she comes into a scene, kicks it's ass, then leaves. What I didn't like was the story sacrificing her character for a little shock value that felt so emotionally wasted and forced and so contrary to her character that you wonder where the moment came from even though you see it coming from a mile away. I think she was a victim of the script that wanted to be so many different things that it became a jumble at the end and we got a weirdly mixed performance from Bates. It's not her fault as I thought she was great until the end when she became a little too disturbed by the game she'd been playing for decades. Either way, this was really the only competition for Judi Dench. I personally liked it (it vaguely reminded me of her character on The Office in a roundabout way) even if it could have been better.
Brenda Blethyn - Little Voice
Yikes, this is a tough performance to suffer through because Blethyn's character is so irredeemably awful. Blethyn portrays a woman whose daughter is very quiet and a shut in but can sing as well as all the famous women in music. Like I said, the character is so awfully annoying that it's hard to get past her and even want to focus on the performance and the film. Her character literally never shuts the hell up, continually squawking about anything and everything and nothing and just being an overall lewd, crude, and loud woman. I get that this is what the character is supposed to be like but if you can stomach sitting through her screen time, good on you. She talks in this highly annoying English accent and must say every British slang word known to man, so it can be hard to follow if you don't have captions on. I guess you can commend Blethyn's dedication to such a shitty woman and for creating a character I instantly disliked because she excels at doing both of those things. Obviously, that's more to do with the story than Blethyn but by association I just don't like it. Honestly, it's hard to get past how awful and annoying the character is which is kind of unfair in judging the performance. Blethyn is good at being bad but I never want to watch this weird little movie ever again, in large part because of her character. You can take that as praise if you want to or not, but watch it and you'll see what I mean.
Rachel Griffiths - Hilary and Jackie
I had the hardest time finding this movie which has made me start worrying about how soon I'm going to run into not being able to find a certain film/performance. All that effort to watch it on a Chinese website and the movie was pretty blah and this performance was mostly meh. Griffiths plays the Hilary part of the title and is the older sister of the two women. She was a highly regarded flautist when she was a kid but eventually her sister surpassed her in ability playing the cello. So what we get is a movie about sisterhood and jealousy and family and ambition. As Hilary gets older she isn't as interested in continuing to perform music and is content to settle down and get married and raise a family in the country. Jackie goes on to be world famous yet when visiting her sister we see she is somewhat jealous of Hilary's normal life and wants to be loved like she is, even asking to sleep with Hilary's husband. Eventually Jackie gets sick and the two, who have been estranged, make up before she kicks the bucket. Griffiths doesn't get a lot to do in this picture, as most of the heavy lifting is from Jackie. Griffiths settles down and tries to placate her sister throughout the movie as she also tries to live her life. Thing is, neither of them feel like actual sisters, more like actresses playing sisters as their is no legit chemistry between them which of course makes their sisterly scenes fall flat. There's no big Oscar moment, either, for Griffiths unless you want to count the ending scene. She just kinda moves through scene after scene acting mostly the same: either concerned for her sister or happy for her sister and not much else. It's a satisfactory performance, one that I would have liked more variation out of Griffiths but I guess it's okay for what it is. It's certainly not the worst performance of the group!
Lynn Redgrave - Gods and Monsters
I'm not really sure what all to say about this brief performance. She's in the whole film but she never really does all that much of note. Redgrave plays a maid to Ian McKellen's character and besides doing maid things, doesn't really register on the story. She is only notable because she has either an Eastern European or Russian accent and sometimes chides McKellen for his dalliances. She is stooped over and certainly looks the part and has the air of the maid down pat but obviously I'm finding it difficult to say much more about her performance. It doesn't stand out which suggests to me that this was a veteran nomination for a respected member of a historic acting family and this was the Academy's chance to reward her again in a very weak year. I wish I could understand what people saw in this to nominate it, as I was really hoping for a lot more than just a maid.
This has got to be one of the worst categories I've come across on my journey so far. And of course it's the category I like the least. There's honestly not much to these performance and this is just a super weak year. I can't believe there weren't other, more deserving performances out there somewhere. The bottom three is a jumbled mess. Blethyn is one of the worst characters I've seen so far, to the point I wanted to stop watching the movie. Redgrave barely does anything, maybe supplying a little bit of comic relief but really just being a maid on camera. Griffiths sleepwalks through her performance and refuses to wrestle any of the moments from Emily Watson. Then you've got the two who were clearly going head to head for a win and I can't really hype either of them too much. Dench has limited screen time but at least makes the most out of it. Bates' character is screwed over by the story thus limiting her performance. At least Bates has an adequate amount of screen time to establish her character, though. As far as the Academy goes, Dench's win is fine by me if it means her other, future nominations stay as just nominations. Bates already has an Oscar so how do you pick a winner? I probably would have wanted Bates to win back in 1998, but I'm okay with Dench getting the win. I really don't care about this race or category, honestly, which hurts to say.
Oscar Winner: Judi Dench - Shakespeare in Love
My Winner: Judi Dench - Shakespeare in Love
Kathy Bates
Rachel Griffiths
Lynn Redgrave
Brenda Blethyn
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