There's two films/performances in this group that I've been waiting to see for awhile so I'm pumped for that. I've seen the other three though I can't complain about having to watch them again. I have a feeling this is going to be another strong Supporting Actor group. On to my favorite category!
1997 Best Supporting Actor
Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting
I always get this role mixed up with his Dead Poets Society one or at least I fuse them together. This one is the more grounded performance and I feel like it is one of Robin Williams' best of his career. He is the psychologist who is able to get through to Matt Damon's character in part because he's been in Damon's shoes before. That life experience is communicated well and contrasted at various points with how Will doesn't have much life experience and needs to get out and experience the world. It's believable to me that Williams was a genius who followed a girl instead of his intellectual pursuits and settled down into a comfortable life. I've talked a lot of about sincerity when discussing Good Will Hunting and Williams has it in spades here in this performance. His anger, resentment, hopefulness, embarrassment, pride, and love are real and palpable because Williams loses himself in the character. I don't care about accents as I've read a bit about how he doesn't have a convincing Boston accent and people putting down the performance for that. Who cares? It comes out every now and then but I'm focused on the character as a man and how he interacts with Will and it's very heartfelt and natural. Williams tones down his humor and antics but they are still there, just more subtle and more fitting for the role. I just really like how serious and helping Williams is in this role. He's able to blend together all the things we like about him and create a very relatable character. I think I might be in the minority on this one but I feel Williams more than holds his own in this film and delivers a very good performance.
Robert Forster - Jackie Brown
This was the last Tarantino film I hadn't watched and I can't really explain why I hadn't seen it until now, other than waiting to watch it for this performance. But hey, two new Tarantino films in one year for me! Though this film doesn't feel like typical Tarantino probably because it's his only film that is adapted from another source. Anyway, Forster plays a bail bondsman who becomes infatuated with Pam Grier's character and they hatch a plan to sort of double cross her weapons peddling boss and the cops who arrested her. He is the same Robert Forster as you've always known. The sour face, hard ass demeanor, tough looking dude playing an authority figure. The twist is that he falls for Pam Grier and we get to see the sensitive side. Forster plays a good guy and his helping out Grier feels genuine. His performance is good and adds to an overall decent film. By the end, you are rooting for him to go with Grier to Spain but I understand the choice to not have him go. He's the kind of guy that's married to his job and won't take any risks in forgoing all of that. And while Forster played his typical character, I really liked Robert De Niro in this film. His character was a bit quiet and a loner of sorts and I thought he really shined. But of course, this resurrected Forster's, and Grier's, careers so it makes sense that he would get the nomination from the film. It's good but it won't blow you away, much like his career overall.
Anthony Hopkins - Amistad
People forget that Amistad is a Steven Spielberg film but it undoubtedly is one. Anthony Hopkins is very much a Steven Spielberg character even though he's playing former President John Quincy Adams. By that I mean he's so morally good it's hard not to like him. It helps that he's arguing for the black people who were aboard the slave ship Amistad to be declared free men and returned to Africa. I mean, what is more righteous than that? Therein lies the typical Spielberg character and Hopkins does a fine job of portraying that ideal. It's actually a really likable character without being too righteous and perfect. Hopkins plays the elderly Adams with some vim and vigor, constantly having him on the move and looking like a doddering old fool when he's far from it. He's still sharp as a tack as evidenced by his introduction where he's sleeping in the House of Representatives while a colleague talks to him thinking he's asleep but Adams rebuts with a stinging barb all while eyes closed and feet up. That's the kind of man and character and performance we are dealing with. Hopkins has great fun with it and in turn we get to laugh and smile along with him at his whimsical but serious role. He's great, too, at giving one of those Spielberg speeches about some good thing this one being a speech to the Supreme Court. Hopkins shines in this moment and flexes those acting muscles that already won him an Oscar. If he hadn't won an Oscar before, I could see there being a considerable amount of people pushing for this to be the winner. As it stands, he was still in the grace period after his win that he could get nominated for anything. In fact this would be his last nomination, but it definitely could have won because it's so fun and just good in general.
Greg Kinnear - As Good as It Gets
Kinnear plays a gay painter who lives in the same apartment building as Nicholson and seems to constantly catch Jack's ire. He gets attacked by burglars and is the catalyst so to speak for the film's events. If Kinnear's character wasn't gay in this film, would he have been nominated? I don't say that to bash gays or start trouble, just that if Kinnear was just a normal dude would the Academy have paid attention? The film was a big hit in 1997 so I think it could have been included because of the success of the film and the other actors. I only ask because without the personality quirks and foibles is this a strong character still? Kinnear does a good enough job in the role that I think it would have been a possibility. Anyway, I'm typing myself into a corner when my point was that the homosexual part of the role is what makes it memorable as opposed to if Kinnear played it straight. I know that can be a dumb question because changing that character changes the entire rest of the story so it's essentially a moot point. Kinnear does a fine job as Nicholson's whipping boy and brings some small laughs and has some emotional moments with which to toy around with but I'd rather have had an actual gay man play this role. Though, that's not to say Kinnear overacts the part at all, he's actually very subdued and only brings out the mannerisms when it suits the film. I think that might be partially an acting choice but also some lazy writing, too. It doesn't help that Nicholson dominates the film so any spotlight on a supporting character is quickly snuffed out. For me, this is just a performance that's there and gets swept up alongside the other nominations for the film. It's not bad and I'm glad Kinnear plays his character in a toned down version, but ultimately it doesn't do all that much for me.
Burt Reynolds - Boogie Nights
There was a lot going on with this nomination for Burt Reynolds. He actually fired most of his team of managers and agent and whatnot because he hated Boogie Nights and thought it was going to be awful. He also had on set issues with director Paul Thomas Anderson so go figure that he ended up winning the Golden Globe for this performance and was nominated here. It was thought that if Reynolds played ball and didn't have all this baggage surrounding him, he probably would have won the Oscar. I see his nomination as one like a slew of other actors in a similar predicament including Eddie Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Bill Murray, and probably others I'm forgetting. These are the veteran actors making a comeback after years of not being around who were at some point expected to win Oscars before something got derailed and another actor won. Reynolds was really good in his performance as the tawdry porn director who stays mostly even keeled through the whole film save for a dramatic, explosive fight near the end. But he is mostly a calming influence on the film and on his actors. He's a director who isn't perturbed by things he sees since he films sex all day and his stable of actors routinely do drugs at his parties. I mention this because while everyone else in the film has these emotional or somewhat psychotic breakdowns, Reynolds is quietly there doing his thing. He's also the father figure to his porn actors and he plays that part perfectly. He controls those around him not because he's the prototypical evil porn guy taking advantage of people but because he sincerely thinks of himself as a filmmaker and wants to make the best films he can. So there's this quiet determinism in Reynold's performance where things are more about the art than the sex, which is obviously the bonus. It was a really good performance and it's a shame that Reynolds himself didn't think so because he definitely could have won an Oscar for it.
Thank God for Best Supporting Actor, especially since it always comes after Supporting Actress. It's always a nice palate cleanser and usually the best part of each year. This year was very good as usual, with no one giving a bad performance at all. Kinnear brings up the rear just because he could have been so much better and used in a way better way. Then it becomes really hard. I'll go with Burt Reynolds as my 4th even when the guy probably could have won the whole thing if he hadn't been such a baby about the film. I like his performance but he's more of a quiet, father figure that doesn't wow too much. Forster is my 3rd because he's grown on me so much since I saw his performance only like 3 days ago. It's a pretty chill performance but I like it more and more after thinking about it. My 2nd would be Hopkins because his John Quincy Adams is so fun. You can't not like him. And my winner would be the same as the Academy with Williams. I think it's a very strong performance from him and I'm totally okay with the win. This year was really good and I hope next year can top it.
Oscar Winner: Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting
My Winner: Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting
Anthony Hopkins
Robert Forster
Burt Reynolds
Greg Kinnear
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