I hate to sound like a broken record but I'm not that excited to go through this group. I already know based off reputation and reading things online that this isn't a particularly strong group. My only hope is that the winner is worthy and that there may be something that hits my sweet spots.
1991 Best Supporting Actress
Mercedes Ruehl - The Fisher King
I was super interested in watching this film and performance because of two things: first being that I didn't know this actress at all and here she is winning an Oscar, and second being that it's a Terry Gilliam film. That man has made some of the most visually astounding films like Brazil, Time Bandits, Monty Python, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and The Zero Theorem. He's got great style and I'm glad it's put to good use here as well. But this review is about Mercedes Ruehl who plays the girlfriend of Jeff Bridges. She's a very New York woman with a thick accent and tough, take no shit demeanor. She runs a video store and helps Bridges get Williams and his crush together. She's sincere and genuine and very supportive of her boyfriend and of Williams. If she wasn't the winner, I would have said that she got nominated by riding the coattails of Williams. Honestly, while watching her performance I didn't see exactly what made it a winner. I'm still a bit confused about it other than it's a very capable performance. She's very likable and sweet while also being a bit of a force whenever she's onscreen. I'd say that's the plus of Ruehl is that she makes you pay attention to her even though she is a textbook Supporting character. She definitely helps the scenes she's in and actually stands out a bit more than other supporting characters do but I'll have to watch the rest of this group to see if she was the only real choice.
Diane Ladd - Rambling Rose
Ehhh. That pretty much sums up this performance. Ladd is okay, but the film is beyond awful. This might truly be one of the few films I unequivocally hate as a film. The performances are what they are. I don't think it deserved two acting nominations at all because neither inspire much of anything in me, though. It's a very weird film about a poor girl who is essentially a big slut who loves attention from men and plays innocent and coy like she's a child but she knows full well what she's doing. She moves in with a very odd, eccentric family as their helper and issues surround the woman ensue. Ladd plays the mother of the house who is a space cadet (not literally) and just a strange, strange woman. She's trying to get her PhD from school and is partially deaf and talks very matter of factly with her kids about everything. She's just a very odd duck and not in a way that is memorable or cute or funny or Oscar worthy. It's just in a way that's somewhat unsettling. And that's the thing for the performance is that sure, Ladd is good at being kinda creepy but I don't think that's what the character or Ladd was meant to be like at all. I think the main reason both Dern and Ladd are nominated is because they are mother and daughter in real life. I think the Academy really liked that synergy and wanted to nominate them both for the same movie and did. I also think that Dern got it because of that reason and because they wanted to build up her star power. The film, though, is so bad that I never want to watch it again. It makes no sense and it's got such a creepy vibe that I can't see very many people liking this one.
Juliette Lewis - Cape Fear
Sometimes I read about a film or performance before watching it to get a good idea of what I'm in for. Now, I've gone on and on about that in my previous blogs about whether I should or should not read reviews and criticisms. I'm fine with gauging whether or not I'm going to like something or not. I didn't expect much from Lewis in this performance but I'll say I was pleasantly surprised. I read how others thought her character was annoying, which I can understand. But I think that she captures what a teenager is in her performance. She's carefree and gullible. She is enamored with what she perceives as positive attention from the villain Max Cady and essentially forms a crush on him. Lewis sells all of that as being realistic for her character. It is utterly believable. Even if you find it annoying or frustrating because she falls for the bad guy in a juvenile way, it's still authentic and natural. She is a fully formed character which has been hard to find lately in this category. And that's all thanks to Lewis who portrays her character with a lot of maturity in her acting ability while still being the ditzy, goofy, malleable teenager. By that I mean, she was about 17-18 when this was filmed but seems much older as an actress with the choices she makes and the way she interacts with everyone else. Lewis surprised me with how interesting she made her character out to be. Lewis is a very good supporting character and will be hard to beat as of right now.
Kate Nelligan - The Prince of Tides
Ugh, this movie. This is just not a good movie and not something I would ever seek out on my own. The conceit isn't very interesting and I'm not a Streisand fan so watching this was brutal. Watching this performance was no fun, either. Nelligan plays a sort of dual role. She plays the mother of Nick Nolte, both when he was a young boy and when he was an adult (and therefore actually Nick Nolte and not a child actor). Thing is, Nelligan is 9 years younger than Nolte and is playing his mother in this movie. Even though Nelligan has been gussied up to look older, she still doesn't really look older. A minor quibble, no doubt, but there's not a whole lot to the performance so when she doesn't quite look old enough it becomes a bigger issue. I guess the main thing the performance has going for it is that Nelligan's character gives her abusive husband some crap (or dog food) right back. She doesn't really have much presence when she is portraying the older version of Nolte's mother. She bickers with Nolte and the relationship is obviously strained by events years earlier but that's about it. There's no impact from this character and only a minor impact from the younger version of the mother. She's at least a bit more memorable in those scenes but I don't think anywhere near enough to warrant an Oscar nomination. This is a very forgettable performance.
Jessica Tandy - Fried Green Tomatoes
Not much to this nomination. It's a veteran one, but shockingly one I don't really mind being here. I've railed in the past about veteran nominations not being worthy and taking spots from more deserving actors and being a general waste of everyone's time but I'm fine with Tandy getting another one here. She was still in the grace period after her Best Actress win a couple years prior that she could get nominated for pretty much anything. Now in this film she plays an old woman at a retirement center that meets Kathy Bates and regales her with stories of her youth. It's never explicitly said if she is Idgie but you gather that she either is or is related to her in some way. She tells tales of Idgie and Ruth who are lifelong friends and go through all kinds of trials and tribulations - literally. Tandy narrates these stories and comes off as a kooky, fun old lady who shows up at one point with purple hair and is excited to have someone to talk to. I think Tandy is perfectly Supporting, bringing enough to the role that you enjoy watching and listening to her. That's certainly better than some other performances in this category where I either can't stand them or don't see the point. The point here is that Tandy can be entertaining even in her older years. She even has a small arc which a lot of supporting players don't ever get: we met her, see she's kind of miserable in the retirement home, and then leaves while gaining a friend in the process. Tandy delivers a fine performance, one that doesn't wow you or win awards, but makes you glad to have seen it.
Another mixed batch of nominees. Some really bad ones and some that I enjoyed, though not profusely. The bottom two are both meh to bad, I guess depending on how I'm feeling and how recently I watched their films. I wanted to put Ladd last but she is at least in the film and doing things that's relevant to the plot unlike Nelligan who is around briefly and if she weren't in the film, wouldn't be missed. I would rather watch The Prince of Tides over Rambling Rose 100 out of 100 times, however. I can't believe a film like Ladd's was loved. Squarely in the middle is Tandy. She's entertaining and gives a good performance. She had already won an Oscar so this was just more icing on the cake for her. Then we get to Ruehl and Lewis. I can understand why Ruehl was given the Oscar based off this group. It was clearly between her and Lewis and Ruehl has the more mature performance. She probably had more voters backing her due to rep in the industry, I really don't know, but that's my guess. She's good and I'm fine with her win but I did like Lewis a lot more. So for me, the easy choice was Lewis because I thought she brought a lot more to her film than Ruehl. Definitely looking for more like the top 3 and less like the bottom 2, which seems to be the pattern lately.
Oscar Winner: Mercedes Ruehl - The Fisher King
My Winner: Juliette Lewis - Cape Fear
Mercedes Ruehl
Jessica Tandy
Diane Ladd
Kate Nelligan
No comments:
Post a Comment