Leading Actress 2004

I tend to look forward to the Actress categories because they inevitably offer up movies I'd otherwise never see, for better or for worse. That will be even more true as I go back in time but I look forward to branching out. I'm always looking for that diamond in the rough and hopefully these lesser seen movies can offer something up.

2004 Best Actress

Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby

This is Swank's second Oscar win for playing a boyish character no less. It's hard to write this review because it's the first one I'm writing for the category. I can't really say if it was deserved or not until I watch the others but I think I can see why it did win. Swank's backwoods, aw shucks female boxer is a sure fire crowd pleaser. She's got that down home charm that's easy to relate to and is an easy to root for character. She's poor trying to make a living while also pursuing her American Dream. Million Dollar Baby didn't create any tough characters. It instantly gave you likeable characters to root for whether deserved or not. It's kind of a cop out when you are told from the very beginning that not liking a character essentially makes you heartless but that's what we have here with Maggie. Swank hits all the right notes, turning on the charm and looking like a bad ass in the ring. It's just that I find that it's not much of a stretch to play Maggie for the first hour and a half. It's straightforward sports cliche stuff that we've seen a bunch of times. Then comes the twist and that somehow makes the character have more depth or harder to portray? No, she's just an invalid in a bed not able to show any range really. It's unfortunate because I believe that Swank could show it if the script wasn't so basic and the character so one dimensional. That's my big issue with this win. It's a feel good win. Maybe even swept up in the late surge of love for the movie. If it had stayed a sports movie maybe something could have happened from a different ending to convince me it's worth winning. I just feel that the ending is so cheap that we don't get an authentic representation of Swank's talents. We get a character that is built for maximum awards play and that makes me want to puke.

Annette Bening - Being Julia

She's an actress playing an actress. These types of performances can be hard to judge because they inherently come with an allowance of overacting. That style is certainly on display here as the melodrama is quite thick from Bening's character. This overacting is needed for the character but can mask good acting because it's over the top or bad acting because it's comical. I feel that Bening falls somewhere in the middle, closer to the good acting. For most of the film, the character is mostly uninteresting to me. She has an affair with a younger man who is only using her. That gets to Bening's character and we see a shift towards something a lot more interesting. Julia uses her great acting ability to set up the young ingenue who is with her former, younger lover and now a part of her play. It's a bitchy cap to the end of the performance and one that keeps Julia on top for a little while longer. And that is essentially what the film is about, not wanting to give up the spotlight even at the expense of someone else. I haven't seen much of Bening but I thought this was a decent role for her. It didn't wow me or anything but I can see why it was nominated.

Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace

It's always difficult to accurately judge a foreign language performance, at least for me. A lot of the nuance can get lost in translation and some of the focus is towards reading the subtitles. With that said, I still know that this was a really strong performance from Moreno. The role never feels exploitative of Moreno or her character and that's due in large part to the ability of Moreno to make it seem so natural. She's a stubborn, prideful teenager faced with familial responsibilities as well as an unplanned pregnancy as she tries to get by in Colombia. She is convinced to try drug running to make money and provide a future for her growing family. This sets in motion some expectedly tense scenes going through customs and the aftermath. Moreno is unwavering in her determination to make it through, relying on her smarts and her grace (cough). She is steadfastly an anti-super heroine. Maria could have easily been written or portrayed in a larger than life way but thankfully Moreno is more subdued in her performance. The entire time we are watching we wonder when it might all go wrong again. Even to the end we don't know what's going to happen to her or if she'll be able to make it in America, since her prospects aren't that much improved over the ones in Colombia. This is a performance I really liked and I wish we could see her in more films. Kudos to the Academy for an inspired pick even if it was to pat themselves on the back.

Imelda Staunton - Vera Drake

Funny story about watching this one: I try to find these films anywhere I can to actually watch them, whether it's Netflix, TV, my own copy, or somewhere on the internet. I watched this online and it ended after a little over an hour which is obviously wrong but I had no idea until the credits started rolling. I had watched the last hour and just thought that Mike Leigh decided to throw us right into it without much extra crap going on, just a tense hour of the cops catching wind of the abortions and then questioning Vera and her being sentenced. It was like damn, this is a tight movie story-wise! Then I realized there was a whole hour before where I started watching, which gave me an interesting perspective on the performance. I was thinking it was kind of one note since Vera is practically scared and crying the entire time. But it's a very convincing portrayal of someone who has just been busted for a major crime. From the proper beginning, Staunton plays her character with a warm, caring, likeable, everywoman demeanor. She could easily be your mom. That makes the business of her back alley abortion work curious. She is obviously doing what she thinks is right, helping women regain control of their lives. Her heart is in the right place so the viewer's own moral stance is used to decide what we the audience think about her work. It's a delicate balance to strike for Staunton. She's a woman with a purpose doing something explicitly forbidden that clearly helps the women. The first half of the film makes the second half hit that much harder. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this performance and movie but I think I'm finding that I really like Mike Leigh films.

Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The movie buoys the performance and the performance(s) buoy the movie. And that is saying both are tremendously good. This is such a unique and creative look at love and relationships and loss of the two. Winslet plays a high strung, irreverent, pixie-ish woman (as much of a pixie that Kaufman can conjure) that is instantly charming and likeable. The viewer quickly falls for Clementine and root for Jim Carrey's character to win her even though we know there's more to what we are seeing. It has it's issues and eventually we learn Clementine has decided to erase Carrey's character from her memory. It's an interesting concept that I'm sure that most people have thought about after a particularly bad breakup. It ask the question of if you would do something like that. You might want to get rid of all traces of the person from your being but is that true a week or two later? Or months later? Our memories make us who we are and shape our relationships to come for better or for worse. If we erase those, are we doomed to keep repeating the mistakes? The film raises so many interesting discussions that I could go on and on about it. It should have nominated for Best Picture. But Winslet does a terrific job with Clementine. She creates an unlikely heroine for romantic comedies which is obviously selling this film short, but speaks to Winslet creating something utterly different. It hurts watching the breakup and you can kinda see both sides which makes both main characters so natural. Kaufman's movies just have this absurd realism about them that make them work so well and that is on full display for this one. We see the breakup from all sides but don't take sides. There's not much else to say besides Winslet delivers what I consider her best performance, even if she wasn't rewarded for it.

When looking back on this year for this category, it's billed mostly as a Swank vs. Bening Round 2 type thing, both having competed in 1999 for Best Actress as well. It's funny, then, that those two are at the bottom of my rankings here. I'd give Swank the edge again, though neither really inspired much love in me. Staunton would be my 3rd choice, surprising me how much I actually enjoyed it. Next would be Moreno, again a pleasant surprise given that in most years the Academy wouldn't have even nominated her. My clear winner then would be Winslet for a performance (and film) that I adore. If that would have happened, maybe Winslet doesn't win later for The Reader, instead giving Streep her 3rd or Hathaway her first, which would in turn maybe give Viola Davis a Best Actress in The Help and maybe Amy Adams or Sally Field (again) a Supporting Actress win. As you can see, the Academy's choices have faaaar reaching effects. And instead of always playing catch up and rewarding actresses make-up Oscars for previous work, we could have a legit group of winners and nominees. Something to think about because Swank definitely didn't deserve a second Oscar.

Oscar Winner:  Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby
My Winner: Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Catalina Sandino Moreno
Imelda Staunton
Hilary Swank
Annette Bening