Roger Ebert said that "everybody from the Vegas oddsmakers to the espresso jockey at Starbucks can tell you that Gladiator, Russell Crowe, Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Kate Hudson are at the head of the pack." While he went against that "common wisdom" in some of his final predictions, he held to the impression that "the overwhelming favorite is Kate Hudson." It is a common refrain you read when researching this year: Hudson is the heart of Almost Famous, she glows, she's charming, she's Goldie Hawn's daughter, and wouldn't it be neat if they both won in the same category 31 years apart?
She was one of four names that kept showing up everywhere: her Almost Famous co-star, who won prizes for both that film and her turn in Wonder Boys; Judi Dench, thought to be the benificiary of Miramax's Chocolat campaign, making it the third of five consecutive Weinstein-backed nominations for the Dame; and Julie Walters, whose chain-smoking ballet mistress in Billy Elliot was an audience favorite. All were nominated alongside Hudson. None were thought to stand a chance, even though, while she was also nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and for Best Lead Actress at the British Academy Awards, the only major "precursor" she won was the Golden Globes.
But hey, influence and bellwethers change over the years - remember, it used to be "common wisdom" to go with the New York Critics' pick...though that did turn out to be true this year. Alongside the aforementioned quartet was Pollock's Marcia Gay Harden, a name and performance little bandied about after her NYFCC win at the beginning of December. Her "fifth slot" was up for grabs among a number of contenders: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Zhang Ziyi (BAFTA nominee, Indie Spirits winner, LAFCA runner-up), Traffic's Catherine Zeta-Jones (Golden Globe nominee), Quills' Kate Winslet (SAG nominee), maybe even longer shots like Small Time Crooks' Elaine May (winner at the National Society of Film Critics, I'm guessing because they had little opportunity to award her over the years) or Chuck & Buck's Lupe Ontiveros (National Board of Review winner!, Indie Spirits nominee). But the fifth spot was Harden's, with many assuming the nomination was the award for putting in great work in a little-seen film. What a twist - what a thrill:
Had I a ballot, this is how I'd rank them:
5. Judi Dench as Armande Voizin
Chocolat
past winner, third of eight nominations; SAG Awards winner for Best Supporting Actress; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress, SAG Awards nominee for Best Ensemble
Maybe the role of a fun-loving aging rebel quick to embrace the newcomers in her town is one Dench could play in her sleep, especially one as simultaneously warm and prickly as this one, but, well, the greats are the ones who make it look easy, aren't they? She lands both the chuckles and the welling-up moments. She's best in show without trying to steal the scenes, a generous scene partner even opposite the kids.
4. Kate Hudson as Penny Lane
Almost Famous
only nomination; Golden Globe winner for Best Supporting Actress; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Actress, SAG Awards nominee for Best Actress and Best Ensemble
Hudson's got presence, you can't help but watch her, and she exudes the enigmatic warmth that makes Penny Lane someone everyone wants to meet and feels very close to, even as she remains at arm's length. A lot of heavy breathing in the positive reviews for her performance didn't stress enough how she also plays the play of being worldly-wise: she is still a fan, and if she is better than the others at maintaining an aura of cool, there is still the romantic, yearning, desperate heart of the teen girl, the worshipper who does not understand, or else will not admit, how very small a part she plays in Stillwater's life. It's a character in danger of being just an object, Hudson gives her life.
3. Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krasner
Pollock
first of two nominations; NYFCC Awards winner for Best Supporting Actress
That accent! That hair! One look at Jackson Pollock and she knows, she knows that this is going to be her life's work, her big project; one at Lee Krasner and we know this woman from the inside out because Harden gives it all, physically, vocally. You see her locking in on details others may have missed (or may have hoped she'd miss), you see the determination to keep him going...you also see the wearing down of years on her. It's tough to be the strong one, the sober one, the one keeping everyone happy. Harden does not play the saint - nor is she asked to, refreshingly - but you feel her pains and her pleasures.
The next two performances I keep going back and forth on, but the Academy only allows you to tick one box, and I think the year 2000 had enough balloting issues, don't you agree?
2. Julie Walters as Ms. Wilkinson
second of two nominations; BAFTA Awards winner for Best Supporting Actress; Golden Globes nominee for Best Supporting Actress, SAG Awards nominee for Best Supporting Actress
I think she's so effective because Billy is right about her, kind of, in that one scene where he blows up at her: she's more genuinely concerned for him and his opportunities than he believes in that moment, but she is also partially living through his own abilities, waking up out of her own chain-smoking funk to finally be a real teacher. I don't think she regrets her life, but it doesn't excite her anymore, whereas Billy's talent does, it's a spark that energizes her, gets her dancing new steps. The Billys of this world, the Lee Halls and Stephen Daldrys, they take the chances they do because a teacher (or someone) told them not just that it was worth it, but that they were capable of it; Walters delivers this believably, movingly, and not saccharinely.
1. Frances McDormand as Elaine Miller
Almost Famous
past winner, third of six acting nominations; LAFCA Awards winner for Best Supporting Actress; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globes nominee for Best Supporting Actress, NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Supporting Actress, SAG Awards nominee for Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble
Those of us with nominally strict but actually pretty loose, just clear on the boundaries, parents are familiar with Elaine Miller's parenting style of open discussion, exposure to all facets of culture, and loud uncertainty/suspicion of the new music, the new liberalism, the new morés, etc. I saw McDormand wrestling with this conflict; I saw, too, the wince of someone who realizes the way she knows her children will now be different, limited, and was there something she could have different, did she prepare them enough, will the rest of the world care for them the way they need to be? She's hilarious, too, biting, even, but I think when we laugh, we do at the familiarity, the recognition of this woman in our mothers...and maybe, now that we're older, ourselves.
Back at the official ceremony, Stephen Mirrione's work on Traffic won for Best Editing (sorry to Almost Famous, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Gladiator, and Wonder Boys); Ben Stiller presented the Short Subject Oscars to the live-action "Quiero ser..." and the animated "Father and Daughter"; and Janty Yates' work on Gladiator won for Best Costume Design (sorry to 102 Dalmatians, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Quills).
Next came Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges (The Contender), Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire), Benicio del Toro (Traffic), Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich), and Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator). We'll discuss that tomorrow...
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