As sometimes happens, the biggest news about the Best Actor nominees was the absence of a shoo-in and the presence of a dark horse.
The great film scholar Nick Davis was writing about the Oscars in 2000, and his predictions for the nominees cite Michael Douglas as a lock and probable winner, with Harris tenth. This is, of course, just one voice, but he was not alone: as Inside Oscar 2 relates, "The year's biggest surprise was the failure of Michael Douglas to be nominated," while "Harris especially was a bit of a surprise...he hadn't received any critics awards and hadn't been up for a Golden Globe or SAG award."
Douglas had also missed at the SAG Awards: remember, Benicio del Toro was up for Lead there (and won), but also nominated was the incredible young find from Billy Elliot, Jamie Bell, who went on to win the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Alas, like Douglas, he missed out with Oscar, and, like Harris, he missed out on the Globes. Not that getting a nomination there is a guarantee: in addition to Douglas, the entire Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy roster was left off the Oscar ballot: no Jim Carrey for Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, no George Clooney for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (he won the Globe!), no John Cusack for High Fidelity, no Robert De Niro for Meet the Parents, and no Mel Gibson for What Women Want!
Who did get in alongside Harris? The obvious locks were Gladiator's Russell Crowe, leading the now Best Picture favorite, and Cast Away's Tom Hanks, who many felt could have been the frontrunner had he not already won twice before. The critical praise was enough to get Before Night Falls' Javier Bardem through, and while he never won any prizes, Quills' Geoffrey Rush was a constant throughout the season. With Douglas gone, it was anyone's guess which one would win, and I'm sure there was a clenching of bettors' sphincters when Marcia Gay Harden picked up her Oscar earlier in the ceremony. Was the Academy suddenly hot for Pollock, as Roger Ebert guessed they might be?
No, as it turns out:
Here's how I'd rank them, if I had a ballot:
5. Javier Bardem as Reinaldo Arenas
Before Night Falls
first of four nominations; National Board of Review's Best Actor of 2000; Golden Globes nominee for Best Actor - Drama, LAFCA Awards runner-up for Best Actor, NYFCC Awards second runner-up for Best Actor
A sensuous performance, as Bardem has to show how Arenas cruises, how he postures himself when confident, how he tries to disappear within himself, how he tries to find space in the hole of solitary confinement, how he positions himself while writing, typing, drinking, dancing. The only reason why he's #5 is because I responded to the others more, but I don't want you to think that I think this is a bad performance, it's the reason to watch the movie.
4. Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius
Gladiator
second of three nominations; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Actor, Golden Globes nominee for Best Actor - Drama, SAG Awards nominee for Best Actor and Best Ensemble
The thing about star vehicles like Gladiator and Erin Brockovich is that the star really needs to shine, like, obviously, but also, they really need to command the screen in every frame and convince you that everyone would be concerned about what they're doing when they're off-screen. I believe in this rough-and-tumble intellectual, a man who symbolizes the best of what Rome can be. He radiates decency and courage, you never question it, a confident, steady-as-she-does-it performance.
3. Geoffrey Rush as The Marquis De Sade
Quills
past winner, third of four nominations; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Actor, Golden Globes nominee for Best Actor - Drama, SAG Awards nominee for Best Actor
Over-the-top, unsubtle, irresistible. If one is to play a nasty-minded pervert constantly fighting for his right to compose his prose, one can hardly play coy. Rush relishes every bite he takes of the scenery - literally, at one point, manipulating chicken in a manner that I felt was unappetizing but which he seems to delight in...par for the course with his guy. Besides the fun he gets in poking at people's sense of virtue and morés, Rush also makes us believe that De Sade is an artist, or at least has the artist's passion, and the excruciating pain with which he greets the threat of not being able to write is as deeply felt, as genuine, as the glee with which he shows off his calligraphed suit.
2. Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock
Pollock
third of four nominations
Haven't been able to get this movie or this performance out of my head, honestly. It's not not a vanity project to show off what he can really do (he literally flexes his muscles several times in that ratty t-shirt, God bless him), but he's terrific. He feels dangerous when he's angry, and one gets the impression Harris naturally identifies with the artist's own frustrations with both the artistic process but with the publicity machine. What feels most palpable is the sense of self-determined doom, he can't live with himself, and his slow self-destruction is tough to watch...yet Harris's performance makes sure we do.
1. Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland
Cast Away
past two-time winner, fifth of six nominations; Golden Globes winner for Best Actor - Drama, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Actor; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Actor, SAG Awards nominee for Best Actor
Is three Oscars in seven years really so egregious? Yeah, he lost and gained weight and got all shaggy and has to play opposite a volleyball and get thrown around the ocean, all stuff that an Oscar campaign trail loves. I can't get over his eyes: the despair with which he greets what he's sure is impending death, the steely determination to survive, the never-quite-straight-on glances to an imaginary friend who's becoming more real, the haunted gaze as he uses a lighter or stares at a buffet of untouched food, the history between his eyes and Helen Hunt's. An emotional performance discovered from the inside out.
Sunday, the nominees for Best Actress: Joan Allen (The Contender), Juliette Binoche (Chocolat), Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream), Laura Linney (You Can Count On Me), and Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich).
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