Oscar Watch '04: The Acting Bait
By Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com Staff
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Monday, October 25, 2004
The Actresses
Annette Bening, Being Julia
There's nothing like playing a 1930s stage diva, especially one who gets to cheat on her husband with her No. 1 fan and then take out her revenge on her young paramour when he ends up dumping her. And no one could play it with more relish than Bening, who no doubt prides herself on picking and choosing her projects ever so wisely (we won't count Open Range). So far an Oscar has eluded this talented actress but Being the over-the-top Julia could put Bening high on the list.
Laura Dern, We Don't Live Here Anymore
In this dark tale about two couples who end up interchanging partners, it's Dern's sloppy, lonely, bitter, alcoholic housewife who stands out the most. Hard to watch at times, the sheer raw emotions pouring from the actress is perfect fodder for Oscar contention--and would prove her only other nomination, as the innocent sexpot in Rambling Rose, wasn't a fluke.
Laura Linney, P.S.
Sort of like Paul Giamatti, Linney is another one whose talents have been largely overlooked in bigger budget films. Her star definitely got brighter, though, when she took on the edgy role of a single mother coping with a wayward brother and having an affair with her overbearing boss in 2000's You Can Count on Me-- and earning her the first of what may be several nominations. This year alone she's put in two stellar performances--as the understanding wife to Liam Neeson's sex academic Alfred Kinsey in Kinsey and more notably, as a thirty-something college admissions officer who falls for a twenty-something graduate student in P.S.. You go, Laura!
Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Imelda who? Her name may be unrecognizable but the excellent British actress has been seen in countless films, mostly relegated to smaller roles in English period pieces such as Sense and Sensibility and Shakespeare in Love. Finally, she's getting some real credit playing the title character in Mike Leigh's somber Vera Drake, a kindly 1950s abortionist whose attempts to help other women in her small English burg land her in heaps of trouble. Staunton's already won an award from the Venice Film Festival for her performance--and the accolades don't look like they'll be stopping any time soon.
Uma Thurman, Kill Bill Vol. 2
Come on, wouldn't it be great if Thurman got a nod for her dogged performance as the kick-ass Bride? In Quentin Tarantino's Vol. 2, the actress gets to use some of her acting chops to go along with the karate kind--and is particularly effective when she goes from vengeful assassin to caring mother. If the Academy can look past the campiness of Tarantino's opus (and they did it once before with the 1995 Pulp Fiction, giving Thurman her first nomination) the actress stands a good chance of getting her second nod.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Proof
Playing a woman, paralyzed by fear and uncertainty while grieving for her dead father in David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Proof, doesn't seem like it would have been a big stretch for Paltrow. Her own father, producer/director Bruce Paltrow, died prior to making the big-screen version, and we all know taking emotions from real life can help make heartfelt Oscar performances. Plus the fact Paltrow has teamed up once again with her Shakespeare in Love director John Madden. Good combo.
Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Winslet is another actress with a double whammy this year. In Finding Neverland, she plays a sweet and loving widow, trying to keep her four energetic young boys from knowing of her own ailments. But her quirky turn in Eternal Sunshine as a woman dealing with a break up in a particularly odd way (i.e. erasing the guy completely from her mind) is what may put her on the list, multicolored hair and all.
Other possibilities: Newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno's spirited performance as a drug mule in Maria Full of Grace; Audrey Tautou's heart-wrenching turn as an indomitable French provincial girl who relentlessly searches for her fiancée lost in WWI in A Very Long Engagement; Tea Leoni as a neurotic housewife changed forever by her fiery housekeeper in Spanglish; and Renee Zellweger, perhaps going for a second Oscar try as the lovable but insecure Bridget Jones in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.