Macedonian conquerors, fanciful playwrights, alcoholic writers, lonely and/or neurotic housewives, stage divas, kick-ass assassins and even Jesus Christ–this year is chock full of diverse and riveting Best Actor and Best Actress possibilities. Here’s a rundown of likely contenders whose excellent performances just might put Oscar gold in their hands next February.
The Actors
Jim Caviezel, The Passion of the Christ
Could anything be more Oscar worthy than playing Jesus Christ during the last 12 hours of his life? I think not. Sure, it’s controversial and religiously one sided, but Caviezel pours his Catholic heart and soul, as well as his blood (and we’re talking a lot of blood), sweat and tears, into the role. This tour de force came from somewhere deep within, and the Academy won’t overlook the effort.
Johnny Depp, Finding Neverland
Everyone really wants the likable Depp to win an Academy Award. After turning in an Oscar-nominated performance last year as the devilish rogue in Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp became Hollywood’s golden boy. But comic roles generally don’t get you the Oscar. Now, there’s Finding Neverland, in which Depp takes on the role of playwright J.M. Barrie who, with the help of a widow and her young boys, comes up with the magical story of Peter Pan. The part consists of all the Depp qualities we love–imaginative, whimsical, sly–but in a decidedly serious tone. He’s a shoo-in.
Jamie Foxx, Ray
So is this guy. Foxx was not only terrific in Collateral, his turn as the late rhythm-and-blues man Ray Charles has everybody talking, especially about how eerily close the actor looked like the real thing. Talk about changing your appearance. As Foxx himself explained to Entertainment Weekly, about the role that entailed wearing prosthetics modeled on Charles’ actual eyes, no less, ”If you could open your eyes you would cheat on how your body would move. But if you can’t see, you can’t cheat.” Plus Foxx, an accomplished pianist in his own right, did all his own playing, mastering Charles’ technique on the keys. That’s dedication–and the way you get an Oscar nomination.
Christian Bale, The Machinist
Speaking of changing appearances, this year the award for most drastically altered goes to Bale, who shed upwards of 60 pounds from his six-foot-two frame and dropped to a ghastly 120 pounds for his role as a sleep-deprived, mentally disturbed factory worker in The Machinist. Now, everyone knows when you so totally change your appearance to play a part, you’re almost guaranteed an Oscar nomination. Two recent cases in point: Charlize Theron, who gained weight and plucked her eyebrows in Monster and Nicole Kidman donning an ugly prosthetic nose in The Hours. No one may actually see this little indie film, but if distributor Paramount Classics send out those screeners, the Academy members should take notice.
Paul Giamatti, Sideways
Giamatti is a funny little guy, with a sort of sweaty-yet-lovable quality about him, who has been quietly creeping into our subconscious by often outshining his higher-profile co-stars in films such as Man on the Moon, Duets and Confidence. But that all changed last year when Giamatti blew just about everyone away with his gravel-voiced, neurotic portrait of comic-book creator Harvey Pekar in American Splendor. With his anonymity fading, Giamatti is now being touted for his performance in the latest film from Alexander Payne (About Schmidt), the much ballyhooed film Sideways, playing a drunk, depressed writer who fancies himself a wine expert, taking a debauched trip through California’s wine country with his best friend. This could be Giamatti‘s year–and if it isn’t, it will be soon enough.
Liam Neeson, Kinsey
Few of us can forget Neeson‘s heart wrenching, Oscar-nominated performance as real-life Holocaust hero Oskar Schindler in the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List. Now, Neeson is looking at getting his second nod, playing another kind of hero–the notorious academic Alfred Kinsey, who shocked an entire nation with his 1948 study Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, opening up the taboo subject of human sexuality in a staunch conservative world. Hmmm, doesn’t sound like times have changed much.
Jeff Bridges, The Door in the Floor
In this adaptation of John Irving’s A Widow for One Year (at least the first third of it, anyway), Bridges gives another stellar turn as a hard drinking, womanizing children’s book author trying to cope with the tragic death of his son as well as his dissolving marriage. Even though the film was released way back in June, the Oscar buzz is still on, mainly because its one of those juicy roles Bridges seems to always sink his teeth into with gusto and leave an indelible impression.
Other possibilities: Jim Carrey‘s uncharacteristically subdued but endearing portrait of a man in love in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Kevin Bacon‘s reformed pedophile trying to start a new life in The Woodsman; The Motorcycle Diaries‘s Gael Garcia Bernal as the young, yet to be discovered revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guerva; Jude Law‘s cad about town in Alfie; Christopher Walken as yet another quirky father figure in Around the Bend; and Bill Murray as a sardonic, aging oceanographer stuck on an expedition from hell in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.
Next Page: The Actresses
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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.
