»»
Home
Related Links:
Oscars 2002
Related Items:
|
He Said/She Said In the first of their email debates, Owen Gleiberman and Lisa Schwarzbaum pick the Best Supporting Actresses apart LISA: Hey, Owen, I look forward to these weekly email chats, and I like jumping right into the category of Best Supporting Actress, since that's the award that's handed out before I've barely had time to get a handle on the evening's fashion trends. So, how about those ''Gosford Park'' gals? If I were Emily Watson, I'd have my knickers in a twist, what with Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith getting all the attention. Helen and Maggie, Helen and Maggie, Lordy that's a lot of plummy acting. I'm no great fan of the film -- look beyond the larky fun poked at snooty Brits and boorish Hollywood folk and I think it's a cranky and supercilious piece of work. But I do think Watson carried the heavy, supporting load while Mirren and Smith got to cut loose. (Has Maggie ever done anything but?) You know, don't you, that I'm a big Kate Winslet fan. Winslet takes risks, and she never chooses a softer interpretation when a harder one is more truthful. That said, I can't really remember her performance in ''Iris,'' can you? I know she plays a young woman with a bad haircut, a great mind, and a great appetite for sex, but Winslet isn't so much supporting the film as warming up the space for when Judi Dench appears as the older, addled Iris Murdoch and pees on the floor, isn't she? Great gusts of support may now blowing in the direction of Jennifer Connelly in ''A Beautiful Mind.'' But in my ideal telecast, Marisa Tomei will have a chance to make some nutty acceptance speech on Oscar night while commentators recall her zig-zaggy career since ''My Cousin Vinnie.'' Tomei's so unexpectedly good in ''In The Bedroom,'' isn't she? She takes a slap in the face from Sissy Spacek so well. And isn't that what this Oscar category is all about? OWEN: It is indeed! Slap or be slapped -- there's the supporting categories in a nutshell. I do think, Lisa, that these weekly Oscar chats are going to give us a great chance to sound off about all the stuff that somehow never makes it into our reviews. Picking up on your Kate Winslet observation, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that a bit of Oscar history has actually been made this year: It's the first time that two actresses (Winslet and Judi Dench, in this case) have been nominated for playing the same person with the SAME bad haircut. But seriously, what's your problem with Maggie Smith? There's no denying that she's been giving pretty much the same performance for 25 years -- but then, so did Humphrey Bogart. At her worst, she's a mannered flibbertigibbet, but when she gets a role she really connects with, like ''The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne,'' she's the grand dame of flakes, and ''Gosford Park'' gives her one of those roles. The film's comic high point maybe her delivery of the line ''I don't have a snobbish bone in my baw-dy!'' No one puts on airs with more sublime goofy petulance, and she's my favorite in this category. Then again, there could practically be a whole separate Oscar derby just for ''Gosford Park.'' I know you're not a fan, but to those, like me, who find a real richness and joy in Altman's elegant Anglo nose-thumbing, I can just see the competitions stacking up: Clive Owen vs. Jeremy Northam vs. Alan Bates! Mirren vs. Smith vs. Watson vs. Kristen Scott-Thomas vs. Kelly MacDonald! Let the Brit mudfight games begin! Here's what I have to say about Marisa Tomei in ''In the Bedroom'' and Jennifer Connelly in ''A Beautiful Mind'': I thought they were both...fine. But that's all. These are both textbook cases, to me, of performances whose profile -- and stature -- has been raised several notches by the quality of the films themselves. That's not to put the actresses down. I just thought that Tomei, in her likable way, lacked force, and that Connelly gave her TRULY award-worthy performance in ''Requiem for a Dream,'' the movie that revived her career and, in effect, really set up her nomination here. But then, that's also what this category is all about. LISA: Yes! I KNEW I'd get you going if I mentioned Maggie Smith! Believe me, I do love her Dame Maggiedom, the way she holds a stage even if she's in the wings. The way she's now and forever Miss Jean Brodie in her prah-eeeem. But you support my criticisms even in your defense: The old gal doesn't DO supporting performances, my dear, she insists on taking the lead even when she's one among many. ''Gosford Park'' might have been a whole other plate of kippers if Smith had managed to take the juicy dialogue handed her by Julian Fellowes and tossed off the lines rather than declaimed them. In fact, if all the players had treated their lines with a little less lip-smacking, I'd have been more convinced of the fun being thrown at us with such self-satisfaction. And one other thought: It's interesting, isn't it, that none of the ''Gosford'' gents received the same attention given the ladies, even though Clive Owen or Jeremy Northam or Michael Gambon were just as worthy of nominations for Acting Up A Storm as Mirren and Smith. Could it be, hmmm, that there were too many other good roles (and therefore good performances) to choose from in the Supporting Actor category, but that once again again again for the umpteenth time in movie history there's not that much to choose from in the category of Supporting Actress? I'm just asking. Source: Entertainment Weekly Online
|
