NY Times on Dazzling Performances
Karen Durbin writes up some memorable performances coming this Fall.
On Robin Wright Penn in The Lives of Pippa Lee:
But at first this model wife and hostess is like a ghost at her own feasts. As Ms. Wright Penn plays her, she has a veiled quality, a remoteness from what’s going on around her, even as she extends herself to give people what they want.
Eventually we learn, along with Pippa, why she is like this: she’s doing penance. As her guilt lifts, so does her veil. “I’m awake,” she says, in what is ostensibly a mundane statement of fact.
But of course it’s much more. And Ms. Wright Penn demonstrates this, filling with such quiet vibrancy that it’s as if we are seeing her in living color for the first time. Like Pippa, she has bloomed.
Christian McKay as Orson Welles:
But while the large gestures and emphatic diction of the stage are well suited to portraying such an outsize character, they are often calamitous onscreen. In only his second film role, Mr. McKay, who is English, makes the transition beautifully.
Much of Mr. McKay’s performance takes place on his smooth, temporarily Wellesian features. His Orson is a wily enchanter who can talk people into and out of just about anything. “You’re what I call a God-created actor,” he tells Richard with such grave sincerity that you could believe he means it if he didn’t say the same thing to other cast members. Elsewhere Welles’s eyes harden into something ugly as Mr. McKay shows us the smallness of a man determined to punish anyone who challenges his ego.
Catalina Saavedra in The Maid (I cannot wait to see this):
Exploring the bad faith inherent in master-servant attachments, “The Maid” is often humorous, but there’s nothing silly about Ms. Saavedra’s Raquel, the loyal live-in servant of a wealthy, liberal family in Santiago. After 23 years their relationship is approaching a crisis, with Raquel moody and tense, popping pills to alleviate daylong migraines and at bitter odds with the family’s teenage daughter. When the family tries to celebrate Raquel’s 41st birthday, Ms. Saavedra creates a portrait of accelerating instability that’s an unnerving tour de force.
And, of course, the woman who will be tough to beat come Oscar time (and is probably the frontrunner to win), Gabourey Sidibe in Precious:
Lee Daniels took a bold gamble in casting a total film novice, Gabourey Sidibe, in the arduous lead role of his award-winning, Harlem-set drama “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Nov. 6). Claireece Jones , known as Precious, could hardly have a more bittersweet nickname. Illiterate, mocked by neighborhood boys for her obesity and, at 16, pregnant yet again by her come-and-go rapist father, she lives in a private hell of abuse and humiliation at the hands of her violent, jealous mother (Mo’Nique). Offered the chance to enroll in literacy classes at a small alternative school located in the Hotel Theresa, she leaps at it, convinced that education will be her escape.
Ms. Sidibe makes Precious a sympathetic figure but not a sentimental one. The toll her suffering takes is evident in the brusque way she rebuffs the overtures of a younger abused child in her building. She softens when kindness and help enter her life, but only gradually and with glints of sardonic humor in her eyes. Nobody knows the trouble she’s seen — until she finally begins to talk about it. And a moment comes when she suddenly gives a prized possession, her silky red scarf, to the girl in her building, as if passing a baton to the next runner in a long and terrible race.
Finally, the great Carey Mulligan in An Education:
When associated with young women, the phrase “loss of innocence” usually means sex. But Ms. Mulligan makes Jenny’s morning-after musings so coolly scientific and inadvertently brutal that they are a comic delight. Of course Jenny does lose her innocence, in the ways that matter, and makes us see things in ourselves and others that we wish we didn’t have to. Ms. Mulligan rises to that occasion too, passing through something like the stages of grief: anger, denial and finally an acceptance so heavy with sadness and shame that we see Jenny standing for the first time on the threshold of being an adult.
j says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 8:06am
Well, it’s not just on performance, but a perf is discussed in Bright Star’s NYT review, possibly my favorite review of the film so far:
“The movie really belongs to Brawne, played with mesmerizing vitality and heart-stopping grace by Abbie Cornish…achieved a mixture of unguardedness and self-control matched by few actresses of any age or nationality. She’s as good as Kate Winslet, which is about as good as it’s possible to be.
Startling keenness and disarming beauty, much in the way that Keats’s own lyrics do. His verses can at first seem ornate and sentimental, but on repeated readings, they have a way of gaining in force and freshness. The music is so intricate and artificial, even as the emotions it carries seem natural and spontaneous.
Savor every syllable of Mr. Whishaw’s recitation of “Ode to a Nightingale.”
Passages of extraordinary lyricism…are balanced by a rough, energetic worldliness
They make the best of it. As does Ms. Campion: a sequence in which, fully clothed, the couple trades stanzas of “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” in a half-darkened bedroom must surely count as one of the hottest sex scenes in recent cinema…Her wild vitality makes this movie romantic in every possible sense of the word. “Bright Star” is rated PG (parental guidance suggested). It is perfectly chaste and insanely sexy.”
I’m still seeing Mulligan vs. Streep. Though the oft-compared star turn of Audrey had an easier path to Oscar in the sense that her competitors were mostly about as new to Academy consideration as she.
Oh, speaking of perfs, I just saw Ronan’s performance in Atonement. She’s good, yes, but…I’m thinking she would have a much better chance in Supporting, especially given how for most of the book she just watches and narrates. Of course, that’d only be if the company would be willing to campaign her for sup actress, given that Sarandon & Weisz are already being thrown around as good possibilities. But I suppose they might want to hedge their chances and possibly get a name in both categories despite the risk.
Diana says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 8:37am
Surely that should read “Robin Wright Penn”, not “Robert”?
Sasha Stone says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 8:49am
Oh, Diane, thanks! Yikes!
sister says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 8:57am
‘the lovely bones’ book/movie poster:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Lovely-Bones/Alice-Sebold/e/9780316044400/?itm=7
Mike says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 9:29am
Gabourey Sidibe frontrunner???
Sasha Stone says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 9:30am
I think so, Mike! One of them anyway – strongest to win so far (imo): Gabourey, Carey, Meryl. Lots more to come obviously.
Tero Heikkinen says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 9:52am
Finland’s Oscar submission is called Posti pappi Jaakobille. Sweden’s entry is De Ofrivilliga. The latter is also a late 2008 release so skipping Let the Right One In is just Sweden’s own screw up.
Apparently last year they planned to give LtROI that one week run in September when it was considered for submission, they went for Everlasting Moments so they saw no point in playing the film in September. A year later, they thought considering LtROI would be stupid even though it would have been eligible this year. Stupid I would say, cause the nomination would have been pretty much guaranteed for that film. De Ofrivilliga – not so much.
Diane says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 10:42am
Sasha, I also read A.O Scott’s of the NY Times review of the film “Bright Star”.
In it he wrote that Abbie Cornish’s performance is “as good as Kate Winslet, which is about as good as it’s possible to be.”
And that “The movie really belongs to Brawne, played with mesmerizing vitality and heart-stopping grace by Abbie Cornish.”
Cornish is probably the underdog, but I can see her being nominated.
A.O Scott also had only good things to say about Bright Star.
Bill W. says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:17am
I can’t believe that there is so much Oscar chatter (not just on this website, of course) and it’s only mid-September! But alas, time does fly.
JR says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:56am
Wow, Gabourey Sidibe bumped to fronrunner status.
Todd says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 12:33pm
Doesn’t this seem actress race seem a bit like 2003? That year saw both Keisha Castle Hughes and Samantha Morton getting nominated in the lead category, which was a bit unexpected.
Casey says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:43pm
Gabourey IS the front runner in my book
Aaron says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:47pm
I’m still curious and excited to see Saoirse Ronan’s performance in The Lovely Bones. Yes, in the book, she’s a passive character watching down on her grieving family. But I feel in the movie, they had to have made her character more emotionally involved. I feel like if her performance is an emotional knockout, she could also be a frontrunner in the LEAD category.
Ryan Adams says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 1:56pm
“But I feel in the movie, they had to have made her character more emotionally involved.”
My thoughts exactly, Aaron. I’ve seen the script and you won’t be disappointed.
This is why I don’t like to talk about certainties in September. Gabourey Sidibe may be the consensus frontrunner, but she and Meryl the only two most of us have seen running. How about waiting for a couple more movies to open before we wrap things up.
filmboymichael says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 3:22pm
Wouldn’t it be exciting to see a newcomer like Gaborey Sidibe to win best actress….
it would be as audacious a debut as Barbra Streisand or Jennifer Hudson – both winning for their first roles….
she doesn’t have the “hotness” factor – but she has likability all sewn up….
If anyone were to beat La Streep this year, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Sidibe take it….and I really think Meryl would too!
markus says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 3:51pm
Sidibe certainly is not the favorite to win. Don’t be ridiculous. It is a Mulligan vs. Streep race with the edge still going to Streep. I’m not even sure if Sidibe will be nominated but if she is that will be her reward — she does not have what it takes to win. Let’s be realistic here.
filmboymichael says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 4:00pm
I think that she definitely has what it takes to be nominated – DEFINITELY….I didn’t think so before I saw the movie – i thought it was just going to be all about M’onique….
but this girl has some serious acting chops and a lot of things going for her:
she’s new and amazing in a buzz worthy film
she’s got the scene “Why me?”
she’s funny and affable in interviews
she’s got oprah on her side
she has what it takes on paper to win
markus says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 4:17pm
On paper? Realistically, the academy wants to give Meryl her 3rd Oscar and she has all the momentum from last year to win. This will be her year.
Sasha Stone says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 7:22pm
Markus – with all due respect, how do you know what the Academy “wants” to do? Julie & Julia was unfortunately marred by Julie.
Free says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 8:47pm
I’m not sure she’s THE frontrunner, though I’d love it if she ended up with some hardware. The newcomer attachment always seems to hinder people, which is maybe why I’m not comfortable (yet) calling her the frontrunner. I don’t think Streep is either though. I think the frontrunners are Mulligan (who’s been getting buzz since forever) and Hilary Swank (it’s a baity role with a capital “B,” and the Oscars clearly love her).
markus says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 10:23pm
I don’t know what the academy wants to do. It’s just a hunch. Meryl is way past due for Oscar, she has momentum from last year and she gives a spot on biopic portrayal of Julia Child. The academcy loves biopic portrayals of famcous people. I agree with Nathaniel at the Film Experience that the Best Actress race is a tossup between Streep & Mulligan…
ThePlaylist says:
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at 11:39pm
Her performance is good, but not that good.
blizzards14 says:
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:04am
Comparing Abbie to Kate Winslet is dangerous my friend. But I enjoyed her part in Stop-Loss.
filmboymichael says:
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 12:52pm
Mario Bello is one of the hot buzzes of the festival – I’m wondering if it’s high time we put her in the tracker for BSA – it’s high time the academy nominates her anyway after delivering outstanding performances time in and out….
Ryan B says:
Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 1:49pm
For my money, this post is all about Robin Wright Penn. It seems a long shot that she’ll even be nominated, but she is consistently good and underrated. I watched State of Play the other night, and she changed the movie every time she was on screen.
Stephen Holt says:
Friday, September 18, 2009 at 7:32pm
If “Julie and Julia” (Loved HER, Hated HER)ends up as Sasha speculates as a Best Picture nominee, then THAT might be her reward. By her, I mean, Nora Ephron. She probably won’t be nominated for Best Director, or Best Screenplay because of the pro/con aspects of the film and its’ mixed reception.
I thought Carey Mulligan was far and away the front-runner, until Abbie Cornish entered the race so strongly with its’ (“Bright Star”s)TIFF reception and also AO Scott”as good as Kate Winslet” rave in the Times!!! It’s an outrageous statement. Maybe ridiculous, but so over-the-top you can’t ignore it…I think Kate Winslet herself would laugh her head off. And you can’t ignore how the Times influences the AMPAS voters…Esp. in the Best Actress category…
Last year, their “T” Style magazine did a whole lovely fashion-y spread on Cornish based on her performance in “Elizabeth:The Golden Years.”
And this year, they have given Carey Mulligan and soon Audrey Tautou that “Times Stamp of Approval” treatment.
And A.O. will not shut up about Abbie Cornish now that he’s said this hyperbolical statement about her in “Bright Star” and he’ll keep repeating and repeating it every chance he gets on his “At The Movies” TV show. That and the Times review could easily keep Ms. Cornish safely in the running. Not a win. But probably a nomination.
He NEVER writes like that. The Grey Lady is getting a little red in the face methinks.
Sally in Chicago says:
Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 2:36am
Yeh, I want to see Precious.