We’re counting down the best performances of the year here at Awards Daily (we’ll also do that with Picture and Director, hopefully). We’re starting with number 5 of our top five and it has to go to Andy Serkis for his mo-cap, or performance-capture ape Caeser in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Sure, it defies all definitions of what acting is supposed to be but somehow, by god, it works. It has to be the best performance Serkis has ever given in a performance capture environment, which is saying a lot, considering all that we’ve seen Serkis do. And in truth, much of the credit goes to the dazzling, incomparable special effects that accompany Serkis. But there is no denying that what we see on screen is the work of an actor, not a computer. And therein, I think, lies the difference. After all, how far is it a leap to go from what Nicole Kidman did in The Hours, or what other actors who wear so much makeup on do? It is makeup but it’s digital makeup. It achieves the same result, in the end. The actor still must do most of the work.
Yes, it’s hard to get this point across to other actors and they are the ones who do the voting. Rise of the Planets of the Apes clocks in still as one of the best films of 2011, even if it wasn’t fully embraced by the critics, who, frankly, couldn’t really agree on much this year (The Artist, Tinker Tailor and that’s about it). It came out as a surprise when the buzz on it was not good. It works because it has a point. It is about beating back oppression. It is about freedom. In 2011, the people have risen up. Rise of the Planet of the Apes speaks to that unease, that frustration and that urge to revolt. If you watch it as a companion piece to the soul-shattering documentary, Project Nim, you might see why there is so much urgency around the preservation and protection of primates, but chimps and gorillas specifically. Why, because they are our soulful, thoughtful cousins. There is but a 5% difference in our DNA and theirs. We can measure our humanity by how we treat these creatures.
What a surprise, then, to find that Rupert Wyatt made a crackling smart film that hits the subject dead on. Intelligence. How it manifests. What would happen if … a sudden shift in evolution were to occur? Of all of the movies I’ve seen this year — there have been just a tiny handful that made me forget where I was and immerse myself completely in what was on screen. This was one of those. And though it’s been a while since the film was released, it has maintained its momentum because it is really that good. Why is it good? It’s not good because of the James Franco storyline. It’s not a human story. It’s all about the chimps. And when they’re on screen the film soars. For me, that’s enough.
What drives the film, though, is Andy Serkis as Caeser. The one scene that stands out most in my mind is when James Franco calls to him and they’re on the bridge — Serkis as Caeser stops briefly and looks over at Franco. The look on his face, purely human yet chimpanzee — stops him for a moment. He’s caught off guard. But he knows he has to continue fighting to free the apes from captivity. Whether Serkis gets a nomination or not is really, finally, beside the point – we all know what he can do. And we marvel at it. For what he’s given us this year, and throughout his career, Serkis is a first rate actor, one of the best, performance captured or not.