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BEST ACTRESS
by JOHN HARKNESS
Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
Winner, Screen Actors Guild Award
The Screen Actors Guild honoured Berry's courage for taking on the
role in Monster's Ball. The courage wasn't in doing the extended sex
scene with Billy Bob Thornton, but in appearing without makeup for
most of the film. (In 1991, Hollywood's idea of a plain woman was
Michelle Pfeiffer without makeup in Frankie And Johnny. Now it's
Halle Berry without makeup.) The actors branch is the largest in the
Academy, and the SAG award is a fairly reliable indicator - not as
reliable for best actress as actor, but a good one. As too many
people have already mentioned, Berry could become the first black
woman to win best actress. Unfortunately, if she does people will say
that "those Hollywood liberals voted for her because they thought it
was time for a black actress to win," when in fact she deserves the
prize for a ferocious and emotionally naked performance.
Judi Dench, Iris
Occasionally, the Academy membership runs on autopilot, giving
repeated nominations to certain actors at certain times - Marsha
Mason in the 70s, Glenn Close in the 80s, Judi Dench with four
nominations in the last five years. Then again, at least they didn't
nominate Dench for The Shipping News. As a film, Iris barely exists
save as a vehicle for the performances of Dench, Kate Winslet and Jim
Broadbent, but what performances! As the aged Iris Murdoch, her mind
slowly being shredded by Alzheimer's, Dench offers precision and
pathos. Andrew Sarris called Dench the greatest realistic actress in
movies, and she's the great dark horse in this race.
Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge!
Winner, Golden Globe
I was watching a made-for-TV thriller on WTBS last week and it
occurred to me that if Nicole Kidman had no charisma she'd be
Penelope Ann Miller, which isn't knocking either - I like Penelope
Ann Miller. Of the nominated performances, this is actually the
toughest to judge because Moulin Rouge! operates so far outside the
normal range of Oscar-winning films. A strange art thing, this is not
a showcase for the sort of sturdy, realistic work that generally wins
acting Oscars. Kidman's performance - constructed out of charisma,
quick cuts and bizarre transitions - is much harder to judge than her
work in The Others, which certainly deserved a nomination.
Tough to handicap, too, as Moulin Rouge's status as a
love-it-or-hate-it event will do more damage to her chances than to
the art director's or editor's chances. The lack of a SAG nomination
is puzzling, to say the least.
Sissy Spacek, In The Bedroom
Winner, New York and L.A. Film Critics Awards, Golden Globe
That's a list of prizes that exactly mirrors Spacek's processional to
the Oscars back in 1980, when she won for Coal Miner's Daughter.
Spacek has constructed a powerful performance that makes her the
nexus of the film's theme of loss and class. What people have failed
to notice is that she is the film's villain as well, Lady MacBeth as
a soccer mom, nudging her husband - elbowing him, really - into a
course of action he'd never consider on his own.
It's also worth noting that not one of these nominees worked in a
film made in Hollywood: In The Bedroom was filmed in New England,
Moulin Rouge! in Australia, Iris and Bridget Jones's Diary in
England, Monster's Ball in Georgia, and only two of them were
produced by Hollywood majors.
Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones's Diary
Zellweger, all squint and confusion, is the unlikeliest movie star,
and casting the Katy, Texas, native as English cultural icon Bridget
Jones seemed as sure a recipe for disaster as casting Nicole Kidman
as Rosa Parks. But Zellweger pulls it off with enormous charm and
intelligence, and deserves her first Oscar nomination. Unfortunately,
her shot at an Oscar lags well behind the critical juggernaut for
Sissy Spacek and the insurgent upset win for Halle Berry at the
Screen Actors Guild.
Katy, Texas? One other actor is listed in the Internet Movie Database
as sharing Zellweger's hometown, her contemporary and namesake Renée
O'Connor, who plays Gabrielle on Xena, Warrior Princess.
Fun Bridget Jones fact - In German, the film is known as Chocolate
For Breakfast.
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