Friday, March 14, 2003

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Chris Cooper in ADAPTATION
Never let it be said that director Spike Jonze lacks imagination. If you were hunting for an actor to play John LaRoche, the eponymous orchid thief of Susan Orlean's book, you wouldn't automatically think of Chris Cooper. A John Sayles discovery, Cooper can be rawly Southern, but his specialty is a sort of wounded stoicism, displayed perfectly in his two performances for Sayles, as the union organizer in Matewan and the second generation Texas sheriff in Lone Star. For other directors, he's played a variety of buttoned-down characters like his CIA officer in The Bourne Identity, or buttoned-up characters like the general in The Patriot. In indies, he's sort of a star, but in studio pictures, he's "Oh, yeah, that guy."

He's never played anything resembling Adaptation's John LaRoche, a long haired redneck obsessive, missing most of his front teeth and fascinated by orchids, tropical fish and internet porn. As Adaptation warps into its very peculiar second half, he turns Meryl Streep into his drug-addled love slave. No, really.

Other awards: Golden Globe, Toronto Critics, L.A. Critics, National Board of Review

Ed Harris in THE HOURS
Ed Harris is turning into one of those automatic nominations, here as the rage-driven poet dying of AIDS in The Hours. Like his nomination for Pollock, it's an "against type" nomination, as Harris again plays against his type, which is steely intelligence in a compassionate shell - the mission control supervisor in Apollo 13, the creator of The Truman Show, John Glenn in The Right Stuff. It's ironic, actually, because Harris is one of those rare actors who gives us more of himself and shows us more of his characters by being quiet than he does when he gets noisy and emotional, which certainly describes his performances here and in Pollock. It's a rare gift, so it's surprising to see an actor as sharp as Harris play so flagrantly against his own strengths.

The Hours and Pollock are roles that force the actor to demand the audience's pity. When Harris does that, it always looks like he's acting.

Paul Newman in ROAD TO PERDITION
Supporting actor is usually too crowded a field for sentiment, but there's nothing sentimental about Paul Newman's nomination for Road To Perdition. As Rooney, the aging boss of a midwestern crime family torn between his love for his bad son and his love for his surrogate son, Tom Hanks's ruthless enforcer, Newman gets one of his greatest roles. The final confrontation between Hanks and Newman, when Hanks complains about the murder of his family and Newman glares back and reminds him, "There's nobody but murderers in this room," is a moment for the acting pantheon.

Newman has been nominated in five of the last six decades - somehow he missed the 70s. If you want an enduring marker of stardom, a string of Oscar nominations across 44 years is a pretty good indicator - that's the distance from Cat On A Hot Tin Roof to Road To Perdition.

John C. Reilly in CHICAGO
The hardest-working man in show business this year, and the first actor to appear in three best-picture nominees (The Hours, Gangs Of New York and Chicago) since Thomas Mitchell managed the feat back in 1939 (Gone With The Wind, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and Stagecoach).

John C. Reilly also played Jennifer Aniston's husband in The Good Girl.

In Chicago, he's Roxie Hart's cuckolded husband, and lends his mournful baritone to Mr. Cellophane. Reilly gives this performance as well as anybody, and gives it fairly often, though usually without the singing. Those who like historical precedents will note that Mitchell won for Stagecoach. Those looking for realistic chances should be aware that Reilly's probably down the list this year, as he didn't even manage a SAG nomination in the Chicago sweep of those awards.

Christopher Walken in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
It's not a record, but 24 years between nominations is a long stretch for an actor as hard-working and well- regarded as Chris Walken. Of course, he also has one of the most eccentric careers in contemporary movies. Too odd to be a lead, too big to be conventional support, he's made a career of lavishing his unique timing with dialogue and glaring presence to vampires (The Addiction), crime lords (Suicide Kings) and angels (Prophecy) while launching a thousand impressions – Jay Mohr's is probably the best, followed closely by Kevin Spacey's.

Walken's prize from the Screen Actors Guild threw this wild card back into what had been shaping up as a Chris Cooper steamroller. If Cooper is honoured at the Golden Globes for letting his freak flag fly, then SAG seemed to toast Walken for not erasing the punctuation in his script... as he is... often... inclined to... do.

His performance as Frank Abagnale Sr., father to Leonardo DiCaprio's con man and failure in his own right, is for once devoid of malevolence.

Other awards: SAG Award, National Society