Saturday, March 15, 2003

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Kathy Bates in ABOUT SCHMIDT
Worth remembering that Kathy Bates is the most recent Oscar winner among this year's female nominees, having picked up an underdog best actress statuette in 1990 from a field that included Pretty Woman's Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep's other comedy nomination for Postcards From The Edge.

That said, an actor has to work awfully hard to take scenes away from Jack Nicholson, and Bates, operating in the Wife of Bath mode that got her a nomination for Primary Colors, manages that here.

Given the Chicago juggernaut that seems to be emerging, Bates's early Oscar buzz is pretty much dissipated by this point – Bates won the National Board of Review supporting-actress prize, which is the first step in the awards season. She hasn't won anything since. Still a terrific performance, though.

Julianne Moore in THE HOURS
Why is Julianne Moore in supporting category and and Nicole Kidman in lead? They have almost exactly the same amount of screen time. (If there's a lead in the triple narrative of The Hours, it's Streep.) Nine actors have previously pulled the kind of double nomination Moore has scored this year, including Barry Fitzgerald, who was nominated both lead and supporting for Bells Of St. Mary's.

Historically, it's a situation that wins an Oscar, usually supporting, but Al Pacino and Sigourney Weaver spoiled that predictor. Pacino won lead for Scent Of A Woman (his supporting nod was for Glengarry Glen Ross) and Weaver won neither (she was nominated as lead in Gorillas In The Mist and supporting in Working Girl).

Despite the early appearance of a Julianne Moore bandwagon – she picked up most of the critical awards except for New York for Far From Heaven, pretty much everyone got sideswept by the Chicago bandwagon – you almost have to consider Catherine Zeta-Jones a lock here in this category. Moore's performance is certainly the lesser of her two nominated performances, a minor-key riff on the major league passion of her work in Far From Heaven.

Queen Latifah in CHICAGO
Ignoring for the moment the intriguing first notch here – she's the first female rapper to get an Oscar nomination – it's nice to see the Academy finally recognize Queen Latifah's talent, given what she's shown in roles as diverse as the blue-collar lesbian bank robber in Set It Off and the sultry lounge singer in Living Out Loud. Hers is the biggest surprise among the nominations this year, even with the Chicago surge. On the other hand, she's the one real singer in the cast, and the corrupt prison matron is the third of the show's three showiest roles.

Note to Queen Latifah. Enjoy the ride. Enjoy all the gift bags and free stuff. Keep saying to yourself, "It's an honour to be nominated." Oh yeah, and having them open that big dumb Steve Martin comedy during the voting period was a bad idea.

Meryl Streep in ADAPTATION
We tend to forget what a great comic Meryl Streep is. While much is made of Nicolas Cage's twin performance in Adaptation, we might note that, from the film's peculiar perspective, Streep also plays two characters, though they're both named Susan Orlean. The first is the polite professional journalist that "Charlie" imagines as the author of The Orchid Thief. The second is the drug-snorting mistress of John LaRoche, plant poacher and internet pornmeister, imagined by "Donald".

This is the character who winds up in a swamp at the end of Adaptation snarling "You fat fuck!" at poor "Charlie."

Streep now has more Oscar nominations than any actor ever. Given that Katharine Hepburn is retired and that Streep is more than a decade younger than Nicholson, she's liable to retire with a record that will hold for a while – Hepburn held the record almost 20 years.

Catherine Zeta-Jones in CHICAGO
Catherine Zeta-Jones's first Oscar nomination is in the wrong category. She has almost as much screen time as lead Renée Zellweger, and from the opening number, All That Jazz, her personality dominates the show. Zellweger's Roxie Hart is a timid wannabe who finds her way into corruption, while Velma Kelly breathes and embodies it. (Bebe Neuwirth dominated the recent Broadway show when she opened as Velma five years ago.)

The Golden Globe and SAG wins are very powerful indicators, but most importantly, it's a performance so big that it essentially blows up the category – like Hannibal Lector in Silence Of The Lambs, it's a supporting performance that dominates the film.

Other awards: Golden Globe, SAG Award