Kate Winslet in Titanic

Kate Winslet received her second Oscar nomination (and the first one in the Best Actress category) for playing Rose DeWitt Bukater, a young upper-class girl falling for a poor artist in James Cameron's epic Titanic. Titanic was pretty much a phenomenon and I think that helped Kate get many votes. I think the reason why I think she (and Gloria Stuart) didn't win was that most of the voters might have been tired of voting for Titanic and they wanted to give at least the acting prizes to other movies. I think Winslet was third or second in the end.

Titanic is a really huge movie, which is (in my opinion) worthy of all the Oscars it won. What an achievement! I know that many disagree with me and it's kind of chic to criticise this one (and Avatar). Just to make things clear, I also love Avatar very much. The amount of work James Cameron puts into his projects is so astonishing. Wow, I always keep being amazed by his dedication. The actors give excellent performances, Leo is way better than he's said to be and Gloria Stuart was really worthy of the nomination she got. I think the cause of the hate towards Titanic can be summed up in one word: envy. :)

Kate Winslet is quite definitely the most talented actress of her generation. She's really so talented and despite the fact that sometimes her off-screen persona annoys me, she's a brilliant, shining talent. Many compare her to Deborah Kerr but that's one of the most stupid comparisions I've ever heard. Kerr used to play these very proper and gentle ladies while Kate can do almost everything. All in all, Kate is a brilliant actress and I can't wait to see her in the adaptation of God of Carnage.

The role of Rose is something that seems to be very baity on the outside but just like any other performances in epic movies it's a bit outshone by the gigantic movie. Titanic didn't have a very strong screenplay (it's quite standard, actually just put The Poseidon Adventure together with a soap and you get the story) but the character of Rose was probably the best written one of all. It's probably the only one that has a real emotional depth and is a real challenge for a performer.

There's one thing that we shouldn't forget about Rose (and that's soemthing that Kate forgot once in a while): she's a seventeen-year-old girl, full of anger, defiance and mixed feelings about her future. I don't even think that Jack was really the love of her life, he was just rather a symbol of the life and freedom that Rose desperately wanted. So the Rose is a very complicated character who needs very much care from the performer.

In the beginning, Kate is just brilliant as Rose. Kate was able to become so haunting. She showed the frustration of this girl so terrifyingly that I was totally blown away by her. Those empty looks on her face said so many things about Rose. The beginning was quite probably the best thing about this whole performance. Everything was so well put together and I could always identify with Rose. Kate knew Rose's motivations and I actually fogot that she wasn't a very experienced actress at the time. Thanks to her intuitive talent, Kate was full of self-confidence and she really nailed the part.

Kate's chemistry works excellently with Leonardo DiCaprio and they really make a great couple in the movie. Although Titanic doesn't have the tension of Revolutionary Road, it's still a great co-operation between the two of them. So, everything is alright there.

However, there comes the disaster of the Titanic and unfortunately, Kate's performance almost becomes the victim of the movie. The stunning visuals, costumes, art direction, the directing, the music, everything are so overwhelming that you just cannot really focus on Kate because there are so many things that are more impressive. The achievement of Kate keeps really fading and everything she achieved in the beginning almost disappears but fortunately, it wasn't too late and the ending saved her performance. Still, thanks to the movie, Winslet was never consistently great.

Still, this is great work by Kate Winslet. I don't want to take away anything from it as it's great work but she pales a little bit in comparision with the epic movie that she's in. Kate perfectly portrayed all the negative emotions and fears of the character and therefore she was really haunting in the beginning. Although the overall effect of her work is a bit ruined, this is still a very great job.

What do you think? (no predictions now)

The Final Conclusion will be posted in a couple of hours.