The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 2001

2001

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Judi Dench in Iris

Judi Dench gives an unspectacular but great performance as Iris Murdoch. Although this is definitely not her best work, there's nothing wrong about it. I liked it very much and I was quite moved occasionally, it's just that I feel that the part didn't require a talent like Dench's. As I said, there are no serious problems, I still feel slightly disappointed.

4. Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!

This is a great performance. Although it lacks real depth or emotion, the wrapping is still beautiful and wonderful. If I look at that, I am fascinated. However, if I look inside, I can't find much there. She sings, she dances, she dies but forgets to create a truly deep and layered character. Still, very good job.

3. Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary

All in all, this gal, Renée Zellweger is really great as Bridget Jones, this crazy, pathetic and loveable spinster. This is not Sex and the City style "acting", she's truly great as Bridget and she gives a heart-warming portrayal of this lovely character. No wonder that she was nominated for an Oscar.

2. Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom

Sissy Spacek is just amazing as Ruth Fowler and she shows how much tension her grief causes in her life. Her performance is not huge, she doesn't sing, she doesn't dance, she doesn't die, we just see her being totally fantastic and unbelievable. This is an incredibly haunting and unforgettable peformance. Those small movements of hers, the outbursts, the tears. Everything is so real and haunting.

1. Halle Berry in Monster's Ball

There's nothing more appropriate word to describe Halle Berry's performance in Monster's Ball than mindblowing. She's saw raw and so incredible as Leticia Musgorve and she shows Leticia's inner demons so amazingly. She's unbelievably effective and although I might understand why some don't like her, I think that she's just fantastic and shows the mood swings and breakdowns of Leticia incredibly. Brutally raw, amazing work.

So I can proudly announce

the winner is...

Halle Berry

in

Monster's Ball

Oh my Goooood! XD

Final thoughts: A really great year, in my humble opinion. It's WAY better than some say. All of the performances seemed very interesting to me. Two of them didn't impress me that much and they were leaning towards 3,5 but my leninent heart stepped in. I'm always much stricter when I get a weak year (1975, but I don't want to remember). Renée was just fantastic as Bridget Jones and I loved her. Halle's win was a really worthy one and I am happy that it became an even more special one for her. Sissy is always brilliant and I feel sooooooooo bad about not choosing her. But I would feel even worse if I didn't pick Halle. It's possible that once I'll change my mind, not now. If I could, I would make this one a tie.

Omissions: 

• Nicole Kidman in The Others 
• Audrey Tautou in Amelie

About the next year: I don't have any idea. I'll be away next week, so I'll take my time. :) You'll know it next Saturday. :) Make some suggestions, I might like some of the ideas. :)

Note: I've just found the perfect year but I'll say nothing for sure, yet. :)

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Halle Berry in Monster's Ball

Halle Berry made history when she became the first African American actress to receive the Best Actress Oscar in 2001 for playing Leticia Musgorve, a bitter, grief-stricken woman in the independant movie, Monster's Ball. I guess if I had been an Oscar nerd back then, I wouldn't have predicted Berry to win the Oscar. Not until the SAG awards, at least. That was the only major award that she won (Sissy Spacek won the majority of the critics' awards and she was followed by Nicole). I guess the award that she won at the Berlin Film Festival didn't matter that much Oscar-wise. Still, she won in a surprise and made history. Nowadays many people make fun of her speech but I can understand her feelings.

Monster's Ball is a fantastic, thought-provoking and really devastating movie. It's such a complex and fascinating experience, one that you never forget once you see it. You can love it or loathe it but you can't deny that it's a special movie. I think it definitely deserved a Best Picture nomination, more than most (or all) of the nominees that year. Same for Billy Bob Thornton. He gave (probably) the performance of his lifetime and he's so great as the repressed guy. I also would have voted for this movie in the Best Original Screenplay category.

Halle Berry is another example of an underrated actress. She's an actress who would deserve much better roles and yet she has to do things like Catwoman. I guess her brilliant looks are serious drawbacks in terms of her career. I guess she was really lucky with Monster's Ball. After actresses like Angela Bassett and Vanessa Williams turned the part down, I guess the role of Leticia was played by the right actress, eventually.

I'll explain this later but I'm saying this right now, in short: Halle Berry is incredible as Leticia Musgrove. I mean, I know that it's not very popular to say such things about her, she's really Amazing. Yes, Amazing with capital A. I guess the biggest haters of this performance cannot really identify with this character or (thank God) they haven't felt what Leticia felt in Monster's Ball. I'm just telling the story once again: Leticia is a broken-down woman whose son dies quickly after her husband and the kid's father is executed. Leticia find comfort on the side of a racist cop and a special relationship is born between them.

Many say that Berry's performance in Monster's Ball consists of two performances: one of them is loud, over-the-top acted and the other one is a silent, more subtle one. I'm saying right here that it's the biggest piece of garbage that I've ever heard. What one can see in Halle's work is the mood-swings of a devastated woman who's overwhelmed by the emotions and she cannot control herself. Even before the deaths, Leticia is exhausted. Halle's amazing in the scene where Leticia sees her husband for the last time. I was just thinking "poor woman". There's so much pain and suffering inside and (at least for me), it's always really disturbing to see the mental breakdown of a person. Again, it's the mood swings when she beats up her obese child crazily.

And after a while, it's just fascinating to see her infamous "Make me feel good!" scene. Before having sex, Leticia breaks down to an almost total stranger. Halle shows all the pain of this character mindblowingly. All those overwhelming emotions make it a very disturbing and heart-breaking scenes. Halle doesn't exaggerate the drunken state of Leticia. Halle's acting in that scene is just perfect. Once, I had a 0,00001% similar experience with booze and it's just unbelievable how well Halle portrayed that awkward and overemotional state. It was fantastic.

Still, it would be really hard to pick my favorite scene of this performance because choosing between the previously mentioned sequence and the one where she's humiliated by her boyfriend's racist father is just impossible. That's and example of Halle's calm and subtle acting and it's such a harrowing, unforgettable and brutally realistic scene. Halle showed so many sides of Leticia's humiliation. She's cornered and it's really painful to see her.

Halle's chemistry with Billy Bob Thornton (if we can talk about such a thing) is just brilliant. I saw them like lonely birds in winter who are holding onto each other so that they are not cold. It was just fascinating to see them relying on each other. They were mutually supportive and we can feel the special bondage between them. I really cannot decide if it was really love. Maybe. But I guess that's not important. And that becomes obvious in another brilliant scene where Leticia realises the horrible and devastating truth about Hank, his boyfriend. Halle is so damn effective and brilliant there. Her acting there is the definition of mindblowing.

Really, there's no more appropriate word to describe Halle Berry's performance in Monster's Ball than mindblowing. She's saw raw and so incredible as Leticia Musgorve and she shows Leticia's inner demons so amazingly. She's unbelievably effective and although I might understand why some don't like her, I think that she's just fantastic and shows the mood swings and breakdowns of Leticia incredibly. Brutally raw, amazing work.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2001

So the nominees were:

• Halle Berry in Monster's Ball
• Judi Dench in Iris
• Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge!
• Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom
• Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary

A requested year and a great one, I think. Any normal, usual year would be a relief after 1975.

What do you think? What's your ranking? What do you predict for my ranking?