The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1990

About the field: weaker than I expected. I was looking forward to it, but it wasn't very great. I'm a bit bitter to tell the truth. I love enjoying a year fully and I did not feel that with this one. Naturally,I loved #1 and #2 and the other others were not bad either, I just felt that something was missing. 1989 might have been too strong and I compared this to that. Glenn Close was really robbed: she absolutely rocked in Reversal of Fortune and should have won (not even nominated damn it). GAH! Only #1 got really close to her. But let's just see the not so surprising ranking, which was quite easy to do (especially picking the winner):

5. Joanne Woodward in Mr & Mrs Bridge

This is not an amazing achievement as it really did not touch me despite some strong and excellently solved scenes. Mostly, it's very slow and uninteresting, but she couldn't catch my attention even after the good moments. It's proper work, but far from fantastic.

4. Anjelica Huston in The Grifters

Anjelica Huston's performance in The Grifters is bit a mixed bag: there are moments of boredom and slowness, but then there's such intensity and mistery in it, which almost made me speechless. It's not flawless, but it's very memorable work by a talented actress.

3. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman

This is not a performance to praise to high graces, but it's utterly charming, loveable, funny, entertaining acting, which is free of overacting and loud moments. It serves its purpuse quite properly and gets so much out of the screenplay, which is not the best-written.

2. Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge

Although Meryl is a bit miscast (that's not her fault actually), her performance as the desperate Suzanne Vale is pitch-perfect: it's hilarious, a bit saddening, powerful, emotional and extremely loveable. Meryl nails all the aspects and faces of this characters and createst one of her most vibrant turns ever.

1. Kathy Bates in Misery

When writing about her, I try not to be influenced by her performance's iconic status, but I just cannot forget it. Annie Wilkes is in motion picture history and (to quote her) Kathy Bates "had a little something to do with that"). With this crazy character, she created one of the most memorable screen villians in history, who is going to scare us for a long time.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Kathy Bates in Misery

No, Kathy, I did not doubt your brilliance, I swear XD

Omissions: 

• Great Glenn Close in Reversal of Fortune 
• Laura Dern in Wild at Heart *My Pick*

The ranking of the already reviewed years:

1. 1974
2. 1989
3. 1959
4. 1939
5. 2009
6. 1963
7. 1990
8. 1978
9. 1954
10. 1948
11. 2002
12. 1940
13. 1998

About the next year: I think it's not going to be a big surprise, but let me tell you that the competition is very heated and not over yet, so you will know only when I announce the year. I really don't know what else to say, but I'm really looking forward to the next year. But more about that later. However, I will not do the runner-up year after the winner as I found a year, I'm crazy about and I want to do that. I can't wait. :)

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman

Julia Roberts received her second Oscar nomination for playing Vivian, a hooker in Pretty Woman. I'm really not sure about Julia's chances of winning as she won the Golden Globe and the movie was a huge success plus she became a HUGE star and Hollywood's sweetheart in the 90s. But I read that the race was between Woodward and Huston. After all, I think that Roberts was the third after Kathy Bates and Anjelica Huston. Nevertheless, I think, that much less people would hate Julia's win had she won for this.

Pretty Woman is very hard to rate. I've seen it at least seven times, but not because it's that good, it's just always on Tv. And actually, I enjoy it every time and I was really looking forward to watching it this time too. It's a typical entertaining romantic comedy wrapped in Garry Marshall's sugar coating, which is not that distracting this time. I don't think that Richard Gere is a great actor but at least he's not as annoying here as he was in Chicago. I have to mention Laura San Giacomo who gives an excellent performance which I especially loved and I don't think that a nom would have been undeserved for her.

However, this movie is totally about its main character, Vivian, and the actress, who plays her, Ms. Julia Roberts. I am 100% sure that had this movie been released in, say, 1964, Julia would have won the Oscar hands down. It's a typical 1960s Cinderella story for both the character and the actress. And people love fairy tales. Pretty Woman's story is highly unlikely, but there's some kind of loveliness in it, which is mostly due to Ms. Roberts: she was so free of all of her later mannerisms and was able to give a heartwarming performance.

In the beginning, we get to know Vivian, who is foul-mouthed, loud, over-the-top, but it's obvious for everyone that it's mainly acting and pretending. However, she gets the sympathy of the audience instantly: the role itself is surprisingly a lot like Michelle Pfeiffer's in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Call girls, looking for a better life. Unlike Michelle, Julia picked the easier ways to create the character and to get the audience's sympathy. We like both characters, but Susie Diamond is quite unlikeable sometimes, while Vivian is just the usual hooker with a heart of gold. Actually, this might sound as if I'm underestimating Julia here: actually, I think that her choices completely fit the film. She doesn't go deep, but nobody requires it.

That being said, Julia built up Vivian's personality quite well: she has a kind of "I'm just a country girl deep in my heart" feeling, but in a strange way it's not very distracting, because Julia's charm and loveliness makes us forget all these things. It's so natural when she asks Edward how far he got in school and then she says "Wow, your folks must be proud of you." I just felt that it was totally in the right place.

Vivian is some kind of a mix of Cinderella and Eliza Doolittle, and Julia shows both sides of this character. Her clumsiness is very funny and sweet, her vulgar behaviour is entertaining and her attitude is just plain gold. Vivian goes throught a development and Julia is actually quite good at showing these important changes and the potential in Vivian. She just wants to live a decent life and that's it. Again, she's just an ordinary girl. First, she enjoys this new and unusual state, but then she gets too used to it and wants to get more out of life.

Some may say that she's not credible as a hooker, but in my opinion Vivian was not really credible as a hooker either. She's just too sweet for the street. There are no complicated emotions or deep moments there, but that's mostly because of the shallowness of the screenplay: I think Julia lived with every opportunity in the very thin and simple screenplay. Every funny scene is done exceptionally and the drama part is also how it should be. The whole thing is just very well done.

To sum up, this is not a performance to praise for high graces, but it's utterly charming, loveable, funny, entertaining acting, which is free of overacting and loud moments. It serves its purpuse quite properly and gets so much out of the screenplay, which is not the best every-written. Enjoyable and lovely.

So what do you think? This time I cannot accept requests on which lady's review I should do next, so thanks for the understanding.

The Next Year

So let's just move along with our next year and I will do a decade I've ignored since the semi-pleasant experience of 1998. It seems to be a so called one-horse race, but I think everyone can surprise us and I'm sure that it will be competitive and nothing is for sure right here. But I won't go on talking.

1990

So the nominees were:

• Kathy Bates in Misery*
• Anjelica Huston in The Grifters
• Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
• Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge
• Joanne Woodward in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge

So what do you think? Who would YOU pick? What's YOUR ranking? What's YOUR prediction for my ranking? The predicting contest is on.

As you can see, there's a poll on your right. Vote for the more interesting year. Basically, these are the next two years, but I'm so interested in both that I can't decide between them. So the decision is yours. If there's a tie, the person who wins the predicting contest decides.