The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 2004

2004

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

What could Hilary do in this movie, where a great actress like Margo Martindale becomes a caricature? Nothing, but remaining what the screenplay intended her to be: a cliché, nothing more than that. She does the Oscar scenes the way she's supposed to, she's easy to sympathize with so what else can I ask for? Truth and honesty, no cheap, shallow emotions.

4. Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace

I'm saying that I was once again impressed by Catalina's screen debut as Maria. She played this character with lots of dedication and confidence, while avoiding the obvious traps. She never becomes 'obvious' in her acting, totally identifies with her character and develops her wonderfully. I can only praise her for her incredible, extremely heart-breaking performance.

3. Annette Bening in Being Julia

Pure delight! Annette's performane as Julia reminded me of Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine. It may not be a huge dramatic achievement but she's so delightful and I was so in love with the character that I couldn't get enough of her. She took this wonderful part and turned it into a fascinating, wonderful creation that's incredibly delightful.

2. Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake

After all, I can't say anything negative about Imelda Staunton as Vera Drake. Although I don't love her as much as I used to, I still find her simply fantastic. She completely became this character and wonderfully played with the emotions. The way Imelda reveals all the layers of Vera and creates dramatic tension on the screen is just unbelievably great. Unforgettable, remarkable work.

1. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A no-brainer pick. Honestly, the "Am I ugly?" scene just locked and sealed this win and there was no other way. Kate is just as great as Clementine as people say, if not better. She evokes all the great feelings of Diane Keaton's Annie Hall without shamelessly copying her. Kate's Clementine is an utterly fascinating, unique creation bursting with creativity. Kate solved her task flawlessly and she deserves nothing but praise for it.

So I can proudly announce

that the winner is...

Kate Winslet

in

Eternal Sunshine

of the Spotless Mind

There you go, Wonder Woman. :)

Final thoughts: Wonderful year, horrible winner. Really Academy, really? I am stunned by this decision. Didn't they watch the other movies???? Kate was such an easy winner here. Her performance only got better in time. Just like Kate was the winner, Hilary was the no-brainer last but I'm not talking about her anymore. The other three were, however, the hardest to rank. It was incredibly difficult for me. I picked Annette second, she's a real delight here. That must raise some eyebrows but I honestly don't care. I was considering ranking her fourth but I got to a point where I found: hell, I liked her most next to Kate. To be perfectly honest, I would have voted for Annette as an Academy member because she was so great and overdue. OK, she's brilliant, that's it. Imelda and Catalina are pretty much equal for me, therefore their order was kind of random. :)

Omissions: Uma Thurman in Kill Bil Vol. 2.

About the next year: You just never know what can happen. My sudden encounter with this year was a shock and I never thought I could do it. It's gonna be very exciting, with four performances I haven't even seen. Clues:

• DON'T SPEAAAAAK!

What do you think? Any thoughts on your mind?

Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Kate Winslet received her fourth Best Actress nomination for playing Clementine, a "fucked-up girl who's looking for her own peace of mind" in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Wow, many have said this but it's true: Kate Winslet's performance as Clementine is the kind of work that's usually snubbed by the Academy and many uproar afterwards because of this snub. That's what happened for instance with Sally Hawkins. However, the Academy had a very good period, I guess and they nominated this very unusual piece of work. I feel, though, that Winslet was probably only fourth in the voting though nowadays most people would actually give her the win. It's more than satisfying to see her get recognised.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a fascinating, original movie that doesn't stop amazing me with its witty and yet incredibly heart-breaking story. It once again shows how stupid the Golden Globes are that they nominated this movie as a Comedy. The Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay is one of the most deserved one ever to be given out (I can only think of Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters and Chinatown that are as good as this one). And in my humble opinion, Jim Carrey was cheated out of the nod (once again) as he was more deserving than 60% of the field. But I can mention the wonderful supporting cast as well. They are all memorable.

Recently, I have developed a huge crush on Kate Winslet. You know, she's a wonder woman (figuratively and literally, too since that fire in September) who shows greatness in each of her roles. Every time she injects an astonishing amount of talent into her role and she's so incredibly versatile. I can only think of Jane Fonda who's as versatile as Kate. For Kate, it's no big deal to play a Nazi guard after an unhappy housewife or the self-sacrificing Mildred Pierce before the drunken, constantly puking wife in Carnage. The unusual, strange role of Clementine Kruczynski fits perfectly into that group. Kate's self-admittedly looking for very different part and that's something that I admire most about her.

Her role as Clementine is said to be Kate's personal favorite and this work of hers has a huge amount of fans among movie buffs and Oscar fans. Why exactly? I would say because she creates a modern day Annie Hall, a girl who's so easy to fall in love with. Clementine is not a huge beauty, she's not very kind, she's weird, she's imperfect and yet so irresistable that you just feel it's completely appropriate that Jim Carrey's Joel cannot (and doesn't want to) forget her. However, Kate's part is far from being that "easy". Actually, she plays two Clementines (to perfection). One of them is the real Clementine we get to see after she erases her boyfriend from her mind. The other one exists in Joel's mind and I dare say she's probably even more fascinating than the real one.

It's always very hard to play such a tricky character because you can never rely on the reality or your mind. You have to really listen to your own instincts that tell you how to play that person. I feel that Kate's instincts worked wonderfully in this case. She has no big dramatic scenes, no huge, showy breakdowns, she just has to work with her charm and wit. She wonderfully shows how outspoken and sometimes annoying this character can be and she's never afraid of making her really unlikeable. The funny part of her performance is really nailed by her: she shows Clementine as a weird girl and yet she never seems to be an idiot or stupid. Kate wonderfully found the balance in this aspect. She shows so many sides and faces of this character. She's selfish, she's loving, she's loud, she's quiet, she's beautiful, she's ugly, she's lovely, she's annoying and she basically shows all the features of a human being. Clementine wears her heart on her sleeve and yet there's a mysterious feeling in her. We don't really get to know Clementine's personality and yet what we see is enough to fall for her.

There's a scene around the middle of the movie when Clementine asks Joel if she's ugly. That's probably the most wonderful scene of the whole movie. In the end, Joel says that he doesn't want it to end and the lack of Clementine becomes so incredibly painful. Kate added this irresistable bittersweet feeling of the end that's impossible to forget or even communicate. You just feel heartbroken because of her.

Another thing that I admire about Kate here is that she's so playful while also taking her job extremely seriously. This comes through especially in the scenes when the memory of Clementine and Joel hide in Joel's childhood memories. Kate is so delightful and (again) wonderfully bittersweet. She even gets to play a very small girl and she's so incredibly funny and moving there. I just felt like hugging her or something.

Although Jim Carrey is the real lead in this movie, it's Kate Winslet who makes the movie. She's the heart and soul of it and every little secret of it is in her character. Basically, Clementine becomes a symbol of love and life. She's occasionally hateful, painful and you just want to get rid of her and yet in the end, she makes it all worthwhile. Every tiny movement of hers is sparkling with the creativity of Kate Winslet who's quite simply astonishing here.

This performance has a lot of enthusiastic fans and I'm happy to say that I'm one of them: Kate Winslet is nothing short of brilliant as Clementine Kruczynski, the complicated young woman. She evokes all the great feelings of Diane Keaton's Annie Hall without shamelessly copying her. Kate's Clementine is an utterly fascinating, unique creation bursting with creativity. Kate solved her task flawlessly and she deserves nothing but praise for it.

What do you think?

The Next Year

2004

So the nominees were:

• Annette Bening in Being Julia
• Catalina Sandino Moreno in Maria Full of Grace
• Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake
• Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby
• Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A race with a really unpopular winner and four performances that have tons of fans. We'll see how I'll appreciate these ladies. :)

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

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 2006

2006

5. Kate Winslet in Little Children

This is a great performance by the great Kate Winslet but I just embrace her because the movie was between me and her. Kate shows Sarah's emotions extremely well and she has some mindblowingly great scenes and yet the whole thing becomes uneven because she's often gets a bit lost the movie itself. Great work but not as brilliant as I used to think.

 

4. Helen Mirren in The Queen

I must say that this is a great performance by the great Helen Mirren. As Queen Elizabeth II, Mirren was able to become very moving and effective. The technical part is just perfect though the emotions could have been a bit stronger. Although this work doesn't really live up to the hype that surrounded it when it was released, it's still very well done by Mirren.

3. Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada

Meryl is fantastic all in all, the movie sometimes drags her performance down and I feel that she could have been given much more to work with. I still say that she's just excellent as Miranda Priestly, the merciless, vicious magazine editor but the movie prevented me from saying that I was totally blown away

2. Penélope Cruz in Volver

As I finished writing, I've become dead certain that Penélope Cruz gives her absolute best performance in Volver as Raimunda, a very complicated and tough woman. This is not only a beautiful achievement but also a tearjerking tribute to an acting style that has unfortunately died out in the last decades

1. Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal

Judi Dench gives the best film performance of her career as Sheba Hart, a desperate, lonely woman who feels like she has some hope in her life at last. Dench is almost disturbingly perfect as Barbara Covett. Every line reading, every nuance, every movement is just great.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Judi Dench

in

Notes on a Scandal

She just read the news... :)

Final thoughts: Wow, a highly interesting year with quite an obvious winner, in my opinion. I feel quite bad for Penélope because out of sentimental reasons, she used to be my pick, but Judi cannot be ignored. Her Barbara commands every scene with her longing and despair. Tempted was I to make Meryl my pick but clearly, her performance is not on the same level as Penélope and Judi. Helen and Kate were the sour grapes, if I may say so but they seem decent choices on the Academy's part. With hindsight, it seems kind of surprising that Helen swept all the awards (actually, it's not that surprising).

About the next year: I want to make up for that last fiasco of mine with 1967, so I again let you decide from two. This time I only picked years where I got the movies in advance, so happy voting!

What do you think?

I wish you a happy Easter! :)

Kate Winslet in Little Children

Kate Winslet received her fifth Oscar nomination for playing Sarah Pierce, an unhappy married woman having an adulterous affair with a married man in the movie Little Children. I think it was this the loss which made Kate say that was enough, it's nice to be nominated but it would be great to win. And this was the time when the world started to think the same. She didn't even have a prayer to win alongside Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep or even Penélope Cruz, probably. She was probably like Michelle Williams, a solid fourth.

Little Children is quite a weird movie. The first time I saw it, I was blown away by it but this time I was much less enthusiastic. It works with very cheap tools sometimes and it can be quite manipulative. Moreover, why did they need that narrator? He had this soft, deep voice, which became ultra soft and ultra deep when there was a very emotional moment. So the screenplay that I loved the most for the first time was a bit of a failure this time around. Not a bit of, actually. Jackie Earle Haley is, however, brilliant and I think he would have deserved to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in that weak field.

Kate Winslet is a fantastic, extremely talented actress who might have annoyed me when she was (ahhem) campaigning for her Oscar (in time, I really understood her and now it doesn't really bother me). She's not exactly beautiful but there's something so grabbing about her. She has a very unique and luminous presence which can elevate silly little comedies like Holiday and make them highly entertaining. And her roles are so different (I believe that she said that she liked it this way) and even her performances.

Bohumil Hrabal's book, Cutting It Short begins with the sentence "I am Madame Bovary." It's a hilarious but very bitter book about a woman, Maryska who's desperate to be free and have fun on her own. Little Children is a somewhat similar one with Sarah Pierce/Kate Winslet as Madame Bovary/Maryska. Sarah is trapped in a boring life which doesn't fit her personality. She's restless, impatient and bored, above all. Kate Winslet added this feeling so much to Sarah and despite the fact that she's very unlikeable, you actually care about her.

I used to be quite a hyper about this performance but just like my admiration for the film itself, my love cooled (though to a lesser extent). Kate Winslet is naturally brilliant when she's given enough space and the movie focuses on her. Her luminous self adds so much to the movies (I'm saying Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, her best work, as an example). In Titanic, I said that Kate became the victim of the epic movie, the stunning visuals. In Little Children, Kate became the victim of the director's desperate and failed attempt to look artsy. One just cannot really focus on Kate because the movie is so mesmerized by itself. Poor Kate, she had so much potential with this role and she could have blown all the other ladies of 2006 away had it been for a better movie.

Kate's chemistry with Patric Wilson works very well even though she's seemingly way more talented than most of the cast combined. They are a very unlikely couple and yet they somehow look quite good together. The stupid, obvious flaws of the screenplay hold her back so much. I mean it's such an obvious scene where she's talking about Madame Bovary but Kate does great in it and yet her greatness pales in comparision with the flaw of the movie.

Still, I would be so unfair if I didn't praise her obviously brilliant scenes like when she's spying on her lover and she hides behind the wheel and then she starts crying hysterically and I was totally blown away there. It's such an unlikely and yet very realistic reaction, I just loved it. Moreover, the scenes in the end were handled perfectly by Kate. She brilliantly showed Sarah's desperation and hope.

So, to sum up, this is a great performance by the great Kate Winslet but I just embrace her because the movie was between me and her. Kate shows Sarah's emotions extremely well and she has some mindblowingly great scenes and yet the whole thing becomes uneven because she's overshadowed by the movie itself. Great work but not as brilliant as I used to think.

What do you think? Time for your last predictions! Note: before you predict, consider that I changed Helen's grade. I'm so sorry for my weakness with the grades. I might started grading them only at the time of the final conclusion and then add the grade to the review afterwards.

The Next Year

2006

So the nominees were:

• Penélope Cruz in Volver
• Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal
• Helen Mirren in The Queen
• Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
• Kate Winslet in Little Children

So is Helen as much of a lock as she was back then or will I give my vote to somebody else?

What do you think? What's your ranking? What are your predictions for my ranking?

The Final Conclusion - Best Actress 1997

1997

So the much anticipated ranking is:

5. Julie Christie in Afterglow

I'm not one of the fans of Julie Christie in Afterglow. She has some nice moments and she nails to emotional scenes to a certain extent but it's not enough to win me over. I really missed the wildness or the subtlety of her other great performances. But the fact that she wasn't great is mostly due to the horrid movie. Still, she's not great.

4. Kate Winslet in Titanic

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.

3. Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets

Helen Hunt almost crossed the line of fantastic with her performance as Carol Connelly in As Good as it Gets. Hunt added wonderful, loveable realism to this character and she made the audience really care about her. Those, who keep saying that she's one of the worst winners, really need to shut up. Helen Hunt is just excellent as this loveable character.

2. Judi Dench in Mrs Brown

This is a wonderful performance by one of the greatest actresses ever on this planet. Although it may not be the best achievement of the brilliant Dame Judi Dench, she perfectly inhabited this very complex character and nailed the emotional scenes. This is excellent work that is a real joy to watch. It's not fantastic or mindblowing, it's "just" absolutely wonderful.

1. Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove

As Kate Croy, Helena Bonham Carter managed to create fascinating, multi-layered and mysterious character that is surely very interesting. I was totally blown away by Helena who gave astonishing work and I am not surprised at all at the amount of love that Helena gets for this great achievement. Haunting, disturbing, beautiful.

So I can proudly announce

that my winner is...

Helena Bonham Carter

in

The Wings of the Dove

Just loved Helena

Final thoughts: Why do I have mixed feelings? This was an enjoyable year with very good performances and mostly not-so-great movies. Afterglow was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E but Christie made it a bit less intolerable, Mrs Brown was quite boring with Judi Dench who gave a wonderful but definitely not her greatest performance (interesting enough, that was the movie because of which I wanted to do this year), As Good as it Gets was very entertaining and Hunt really elevated the material (I'd say she was the best thing about it). Helena was just thrilling and her movie was very interesting. I'd say Titanic was the best movie in the bunch, a real epic and Kate was really good in it though not brilliant. I would say that this year was worth reviewing because of the fantastic, gutwrenching performance of Helena Bonham Carter and the great Dame Judi. I could live without the rest, though.

The ranking of the reviewed years:

1. 1944
2. 1969
3. 1974
4. 1989
5. 1959
6. 1964
7. 1939
8. 1977
9. 2010
10. 1997
11. 2009
12. 1980
13. 1941
14. 1963
15. 1966
16. 1973
17. 1990
18. 1978
19. 1954
20. 1948
21. 2002
22. 1957
23. 1940
24. 1998

About the next year: I AM SO DAMN SORRY! I've just realised that The Whisperers was removed from Youtube! I'm so f-ing nervous right now. I'm feeling very sorry but I'm going to do another great year instead. I'm so sorry again. Really, really sorry. Basically, the poll was useless and I didn't get the other movies of the years in the poll. So I had to think quick. And I have my year, which is (I promise) a great one. It's an incredibly similar one to 1997 and not only in the types of roles (single mom, royal) but also some people. :)

What do you think?

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.

The Next Year

1997

So the nominees were:

• Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
• Julie Christie in Afterglow
• Judi Dench in Mrs Brown
• Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets
• Kate Winslet in Titanic

I almost did not do this year but it looked unusually great for the 90s and I haven't covered a year from the 90s for a while, so I decided to take a look at this exciting year.

What do you think? Who's your pick? What are your predictions for the contest?