Nathaniel's current poll at The Film Experience asks: Which is your favorite best actress win in the last 20 years? Until I saw his list of choices, I didn't realize how rarely I've felt drawn to the winners of the best actress Oscar over the last decade. To me there was a definite strong patch in the winners of that catergory from 1991-1996 (Foster, Thompson, Hunter, Lange, Sarandon, McDormand), but over the last decade I've often disagreed with the choice (Helen Hunt?, Julia Roberts?, Hilary Swank, again!?!), and even when I've agreed with the pick out of the top 5 - I haven't always been blissfully happy about the win (Charlize Theron did a great job, but c'mon, it's hard to get invested and attached to Monster). Last year's win by Reese Witherspoon was the first time I was really happy with how that race had turned out this millenium. So I guess I'm just wondering - is it just me, or have the winners in this category often been disappointing in the last several years?
Posted by armand at November 27, 2006 01:14 PM | TrackBack | Posted to MoviesIt's actually astonishing how many of those movies I've missed, but, although I don't remember who she beat out, I think Helen Hunt gave a brilliant performance in As Good As It Gets, as did pretty much everyone in that film.
Posted by: moon at November 27, 2006 03:18 PM | PERMALINKYeah, some of these wins are for tiny films (has anyone ever seen Blue Sky?).
But as to Hunt, I must disagree. I actually liked the movie and Jack of course, but I've see all 5 of the lead actress performances that were nominated that year (the others being Helena Bonham Carter - The Wings of the Dove, Julie Christie - Afterglow, Judi Dench - Mrs. Brown, and Kate Winslet - Titanic) and personally I'd rate Hunt in the back of that bunch (to the degree I remember those turns I'd have voted for Ms. Bonham Carter, who was amazing).
Posted by: Armand at November 27, 2006 03:27 PM | PERMALINKI think Hunt's one of those actresses who rub some people wrong, and as a consequence is underrated. I love love love Kate Winslet, and really don't care for Hunt in a lot of roles, but I think between the two roles in question, AGAIG and Titanic, Hunt was about a million times more interesting than Winslet. I mean, sure, Winslet mugged prettily, and betrayed terrible inner conflict with those mesmerizing peepers, and she posed nude with the best, but no matter what she brought to bear she had almost no material to work with.
Anyway, we can agree to disagree. :-)
Posted by: moon at November 27, 2006 03:42 PM | PERMALINKWell sure, we can agree to disagree. :)
That said, personally I thought Winslet was great in that role. Now I didn't like that movie much, and (relatedly) she didn't have a ton to work with, but given what she had to work with, I thought she was lovely - very, very good.
I liked AGAIG a lot, and I liked Hunt in it - but not as much as I liked Winslet. And definitely not as much as I liked Ms. Bonham Carter (who also got naked that year). And while I don't remember that much about Julie Christie's performance, I remember being transfixed. It was a muted performace - but just right and affecting and interesting. And talk about lovely to look at ...
Posted by: Armand at November 27, 2006 04:00 PM | PERMALINKJudi
And that's all I have to say about that.
Posted by: binky at November 27, 2006 04:14 PM | PERMALINKYou mean for the Helen Hunt year, or for all of the last 20 years?
If you mean THAT year - well I'll just have to agree to disagree with you too. I liked her, she was very good - but I liked Helena Bonham Carter more.
Posted by: Armand at November 27, 2006 04:37 PM | PERMALINK