After having watched and reviewed all five nominated performances, it's time to pick the winner!
5. Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman
Most of all, this nominations is a testament to Debra Winger’s warm and astonishingly natural screen presence and intuitive acting style that always makes her work look so completely natural and spontaneous. Debra Winger maybe could have never won the fight against the weakness of her material, but she beautifully realized that it was worth a shot.
Sissy Spacek does a lot with a character that could have been very little but at the same time she is not able to overcome its limitations. She takes the part of the guide through the story with an admirable combination of strength and weakness and her chemistry with Jack Lemmon is very captivating but she very often feels trapped in the role of Beth and her own interpretation which both don’t allow her to fully explore her own acting talents.
Julie Andrews gives a performance that combines everything she is famous for but at the same time she constantly finds new shades about herself and more than once rejects and parodies her own image and her magical screen presence helps her to achieve a memorable and captivating performance.
2. Jessica Lange in Frances
Jessica Lange gives one of the greatest tour-de-forces of the last century. She is an overpowering presence in a whole spectrum of human emotions that she empties the viewer’s heart and mind. She never turns Frances into a crazy woman, or, what would even be wore, stupid – instead, she understandably tells about her own indecisiveness that too often overpowers her life. It’s a performance that somehow doesn’t really draw attention to itself but still turns out to be a true miracle in physical and emotional perfection.
My heart wants to give the win to Jessica Lange, my mind says Meryl Streep. Despite the legendary reputation of Meryl Streep's performance, this decision is much closer than would be expected. But it simply can't be denied: Few actress have ever shown such emotional nakedness on the screen. It’s a performance that seems to escape rational analysing by becoming almost distilled until nothing but pure emotions remain.
4 comments:
Great work as usual. This couldn't have gone any other way. My own ranking would be very similar to this I think. Now, I would be happy to do this year.
@dinasztie: Thanks a lot! (but actually, it easily could have gone another way...). Can you do this year soon?
Oh I'm glad it came down to Meryl, but Jessica was fine in her own right - I wish I could join the camp that loves her performance, but I just can't bring myself to call it amazing, or at least not on the same level as Meryl (or for me, Spacek and Winger as well).
Well, everyone has different taste, otherwise the world would be a very boring place! :-)
And there are so many performances that I wish I could love as much as others do, but a little diverstiy never hurts! :)
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