Best Actress Ranking - Update

Here is a new update. The newly added performance is highlighted in bold. 

If five performances from the same year are included, the winning performance is higlighted in red.

1. Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind (1939)
2. Jessica Lange in Frances (1982)
3. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard (1950)
4. Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress (1949)
5. Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
6. Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (1967)
7. Janet Gaynor in Seventh Heaven (1927-1928)   
8. Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman (1978)
9. Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
10. Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful (1985)

11. Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise (1991)
12. Katharine Hepburn in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
13. Edith Evans in The Whisperers (1967)
14. Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (1938)
15. Greta Garbo in Ninotchka (1939)
16. Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
17. Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (2004)
18. Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth (1998)
19. Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! (2001)
20. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

21. Simone Signoret in Room at the Top (1959)
22. Bette Davis in The Little Foxes (1941)
23. Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music (1965)
24. Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame (1958)
25. Glenda Jackson in Women in Love (1970)
26. Joanne Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
27. Elizabeth Taylor in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
28. Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
29. Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (1941)
30. Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom (2001)

31. Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001)
32. Lee Remick in Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
33. Annette Bening in American Beauty (1999)
34. Emily Watson in Hilary and Jackie (1998)
35. Judi Dench in Iris (2001)
36. Julie Christie in Away from Her (2007)
37. Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun (1951)
38. Audrey Hepburn in Wait until Dark (1967)
39. Meryl Streep in The Devil wears Prada (2006)
40. Ingrid Bergman in The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945)

41. Julie Walters in Educating Rita (1983)
42. Anne Baxter in All about Eve (1950)
43. Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown (1997)
44. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932)
45. Jane Fonda in Coming Home (1978)
46. Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
47. Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959)
48. Meryl Streep in One True Thing (1998)
49. Joan Crawford in Sudden Fear (1952)
50. Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)

51. Katharine Hepburn in Guess who’s coming to dinner (1967)
52. Marsha Mason in Chapter Two (1979)
53. Jane Wyman in The Yearling (1946)
54. Melissa Leo in Frozen River (2008)
55. Martha Scott in Our Town (1940)
56. Teresa Wright in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 
57. Jennifer Jones in Love Letters (1945)
58. Ellen Burstyn in Same Time, Next Year (1978)
59. Susan Hayward in My Foolish Heart (1949)
60. Jeanne Crain in Pinky (1949)

61. Eleanor Parker in Detective Story (1951)
62. Vanessa Redgrave in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
63. Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room (1996)
64. Louise Dresser in A Ship comes in (1927-1928)
65. Dorothy McGuire in Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
66. Loretta Young in Come to the Stable (1949)  
67. Mary Pickford in Coquette (1928-29)
68. Sissy Spacek in The River (1984)
69. Shirley MacLaine in The Turning Point (1977)
70. Irene Dunne in Cimarron (1930-1931)

71. Ruth Chatterton in Madame X (1928-29)
72. Diana Wynyard in Cavalcade (1932-1933)
73. Bette Davis in The Star (1952)

Melissa Leo as Ray Eddy in Frozen River

As I have already written about Melissa’s performance before and my opinion on her has not really changed overall, I will refer you to my initial review. 

Number 69: Melissa Leo as Alice Ward in "The Fighter" (Best Supporting Actress Ranking)

It’s always very hard to judge the most recent winner – especially today when you have so many awards, web sites etc that cover all performances and make you form an opinion about a specific piece of work before you have even seen it. In the case of Melissa Leo, I expected a lot – her sweep of the pre-Oscar awards, her reviews and everything else indicated a great performance. Well…as you can see, I have to disagree here.

In The Fighter, Melissa Leo plays Alice Ward – the tough, ambitious and controlling mother of Micky and Dicky, two brothers with different careers in the boxing ring. Alice Ward is the kind of mother we already know from other movies – she is not only a mother but also a manager, she tries to get her sons ahead while controlling every single aspect of their life. It’s the kind of character that makes it easy to root against but in the end, there is almost always an obligatory scene with some tears when we learn that everything she does is out of love.

The reason why this performance did not work for me is a combination of various elements – on the one hand, she is too over-the-top in a lot of scenes (the scene with her throwing the plates…I thought this kind of acting had died with Susan Hayward) or completely uninteresting in the others. She establishes her character extremely one-note right in the beginning and she stays on that note for the whole movie. There is a scene at the beginning when she is crying in a car, disappointed by the behaviour of her son Dicky. But this scene comes much too sudden because before this moment Melissa Leo failed to establish any kind of emotional chemistry with her male co-stars and so what could have been a moving and effective scene only felt out-of-place in the context of the movie and the character of Alice.

But even though Melissa Leo does not really work very well with her co-stars in the beginning, the chemistry among the cast improves as the movie goes on. In the later scenes, she develops a believable relationship with Christian Bale and both actors succeed in using a similar acting style that creates a believable mother-son-relationship.

But most of the time, Melissa Leo simply fails to impress because the character is put into so many hard-to-buy situations. Her conversation with Amy Adams and Mark Wahlberg is done so annoyingly, her big eyes when she first learns about Amy’s character are so exaggerated, the scene when she drives to Micky’s house with her 5000 daughters is so silly. Not even a few more serious looks during the whole proceedings can save this performance – on the contrary, they rather look like a desperate attempt by Melissa Leo to keep herself from crossing the line from character to caricature but, unfortunately, she crosses this line too often.

A sometimes entertaining piece of work that failed to impress me in most parts.

YOUR Best Actress of 2008!

Here are the results of the voting:

1. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married (14 votes)

2. Kate Winslet - The Reader (13 votes)

3. Meryl Streep - Doubt (12 votes)

4. Melissa Leo - Frozen River (11 votes)

5. Angelina Jolie - Changeling (2 votes)

Thanks to everyone for voting!

Best Actress 2008 - The resolution

After having watched and reviewed all five nominated performances, it's time to pick the winner!

5. Angelina Jolie in Changeling

In a performance of incredibly diverse qualities, Angelina Jolie both carries and harms the movie as she reaches heights and lows while she mixes honest emotions with fake over-the-top moments but she nonetheless creates a memorable character caught in a horrible situation and her bleak appearance and desperate performance fits to the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the story.

4. Melissa Leo in Frozen River

                     

Melissa Leo gives an impressive performance that shows how the desperation and hopelessness of her life has turned her character into a bitter and pessimistic woman but while she succeeds in showing her constant determination and toughness, there are unfortunately a lot of missed opportunities to illustrate a different side.

3. Meryl Streep in Doubt

Meryl Streep is obviously having fun with this part that gives her the opportunity to chew the scenery but at the same time she allows Sister Aloysius to be more than just a villainous stereotype and shows more layers behind the stern façade of this strict and unforgiving nun.

2. Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married

With her performance, Anne Hathaway wisely took all the qualities she usually let shine in her comedies, like her charm, her loveable personality and her unique appearance and used it against type to create a memorable character, filled with sorrow and sadness that she mostly tries to hide behind a fake smile and a hyperactive personality.                       

1. Kate Winslet in The Reader

Despite being trapped in a mediocre movie, Kate Winslet was able to bring her complex character wonderfully to live with a fascinating, memorable and layered performance that successfully turns Hannah into a three-dimensional and mysterious woman and makes her actions and thoughts always appear believable, as hard as they may be to understand.

Best Actress 2008: Melissa Leo in "Frozen River"

Melissa Leo received the first nomination of her career for her role as Ray Eddy – an overworked, stressed mother of two children whose husband left her and who has to deal with financial problems. To solve them, she starts to drive illegal immigrants over the boarder from Canada to the United States.

Frozen River is a grim tale of people who see no other choice for a better life than crime. It portrays an area where the American Dream doesn’t seem to exist and life is a constant struggle against poverty and downfall. The life of Ray Eddy is no exception.

The first time the viewer sees Leo’s Ray it becomes immediately clear that she is a woman with no illusions – a face that is worn-out and exhausted but also tough and strong. Her whole appearance shows a woman who has spent her whole life working and fighting to survive and never really got anything for her trouble. Right from the first moment on Melissa Leo makes clear that life has turned Ray into a bitter, pessimistic woman.

Besides her financial problems, Ray also has trouble in her personal life – her husband left her without a word. In front of her children, Ray holds her tough façade up, but in some silent moments, when Ray is alone, her masque-like face shows signs of desperation and pain. When Ray goes out to find her husband, Melissa Leo is able to show that she both can’t go on but knows that she has to. It seems that is a combination of obligation for her children and herself that keeps her going. Melissa Leo is very convincing in showing Ray’s desperation and most of all, her tiredness. She shows that Ray is trying everything to survive but a lot of energy has been used up in her life. She seems to have turned into a woman running on ‘auto-pilot’, doing everything she can but without any unrealistic dreams or hopes.

Despite her tough determination, Ray can’t find her husband but she finds is a woman who stole his car. This starts Ray’s strange relationship with this woman who is earning money by bringing illegal immigrants over the boarder from Canada and for whom Ray’s car is exactly what she needs.

Melissa Leo shows in the scenes with Lila, her new partner in crime, that Ray is a woman who keeps everyone at a distance and whose instincts for survivial make her seemingly mistrust everybody – she and Lila don’t share a friendship, they openly reject each other but the circumstances and necessities have brought them together. Melissa Leo never wastes any second in demonstrating that Ray has come to a point in her life where she doesn’t have another choice, where even thinking about another choice wouldn’t make any sense. She needs money, not to make life better, but to maintain life as it is. And she shows that Ray is a very no-nonsense character for whom getting money is the only importance in her life – so she tries to get it without asking questions.

Melissa Leo also works very well with Charlie McDermott who plays her oldest son. She perfectly shows in her scenes with him a constant struggle between love and frustration and her constant impatience makes the viewer feel how it is often the people the closest to someone that evoke the angriest reaction. Melissa Leo also demonstrates that being a good mother is the only goal Ray can hope of achieving and she tries her best to fulfil this by a combination of strict discipline and generous love. In the scenes that show Ray’s personal life and her job, Melissa Leo finds various different personalities for Ray as she can be respectful and charming opposite her supervisor but tough and unlikeable opposite most others.

In the scenes opposite Lila, Melissa Leo makes Ray a dominant and insecure character at the same time. Insecure because she doesn’t have Lila’s apparently indifferent attitude to the dangers of their crimes and dominant because she refuses to let Lila, the more experienced criminal, be the leader in their relationship – Ray knows what she is doing and what she wants for it.

Melissa Leo portrays Ray’s entry in the world of crime without any grand gestures or big emotions. Ray knows that she has to do it so she doesn’t waste any time in asking moral questions. It is never clear if Ray has a criminal past but it is clear that she is down-to-earth and knows about the possible consequences. But Melissa Leo also shows that with her new activity as a criminal, Ray seems to start to dream again of a better life and seems to be willing to forget those possible consequences – a police officer at her door surely frightens her but it doesn’t stop her.

Melissa Leo surely succeeds in showing Ray’s constant determination and toughness but unfortunately a lot of times, she seems not able to find anything else in her character than this bitterness. It would have been a much more interesting performance if she had been able to show some other layers besides this, some doubts or worries. Too often, her stone-faced performance prevents Ray from becoming a more layered character. Even when Ray learns about a terrible mistake in her judgment when she threw a bag out of the car, there doesn’t come any real emotional reaction from Melissa Leo. The interpretation of Ray as a hardened woman is surely consistent but stops the performance from becoming fully engaging. All this also makes the ending when Ray suddenly decides to scarify herself for a woman she had spent the whole movie disliking rather unbelievable. Melissa Leo focused so much on the hardened side of Ray that she overlooked all the other aspects that could have been explored in the character.

Overall, it’s an impressive performance that could have needed a deeper characterization that gets

Best Actress 2008

The next year is 2008 and the nominees were

Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married

Angelina Jolie in Changeling

Melissa Leo in Frozen River

Meryl Streep in Doubt

Kate Winslet in The Reader