Comments on Nick's Flick Picks: The Blog: At Long Last, the Ladies

Love the Famke Janssen love you've shown in the "r...

2009-11-30T18:54:18.099-06:00

Love the Famke Janssen love you've shown in the "runner-ups" category.

Having seen the movie yesterday, I think I will be...

2009-11-28T10:14:03.260-06:00

Having seen the movie yesterday, I think I will be pitching camp in some mild-mannered placatory spot halfway between you. I was mainly... indifferent.

Impressed that you took the time to revisit your other bugbear A Serious Man, to the tune of only a slight bump upwards. I went back too and cooled on it a little, but not enough to regrade...

Make that two eagle-eyed readers ... I couldn't he...

2009-11-28T06:44:05.363-06:00

Make that two eagle-eyed readers ... I couldn't help noticing either.

As much as the re-grading would please me, I suspect it must be an error?

Call me eagle-eyed, but what's happened to the Dis...

2009-11-28T04:27:42.905-06:00

Call me eagle-eyed, but what's happened to the Disgrace grade? I know you too well to believe a D could possibly have improved itself all the way up to a B+. Did you mean to put La danse in up there?

Strange no one has mentioned kate in rev rd,I foun...

2009-11-22T02:56:46.485-06:00

Strange no one has mentioned kate in rev rd,I found her performance in that far more believable nad satisfying than The Reader

the breakfast scene and last phone call alone scream oscar to me.

I just thought she had not done her homework for the reader like she was cast quickly,i felt it was one time when she did not "get" who hanna was,There was so much good work left on the cutting troom floor which would have made more sense of hanna.

I am also in agreement that the academy is too often giving oscars to the right actress wrong role see kidman in 2002.

Having now watched Elegy, I gotta ask why you thin...

2009-11-20T23:42:53.746-06:00

Having now watched Elegy, I gotta ask why you think the movie is that much inferior to the performances, since I think it does a commanding job of following the actors' choices and never paring any of the characters down to simplistic motivations -- the most jarring elements being the absurd cut-ins to David's flashes of "imagination".

And I agree with Brook: Elegy relies a lot more on Cruz's performance than Kingsley's, without implying any demoted appreciation of the latter's achievements. But Kingsley could have done the same performance with a less thoughtful co-star and even his performance would have died on the vine as a result. Cruz does an astounding job of guiding Consuela away from charges of naivete or heedlessness, either of which would have sunk the whole enterprise.

(Full disclosure: This is my first cinematic encounter with a May-December romance, my first Isabel Coixet film, and only the second Penelope Cruz performance I've seen after Vicky Cristina Barcelona. So none of these players have had much opportunity to disappoint or bore me.)

interesting comprehensive blog....couldnt find you...

2009-11-19T14:16:33.423-06:00

interesting comprehensive blog....couldnt find your review on fish tank though!

re: Contemporary German actresses - I used to be l...

2009-11-18T18:12:24.043-06:00

re: Contemporary German actresses - I used to be lukewarm towards Jentsch but she was excellent in The Edukators and quite warm in the otherwise exhausting I Served the King of England.

Also I'd like to second Anonymous' defence of Gedeck. She was so soggy in an unbearably soggy role in The Lives of Others, I didn't even recognize her as the sexy, natural, eerily clever actress from Summer '04, which is actually a German '06 film and an excellent, unfortunately neglected one.

I don't know that either of them would have been quite right as Hanna though. To be honest, I didn't even find Winslet miscast so much as misdirected.

Some of the people around these blogs already know very well how much faith I put into Kidman as a thespian (pre- and particularly post-botox) so I won't mention how I feel about the prospect of her in the role. (But just for the record, her hollow, frozen-headed shifting from squeak to squeak throughout "Australia"? That didn't bother you?)

I do believe Binoche's powers are limitless and therefore Hanna, like any woman, would've been well within her formidable grasp. Would Kristin Scott Thomas be to obvious an alternate choice?

@Stephen: I almost skipped Blindness too, and it's...

2009-11-18T17:41:05.635-06:00

@Stephen: I almost skipped Blindness too, and it's certainly limited in profound ways that one wishes it weren't. I actually felt that it helped to have read the book, because the memory of the sheer terror and filth of life inside the quarantine complex and then outside in the streets are so memorable that I wound up tacitly supplying those affects to the movie, even when I'm not sure the filmmaking really did its full job. What I like about the Moore performance is how unusually off-the-cuff it is: she seems like a genuinely genial person, and the performance in no way aspires to make a heroic icon or even a metaphorical figure out of the character. Moore plays her as the woman who just happens to be the one who can see, which is refreshing and honest, and works against the film's annoying awareness of its own arthouse "profundity."

@Donovan: Thanks so much for saying that, and thanks for waiting and for reading in the first place!

@Anonymous: Wonderful! I hadn't hard of almost any of these actresses, but I'll seek them out. I agree that Lara is just disastrous, and without seeing Sophie Scholl, I'm tentative about slagging off Jentsch. I didn't mention Juliane Köhler, whose erotic abandon has often seemed so intimidating and unpredictable: I think of her playing Ewa Braun in Downfall with that kind of decadent, carnivorous grin, and that gleam in her eye. She might have been formidable, though I admit, there's no particular reason to go with a German actress in a production this obviously Anglophile.... though then again, an actress who fails to read as "German" really does hurt it, and David Kross's performance is certainly assisted, at least in my experience of it, by how possible it is to take him for granted as German. (I disliked Gedeck as well in The Good Shepherd, but I'll take your word for it that she's much better than her recent, high-profile vehicles have let on.)

@Cal: I watched Unrelated with Tim when I was in London last fall, and I thought both the film and Kathryn Worth's performance were absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, the film never materialized over here in the U.S., not even in a very limited run, so I didn't make her eligible for the list, though she'd almost certainly have bumped somebody.

Wow. I can't believe how long it took me to read t...

2009-11-18T16:15:34.729-06:00

Wow. I can't believe how long it took me to read this. The football match on in the background is over already.

I'm sad to say that I've only seen two of your top five. Ballast, Duchess, and Balloon all landed here well into 2009 when I was in my post-Oscar 'done with 2009' mood. As for Hathaway and Cruz I really liked Hathaway's performance but probably not as much as you. I found parts of it repetitive but I love how she can go from being a bratty princess to wounded and worldly and she demonstrated the many different facets of a difficult character well.

Cruz is a bit of an out-there pick. I loved Kingsley and admire the film a great deal so I may give the film another whirl in the near-future to see if what I got from Elegy can be attributed more to her. I felt that 2008 was such a depressing year for Actresses (not a good one for films either) and I only really loved three (Kathryn Worth, Tilda Swinton, and Sally Hawkins). Totally with Tim on Worth, she was immense.

I agree about Balibar, although there is always so...

2009-11-18T15:35:49.347-06:00

I agree about Balibar, although there is always something weirdly fetishistic about the way Rivette directs his actresses. And I suppose Balzac wrote the character as a cipher as well.

Casting a German actress as Hannah Schmitz wouldn't have made much sense in an English language version of the Reader. As it is, the glossy Hollywood version including a legitimate Hollywood star is probably the most fitting treatment for Schlink's superficial, inappropriately sentimental approach to the subject. If they had cast a German though, the sensual and subtle Heike Makatsch would have been a good fit, she really should have a bigger career. Another good choice could have been Bibiana Beglau or maybe Jule Böwe, who are both primarily known for their stage work. Lara is indeed German (of Romanian descent) and also an awful, awful actress. As is Julia Jentsch. I hope you don't judge Martina Gedeck, who is usually terrific, simply on her performance in the dismal, simplistic Life of Others (or the even worse Baader-Meinhof Complex). She deserves better. Nina Hoss is only ever decent in Petzold's films. So there you go. Binoche may have been the best choice, at least she would have avoided the condescension Winslet brought to the role.

Awesome read. The wait was worth it! So glad you...

2009-11-18T14:28:59.937-06:00

Awesome read. The wait was worth it! So glad you picked Anne Hathaway over Kate Winslet's god-awful performance in "The Reader." For shame Academy, for shame.

Nick - You were right: I meant Moore in Savage G...

2009-11-18T13:55:27.431-06:00

Nick -

You were right: I meant Moore in Savage Grace. I admire the performance for the same reasons you do, but I guess I just responded to it more. I though her vocal and physical control were impressive throughout, and totally in service of Kalin's mannered/stylized approach.

I'm with you, though, that it's not a "great" performance, but I wasn't bowled over by many of the leading ladies last year (although I feel bad that there's no room for Cruz, Janssen, or Leo - I haven't seen Ballast yet, though).

I never saw Blindness, since the book is one of my favorites and once the mixed reviews started pouring in I lost interest. But I love Moore, and if the performance is worth watching, I'll have to buckle down and watch it.

I should mention that I've only seen two Coixet fi...

2009-11-18T05:37:28.791-06:00

I should mention that I've only seen two Coixet films and the first, My Life Without Me, I rated a D- so Elegy's A- sure was a surprise!

@Jim: Thanks for the compliments, and I have to sa...

2009-11-18T00:08:03.429-06:00

@Jim: Thanks for the compliments, and I have to say, I love a commenter who expresses dissent and is still so cordial and peppy about it. I'm absolutely in agreement with you that Dench didn't get enough credit for Iris. To me, it's like Joan Allen in The Contender. These are so much better than "default nominees," but people tend to treat them that way, if only because the media heat surrounded so many other performances in the category during those years. (No competing with Roberts/Linney/Burstyn or Berry/Kidman/Spacek, it seems.)

Elegy isn't as good as the performances, but I did find it very moving, even beyond the performances. Coixet is not what I would call a born filmmaker, but the movie made me not care.

@Glenn: And speaking of! Glad to hear such a hearty endorsement of Cruz.

@Stephen: And of Binoche, too! I know it's strange that I'm not more of a partisan for Moore in Savage Grace since I loved the movie so much (and lots of people prefer her to the vehicle). In a way, I appreciate that she seemed to recognize it was a director's piece more than an acting vehicle, and that she's as mannered as the lighting, the dialogue, and the edits. I don't see a great performance here, but it's a great addition to the whole idiom the movie is shooting for.

Unless you meant Moore in Blindness? I should have asked. I actually think she's quite good in that.

@Nathaniel: I also feel like a lot of the anti-Kate-in-The Reader vitriol goes way over the top, although Goran's critique above is a great example of an absolute dismissal that seems totally fair, even if I like the perf more than he does (and less than you do).

As for Kidman.... you know we're talking about the Botox, right? Or the surgery? Or both? Whatever it is that's going on? I have a huge affinity for this woman and her work, but I have a hard time seeing that she "has" to do this, and it's just getting so intrusive, not least within the performances. Still, as I said, I thought her work in Australia was actually quite fun in the early passages, and fine overall. I do think she's got another solid run in her somewhere, if she wants it, and if it doesn't quite equal her highest heights, who cares. As you have said many times, that peak period (if it was her peak period) is more than enough to justify any career entirely by itself.

re: Kidman. I'll take her doing anything. i don't ...

2009-11-17T23:13:07.711-06:00

re: Kidman. I'll take her doing anything. i don't care. if i'm an apologist so be it but i firmly believe that the great actors HAVE TO do the stuff that's not right for them from time to time because they're great because they push the limits of their own abilities.

I've never seen The Human Stain and I'm perfectly content in having missed it ;) but i want Kidman to do whatever she wants to do if it means I occasionally get another BIRTH or a MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, you know? And like Guy, I did think parts of her Australia performance worked really well. And I wonder some times how razor thin the line is between a performance that seems "off" and a great one.

and I'm with Brook Brooks on Winslet. I don't get the anger people feel about that performance but i do get the anger in the performance. I think the turn works beautifully for about 2/3rds of the movie. No, it's not perfect and no, it's not Winslet's best but I honestly think the whole Oscar situation attaches itself to perceptions of the performances just as much as it attaches itself to perceptions about why actors take roles in holocaust films? does that make sense?

I think her worst performance is in TITANIC and people sure don't seem angry about her work in that film... probably because they don't think she was making it in order to win the Oscar.

blah blah blah.

I agree it's not a patch on her best work (Holy Smoke, Eternal Sunshine, Iris, Sense & Sensibility... and maybe in that order if you ask me)

Great list - we agree on a winner! My own looked l...

2009-11-17T22:55:43.774-06:00

Great list - we agree on a winner! My own looked like this:

1. Juliette Binoche
2. Michelle Williams
3. Anne Hathaway
4. Sally Hawkins
5. Julianne Moore

I've only seen three of your nominees, but I like ...

2009-11-17T19:29:19.022-06:00

I've only seen three of your nominees, but I like them all (particularly Hathaway and Cruz, I wasn't as taken by Red Balloon as others). My five nominees would have been Cruz, Faris, Hathaway, Hawkins and Leo with the statue going to Cruz. Achingly beautiful that one was. Although, at the time, I went with Hawkins.

Nick, thank you so much! Great analysis! I disagre...

2009-11-17T13:43:01.375-06:00

Nick, thank you so much! Great analysis! I disagree on a couple of things but that's beside the point. Very interesting stuff. :)

You are one more person that loves Elegy. I guess I have to see it.

I also want to say that you and I are perhaps the only people (besides the Academy) that really like Dench in Iris. How was that performance able to be perceived as not great is beyond me. Then again, I believe the same thing about Winslet in Little Children and I know you disagree so...

@Brook: I meant to add that Secret Sunshine never ...

2009-11-16T22:55:03.357-06:00

@Brook: I meant to add that Secret Sunshine never opened in the US, somehow, but I found a library in my region that has a pressing of the international DVD, so I'm eager to see it soon. One of my 20 unseen titles from Tim's fantastic list that I'm now gunning to catch up on.

@Brook: Thanks, for all of the above, even the reg...

2009-11-16T22:52:22.289-06:00

@Brook: Thanks, for all of the above, even the registered disagreements. I enjoy Streep and Winslet enough on some levels that three stars weren't completely out of the question. To me, they're the kinds of performances that have nagging flaws while you're watching that only get worse (for me) on reflection, but I do find them reasonably compelling in the moment. One could even say the same for the best spurts in Changeling, though it's a stretch. I absolutely wish she'd been nommed for A Mighty Heart, though.

@Goran: Very high praise, from you! Thanks, thanks, and great to hear a Bronx cheer for Jeanne Balibar. You make a vivid case for Winslet's problems in The Reader.

@Nathaniel: We all want to hear you say more about all of this! Come back soon, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean!

@Colin: Thanks for being such a super-sleuth! I took the link down during the summer, when it had become just too embarrassing that I still wasn't finished. But now, I only have three categories left, so I oughta just go ahead and finish, don't you suppose?

(Um, a technicality: I presume you didn't intend t...

2009-11-16T21:46:07.260-06:00

(Um, a technicality: I presume you didn't intend to leave no way of accessing your '08 Honorees from your main site? It isn't on either the 2008 page or your homepage. If it's hidden in a link elsewhere, it seems to require more acrobatic feats to discover than a visitor less familiar to your site would want to attempt.)

there's so much to respond to here i weep that i w...

2009-11-16T14:26:21.417-06:00

there's so much to respond to here i weep that i wasn't around yesterday.

but for the moment i would like to say that I'm with Guy in that, had I had more time to think about it (and this is why i hate the December glut so much annually) Juliette Binoche would have made my lineup.

she was a runner up and I look back and I'm like *shakes head* "nathaniel, nathaniel"

more later...

The main reason I am posting anything is - per you...

2009-11-16T02:34:41.171-06:00

The main reason I am posting anything is - per your request - to speak up for the sublime Balibar, though I have nothing to add to your typically detailed, astute and evocative assessment on why precisely she is sublime.

In the meantime, I do feel like Sally Hawkins was robbed of yet another win - but I am much more comfortable with the award she deserves ending up in the hands of a revitalised, beguiling Binoche (who would've been a Top 3 pick for me anyway, along with Hathaway) instead of a limp, unimaginative, surely-this-is-self-parody Winslet.

On that note, while your assessment of Winslet as Hanna (and April for that matter) is pretty fair, I don't think you're harsh enough re: her Teutonic accent (also, her voice shifts from 65 to 35 and back several times furing that prison scene) and the fact that behind Hanna's strained chill and thoroughly transparent unknowability, busting to get out is a Kate Winslet that is embarrassingly desperate not only for an Oscar but the love of every viewer in the cinema along with adjoining theatres. She embraces that clammy-jittery-eyed sacrificial-lamb look way too many times (hell - once is way too many times, and she goes well into double digits), particularly in the courtroom and prison scenes.

What a great sight to come upon after finishing up...

2009-11-16T00:41:47.352-06:00

What a great sight to come upon after finishing up all my uni work for the year!

I find myself agreeing with all your points while disagreeing with your overal assessment of the performances. I think Streep's performance works exactly because of the reasons you say it doesn't; I read Sister Aloysius as an obvious woman, somebody who can't hide the subtleties. And so, as Streep shuttles between the character's beats, it seemed natural for the character.

I also think those long, arduous scenes were some of the best acting Streep has done this year, seeing all the machinations behind her character's motivations was brilliant.

I have less to say about why I enjoy (of sorts) Kate Winslet in The Reader. I think she gives a much angrier performance than the picture deserves, and she doesn't bow down to the picture's apparent efforts to sanctify her. I completely agree about her non-verbal parts being the best aspects of her performance; if only more of the film was dedicated to the courtroom scenes and not the weirdly edited prison scenes.

(I do wish Vera Farmiga had been cast in this. She did such a good Kate Winslet-Lite in the otherwise horrible (truly, truly horrible) The Vintner's Luck. And any mention of Lena Olin is a great mention. Gosh, she's great in this movie, isn't she?)

Raising up a defence of Jolie is very hard, so I'm not even going to try. I just wish she was nominated for A Mighty Heart the previous year.

I agree with all of your personal picks, but none so more than Penelope Cruz. Your writeup of her performance is beautiful, and the film in my opinion relies on her being great than it does on Ben Kingsley.

And, on another note, I wonder if Jeon do-Yeon's career and country best performance made it your way that year? (Or at any point, really.)