The academy loves a gimmick ... Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There.
In talking about the supporting actor contenders this year, I tried to develop a theory by which that category was a sure sign of quality and interest in film-making in general. Alas, it follows by the same argument that the paucity of intriguing supporting women this year is a damning measure of our larger shortcomings. If you think back to Robert Altman's great film Short Cuts (1993) - the one based around Raymond Carver short stories - that picture this year could have provided all five nominations, it was so crowded with odd, plausible and interesting women. Do you recall Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lili Taylor, Lily Tomlin, Frances McDormand and Annie Ross?
Well, Jennifer Jason Leigh is still with us and I'd give serious attention to both her and Nicole Kidman playing rival sisters in Margot at the Wedding (directed by Leigh's husband Noah Baumbach, and overall an unduly neglected film). Of the two, Leigh was a touch the superior and there's no question that the Kidman tide has gone out fast at the moment. It will return; she is a fighter.
Also, this year, I think Tilda Swinton gets a nod for her worryguts performance in Michael Clayton. There was a longish period in Swinton's career when her very unusual looks seemed to dominate the way she was cast. At last, I think enough people have discovered a very brave, vanity-resistant actress.
Ruby Dee has a couple of bravura scenes as Denzel Washington's mother in American Gangster - and she delivered them at the age of eighty-three. For decades, Dee has done great work, no matter that she knew all the stereotypes that her society had available for black women. Her role in American Gangster is more incidental than supporting (that's an interesting new category for the Academy to consider), but she scorches the screen for a few minutes.
In Atonement, Saoirse Ronan does something quite unusual: she makes a misguided and rather nasty child absolutely sympathetic. Now, I dislike the film a great deal, and I suspect that its every emotion is fake in the end, but Ms Ronan does fine work. It would be a travesty - but not without precedent - if she is ignored and instead a celebrity nod goes to Vanessa Redgrave playing the same character at an advanced age, but without any of the child's biting intelligence.
These are all, I think, also-rans. For I don't believe the sappy and gimmick-crazed Academy is going to be able to resist giving the Oscar to Cate Blanchett for her Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. The film is without equal (this year) for pretension and monotony, but even my sour gaze on Dylan perked up at Ms Blanchett's wicked and witty allusions to the man in his 1965 incarnation. Giving an award for this nervy panache will be nonsense. Blanchett is in the Philip Seymour Hoffman category: she may be able to book nominations for years to come. I'd give the statuette to Jason Leigh, but Blanchett will win and probably provide a few funny moments on stage. I fear that that's what Oscar has come to.
Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There Jennifer Jason Leigh in Margot at the Wedding Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton Ruby Dee in American Gangster Saoirse Ronan in Atonement
