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Showing posts with label 2006 Best Supporting Actor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2006 Best Supporting Actor. Show all posts

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Results

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

5. Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond- Hounsou is only ever really loud or really quiet, which is acceptable for much of his performance, but when his limits are noticeable they are very noticeable.
4. Mark Wahlberg in The Departed- Wahlberg is enjoyable enough as the loud abrasive police officer, it is not a complex performance but it serves its purpose.
3. Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls- Murphy throws a great deal of energy into his role, but for me I could never separate this from his earlier comedic performances.
2. Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine- Arkin gives a strong performance that is both consistently humorous, but Arkin also effectively brings a great deal of his heart to his performacne.
1. Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children- In a part that could have portrayed in an overly cinematic or stylized way, Haley always keeps his portrayal far more effective by playing it always truthfully to his character.
Deserving Performances:
Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
Michael Caine in Children of Men

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children

Jackie Earle Haley received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Ronald "Ronnie" James McGorvey.

Little Children is another film about the various stories of troubled suburbanites.

Jackie Earle Haley was originally a child actor in film like Breaking Away and Bad News Bears and his sequels. He like so many child actors though soon disappeared after growing up, after appearing in less and less of films of any sort of note. Haley though came back almost out of nowhere with first All the King's Men and than he fully made a come back by not only appearing in this role in a fairly prominent film, but also being nominated for an Academy award for his performance. Haley was nominated for, which actually is not a particularly popular Oscar character, portraying a man described as a child molester who served time for indecent exposure to a minor.

Ronnie is naturally ostracized by the community and constantly harassed by a former Police Officer, and the only person who offers him any sympathy is his mother. Jackie Earle Haley portrays this role, which very well could be portrayed in a numerous ways many which could be very over the top, for an entirely realistic fashion. Haley never for a moment tries to throw any sort of flash into his performance, like say Stanley Tucci did in the Lovely Bones. Haley instead tries to play the part as close to the bone as possible, much like in the same way Stuart Whitman portrayed a similar but also very different character in the Mark.

Haley never overplays or underplays any aspect of Ronnie in the film. He never tries to make him into an overly creepy character, even though Ronnie certainly guilty of acts deserving of such creepiness. He also does not ever try to make him into an overly sympathetic character even though he faces such harassment and only has a single person who cares for him. Haley does not try to make him either just a sympathetic or just a creepy man, instead he tries to show him as just a man with a serious dysfunction. Throughout the film, and every act of Ronnie's Haley only ever tries to show it as the natural actions of this man no matter what.

Ronnie actually is not used all that much in the film it takes him a great deal of time to appear in the film, and even after this he only has a few scenes of length that are devoted to his character. No matter what the scene is though Haley stays true to his portrayal of Ronnie. Whether it is one of his scenes that are to be more sympathetic with his mother, or one of his creepier scenes such as the end of his date. Haley always shows the same man either way. He always shows that whatever does this is just Ronnie as the complex man he is whether he is doing something horrible, or just being the son of a loving mother. Haley is consistently good in the role because he never tries to portray his character incorrectly to be more sympathetic or creepier. He never tries to make him a villain or a victim, and instead consistently is completely believable in the role and finds the truth of the troubled Ronnie. Haley is always believable in the role playing his role in the right fashion.

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

Monday, May 14, 2012

Mark Wahlberg received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Sgt. Sean Dingnam in The Departed.

The Departed tells about two police officers one an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) trying to bring down a crime boss (Jack Nicholson) and another (Matt Damon) working for the very same crime boss.

Out of the eventual best picture winner The Departed only one actor was nominated for an Oscar. Wahlberg was this actor, for whatever specific reason. Jack Nicholson as the film's villain was possibly the choice many would have thought would have been nominated, but maybe the Academy thought he should stay at least a little longer as tied for the most supporting actor nominations with Arthur Kennedy, Walter Brennan, and Claude Rains. I imagine though he was probably nominated by the nature of his character which is purposefully loud, and the whole point of his character really is to be a scene stealing character.

Wahlberg's whole point in the film as the Sgt. Dingnam is just to basically yell in a comedic fashion until just about the end of the film where he gets to quickly commit an act of wraith and vengeance. Dingnam really is a limited character, and Wahlberg really is not a great actor, in fact he seems to be a rather limited actor, but I will say one thing he does seem to do well is yell loudly and in a comedic fashion. This means he certainly fits for the role of Dingnam, his limits do work for the limited Dingnam. He actually is good enough at being a sort of a comedic relief for the film.

Wahlberg in all of his scenes talks loudly, and always has an abrasive thing to say about someone whenever he is on screen. He certainly is enjoyable enough in the role of Dingnam, and brings to life this abrasive quality certainly well enough. He also does do it in a humorous enough fashion that certainly works for the film, and the role without overplaying too much. He still does make Dingnam a man in the same film as the rest of the characters. He still shows Dingnam to be a cop who wants to do his job correctly, but he merely happens to show that he is does it in his only particular way.

This is not a great performance by Wahlberg by any means, but he serves his performance, even though it is rather limited. He does have his final very short scene showing a little bit of a different Dingnam clearly changed by the events of the film. There is no transition shown since Wahlberg is unapparent for a great deal of the film, but nevertheless Wahlberg handles the moment well. This is not an incredible performance but it is an entertaining one that achieves its rather limited goal. It will not be the performance that you really remember from the film, but it still does add to it in its own small way.

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine

Alan Arkin won his Oscar from his third nomination for portraying Edwin Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine.

Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of a dysfunctional family trying to make its way for the daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) to make it into a children's beauty pageant.

Alan Arkin portrays the crusty old grandfather, who since it is an independent film of this sort is also a Heroine addict. The fact that he is a heroine addict really does not play into his performance, it plays into his character's fate, but Arkin really never portrays this as really all that important of a facet of his character. After all it never even shows the Grandfather after he has used the heroine, it only in fact shows him use it once, and we do not see any after effects. The point of his character really just comes in with him being a crusty old man apt to say one liners, and go off on rather salty tirades when he chooses to.

I must say Alan Arkin is quite good at the role set for him. He appropriately crusty, and actually quite amusing in the way he unabashedly portrays Edwin's various opinions as loudly as possible at times. Arkin is always effective in the role, and does perfectly realize this sort of character quite well. He never apologizes for the character, not once, which makes his performance far more effective than if he tried more visibly to make his character more likable in these moments. Arkin though actually does make Edwin actually fairly endearing, since he always makes it clear that Edwin merely is telling it the way he sees it.

Arkin makes all of Edwin's tirades quite enjoyable actually, as are his quick well timed little reactions or insertions into other conversations. It is an expertly done performance by Arkin actually because he really does play it straight for the most part. Yes he is meant to be humorous, and Arkin brings humor out the performance, but he always presents it through a realistic portrayal of a old man like Edwin. A part like this very easily can seem overwritten if the actor had overplayed the role, but Arkin never overplays Edwin finding just the right tone for him through his whole performance.

Arkin despite giving a largely comedic performance also does find a great deal of heart in his performance actually particularly in regards to Edwin's relationship to his granddaughter Olive. The scenes of Breslin and Arkin together I am sure is what helped both secure their nominations, as their is a surprising degree of warmth in their moments together. Arkin always shows that Edwin genuinely loves his granddaughter and always wants what is the very best for her. Their final scene together as well as when he convinces her to eat the ice cream despite the rather cruel objections of her father (Greg Kinnear), Arkin realizes a honest sweetness that actually is quite moving.

It is actually quite a challenge for Arkin to connect both his scenes of humorous crustiness, and his scenes of Edwin trying to be a good Grandfather and even father. His scene where he tries to encourage his son, is all terrifically handled by Arkin showing that even after all that flak he gives his son he still does love him. Arkin never fails to combine both sides of his character into one single characterization of this man. It would have been very easy to overplay the comedy, and completely forget the heart of his character, but Arkin succeeds in every respect. My only complaint was I wish he was in the entire film, but alas this is still a strong entertaining from Alan Arkin.

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Eddie Murphy received his first Oscar nomination for portraying James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls.

Dreamgirls tells about the rise of a group of black female soul singers.

Eddie Murphy joins the ranks of other comedians who would only nominated for being in roles where they are mostly not funny. As well know an actor can only win or most the time even be nominated for an Oscar for a comedic role if they are just as prolific with their dramatic work like Peter Ustinov, Walter Matthau, Kevin Kline, or Jack Lemmon. If you almost exclusively a comedic actor like Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, or Eddie Murphy you better make sure you role is mostly dramatic if you want to be nominated for that Oscar as Murray was.

Eddie Murphy plays James "Thunder" Early a flamboyant singer who takes on the three singers to be his backup early on. I must apologize for this review I really must. This is the only time this has ever happened to me in all my reviews of every performance that I have done. This entire performance by Eddie Murphy was impossible for me to separate from his previous performances. I really am sorry, but for whatever reason well I watching him here I could never detach this performance completely on his own.

For example James Early is suppose to be a charming energetic singer. I could never find myself actually seeing Eddie Murphy as charming here, not because he isn't charming. No the problem was for me was whenever he was being charming in Early's highly energetic fashion I could only see Eddie Murphy doing Buddy Love from the Nutty Professor. I honestly could not see him as the singer in this film, I only saw Buddy Love. It was driving me a little crazy actually that I could not separate this performance from his earlier work, but honestly I just could not.

This fact made it very difficult for me to really take him ever as this singer even though Murphy certainly is very believable in the singing scenes, but even they reminded me a little too much of his James Brown parody on Saturday Night Live. I just could never quite take this performance, well for lack of a better word, seriously. I never forgot his earlier work with his performance even though I did try best to look at it as a individual performance. I was never able to see it on its own terms, and because of that I never became invested in the character.

Murphy does put a lot of effort and energy in the part, doing his very best to show the charisma and constant  manic intensity in the performance scenes.  He also is believable enough, even though the film gives him very little time to deal with it, in portraying Early's later drug addiction and depression he faces later on. He does realize the part, but it never affected me as the film or Murphy wanted it to. The reason for this I would say mostly would be the fact that I could not detach his work here from his earlier comedic work. This certainly is a fine performance, but I can't say it was amazing. I also can't say I was really able to give this performance a fair shake, as I do believe my reaction could have been very different if I never say an Eddie Murphy performance before this one.

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Djimon Hounsou received his second Oscar nomination for portraying Solomon Vandy in Blood Diamond.

Hounsou here actually could easily be described as supporting or lead, and it would not have been category fraud either way. His story is the one we begin with and end with supports the idea that he is lead with DiCaprio, but the fact that he certainly loses a great deal of focus in the middle of the film makes it easy to put him in the supporting category as well. Anyway Djimon Hounsou is a bit of a strange actor for me since he quite good at tricking the viewer into thinking he has a far greater range than he actually does. I say this as he does not seem to be a limited actor in the traditional sense, since a limited actor usually can only fill a tiny emotional range. Hounsou is limited in that he only ever seems to go for two very different emotional places, which is true for most of his performances including this one and his other nominated work for In America.

Hounsou only seems to do to things with his performances, when his character is calm he talks in this extremely warm and soft fashion. When his character is not calm he screams at the top of his lungs with a manic intensity, or just gives a very intense look if he is not screaming along with it. It is very odd but watching this film once again I noticed this mostly what he does. He is either this calm calm man, or this intense intense man there is not much in between. Luckily I will say for Hounsou here, this approach was certainly less effective in In America, this does actually work for his character, and at times he can actually make his limitations seem less notable because they do sort of work for Solomon Vandy. Vandy after all is only suppose to be a simple good man who simply wants to find his son, and undergoes many traumatic situations and hardships faced through his path to doing this. That is why Hounsou's two sides do work for him here.

When Hounsou needs to show how honestly Solomon does want to find his son, and just how much he loves him his calm approach works for such a thing. When ever he needs to talk and ask rather simple questions to either DiCaprio's Diamond hunter, or Jennifer Connolly's journalism his simple quiet style certainly works for that as well. Also when he does go into his intense mode of acting it also does work even though it is sudden. It works because the situations he finds himself in are sudden in nature, and his rather extreme reactions to them are not improper. His screams do show us the fear, and trauma Solomon undergoes from every one of his troubles. Also when he is not screaming, again his intense look does convey Solomon's hate for the evil that others commit around him and against him.

Even though the performance could almost be described as tailor made Hounsou rather limited style, the problems with it can still be found even in this performance. The best example of this would have to be when he sees his wife and children, but not his son in a refugee camp. This scene is very poorly handled by Hounsou because when Solomon hears that they do not know where his son is he goes off on his intense routine that only conveys hatred like he wants to kill his wife or something. He fails to show the complexity of what should be a very bittersweet scene, he is seeing his family, but not his whole family. Hounsou's way of playing it suggests that Solomon only really cares about his son, but I really don't think that was his intent. This scene really shows the limits of his performance.

Due to limits of Hounsou the performance never reaches the heights that it might have otherwise. Yes there is a drive to get his son, but that is only told through his intense looks not much more. His relationship with DiCaprio's Danny Archer also stays relatively limited because of Hounsou. When Solomon distrusts Danny he makes his intense face, when he trusts him he makes his overly calm face.  There just is not a successful or meaningful transition brought by Hounsou. No aspect of his performance ever brings to life the struggle of Solomon as powerfully as it really could have been due to Hounsou's own limitations. This is not a bad performance by any means, as I said Hounsou's limitations can be excused much of the time because they actually work for the character, this is not a great performance though because every time their is an especially difficult scene that requires more complex emotions Hounsou is not up to the task.

Best Supporting Actor 2006

Friday, May 11, 2012

And the Nominees Were:

Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond

Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls

Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine

Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children

Mark Wahlberg in The Departed
 

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