Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2003: Results

5. Albert Finney in Big Fish- Finney gives a fairly simplistic performance, but appropriately so. He fills his role with the right charm and warmth necessary.

4. Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass-Sarsgaard gives an understated and effective performance in his depiction of a editor who slowly sees his popular writer for the liar he is.

3. Paul Bettany in Master and Commander-Bettany another good understated performance this year as a quiet source of reason and warmth on a war ship.

2. Sean Astin- The Return of The King- Astin capitalizes on his work from the previous film fully realizes his character with a powerful passion.

1. Kevin Bacon in Mystic River- This was the battle of the subtle, and understated really. I must say that this is most certainly a toss up, really I hate to put Sargaard fourth but I don't really feel him as fourth. I really liked all four equally and I basically just had to pick one. Bacon is my choice at the moment giving a moving performance, that is again very understated, that finds a way to give the best performance of his film.

Overall Rank:

1. Kevin Bacon in Mystic River
2. Sean Astin in The Return of the King
3. Paul Bettany in Master and Commander
4. Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass
5. Ian McKellen in The Return of the King
6. Viggo Mortensen in The Return of the King
7. Albert Finney in Big Fish
8. Elijah Wood in The Return of the King
9. James Caan in Dogville
10. Yoo Ji-Tae in Oldboy
11. Laurence Fishburne in Mystic River
12. Tim Robbins in Mystic River
13. Brian Cox in X2
14. Chris Cooper in Seabiscuit
15. Stellan Skarsgaard in Dogville
16. Geoffrey Rush in The Curse of the Black Pearl
17. Sonny Chiba in Kill Bill Vol 1
18. Bernard Hill in The Return of the King
19. Sam Rockwell in Matchstick Men
20. Bobby Cannavale in The Station Agent
21. Jeff Daniels in Gods and Generals
22. Ben Gazzara in Dogville
23. Kevin Conway in Gods and Generals
24. Brendan Gleeson in Cold Mountain
25. Christopher Lee in The Return of the King
26. Andy Serkis in The Return of the King
27. Michael Parks in Kill Bill Vol. 1
28. Bill Nighy in Love Actually
29. Jeff Bridges in Seabiscuit
30. John Noble in The Return of the King
31. Cillian Murphy in Cold Mountain
32. Gene Hackman in Runaway Jury
33. Ken Watanabe in The Last Samurai
34. Liam Neeson in Love Actually
35. Ian McKellen in X2
36. William H. Macy in Seabiscuit
37. Dustin Hoffman in Runaway Jury
38. Billy Boyd in Return of the King
39. Tom Guiry in Mystic River
40. Michael Caine in Secondhand Lions
41. Hank Azaria in Shattered Glass
42. Judah Friedlander in American Splendor
43. David Wenham in The Return of the King 
44. Billy Crudup in Big Fish 
45. Robert Duvall in Gods and Generals
46. Philip Seymour Hoffman in Cold Mountain 
47. Alan Cumming in X2
48. Alan Rickman in Love Actually 
49. Steve Buscemi in Big Fish
50. James D'Arcy in Master and Commander
51. John Rhys Davies in The Return of the King 
52. Alec Baldwin in The Cooler
53. Hugh Grant in Love Actually
54. Patrick Stewart in X2
55. Colin Firth in Love Actually
56. Danny DeVito in Big Fish
57. Hugo Weaving in The Return of the King
58. Bruce McGill in Matchstick Men
59. Orlando Bloom in The Return of the King
60. Dominic Monaghan in The Return of the King
61. Djimon Honsou in In America
62. Ron Eldard in House of Sand and Fog

Next Year: 1984 Supporting 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2003: Paul Bettany in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Paul Bettany did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for Bafta, for portraying Dr. Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Master and Commander is quite an entertaining film about a British Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) who pushes his ship and crew to take down a French vessel during the Napoleonic Wars.

Paul Bettany portrays the ship's hard working doctor who is also the loyal friend and confidant of the Captain. As the Captain is far more of a passionate and romantic sort who pushes everyone to get the task at done. Crowe does this all very well, but what makes his performance really work is from the support of Bettany who acts as almost someone there just to bring the Captain down a bit. Bettany rightly does not portray the doctor in any way cynical but rather just a very down to earth man who is always very aware of what his job requires him to do.

Bettany finds just the right tone for the doctor to create the right dynamic with Crowe's Captain. Both show just the right warmth and kinship with one another, but they are not overbearing of it. In fact the two have such great chemistry here by simply playing that their friendship is pretty much just a given, it is not something that they even need to discuss. The two are both excellent in portraying the two have an easy understanding of each other, and they do this incredibly well because of how effortlessly the two create the relationship together.

In the first half of the film Bettany is very reserved in the film mostly going about the duties required of him. Bettany does this very well though as he shows the doctor as quiet but warming man. Bettany is particularly good in his scene where must amputee the forearm of one of the very young crew members. Bettany conveys well the reassurance the doctor is able to give the young boy, as he portrays the doctor as a man who has a genuinely good heart. Bettany is very good because he succeeds in creating the stress the doctor does suffer from his job, but still has the same reassurance.

The doctor's role drifts from being supportive as their mission seem far less likely of success despite the Captain's views to the contrary. The doctor frankly does his best to slam the Captain's thought of getting the ship no matter what, while the doctor seems the crew being discontented as well as his own personal regrets by not being to do research on the Galapagos island. Bettany is very strong in these scenes because he does not portray the doctor's anger in any sort of hatred toward the Captain, but rather an earned frustrations he feels over the Captain's selfish behavior. Bettany is able to portray properly that it is of Maturin's very real concerns for the crew, and his friend that propels his passionate disagreement with the Captain. 

Bettany serves the needs of his part splendidly. It is one that is very supportive and he works the function brilliantly. When he needs to stand out on his own though he brings a power to the part very nicely as well. He particularly finds the inner strength of his character well. Bettany even succeeds in making the scene in which the doctor operates on himself after he has been accidentally shot. The scene very well could be one that would be hard to believe but Bettany stays absolutely convincing in the scene. This is a very strong performance by Paul Bettany as he just fulfills his role, again like the other three I have reviewed this year, with a subtle and very assured approach.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2003

And the Nominees Were Not:

Sean Astin in The Return of the King

Paul Bettany in Master and Commander

Kevin Bacon in Mystic River

Albert Finney in Big Fish

Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass

031. Margin Call

031. (25 Jan) Margin Call (2011, J.C. Chandor) 41



Despite the fact the characters work in a financial firm, they're constantly asking one another to dumb things down. It's just bad writing that Kevin Spacey's character has been in his position for 34 years, but has no idea how to read a projection. While it makes sense that this is just a terrible narrative device to make the financial crisis digestible for a mainstream audience, it's rather insulting.

So much time is spent clumsily, broadly indicting greed that there's no time to develop characters or give them arcs. Only Kevin Spacey's character comes close; he's burdened with a dying dog, a hilarious metaphor for his failing company. Chandor's attempts at stylizing his film, usually with off-center framing, occasionally distract from his scripting issues.

MARGIN CALL

Written and Directed by J.C. Chandor

Starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany and Zachary Quinto

With most of Wall Street and the world’s major financial sectors being occupied by protestors and ordinary citizens, who can no longer sit idly by while the global economy is destroyed from within, there could be no better timing for J.C. Chandor’s first feature film, MARGIN CALL, to hit theatres. An all-star cast, ranging from veterans like Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore and Jeremy Irons to relative newbies like Zachary Quinto and Penn Badgly, make this debut a memorable and effective contemplation on what seems more and more like the inevitable collapse of the financial system. If you’re feeling a little lost about the world’s financial woes at the moment, occupying Margin Call should clear up those last lingering questions for you.

The Boy From Les Miz

"Who am I? Wolverine or 24601?"

Some hit Broadway musicals are adapted to film right away, some wait a couple years, and if you're a Cameron Mackintosh show, you take over two decades to hit the silver screen.

In the aftermath of this years Oscars, where Tom Hooper was crowned best Director for his helming of The King's Speech, news came that he was the favorite to direct the (finally!) adaptation of one of the world's biggest musical: Les Misérables.

News came yesterday that song and dance man Hugh Jackman (who's never graced film with his talents) was in talks to play one of the musical's famous two leading roles: hero Jean Valjean and antagonistic (not villain, but I'll get to that another day) Inspector Javert.  When word broke that  Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World's Paul Bettany had read and sung for Javert, all eyes turned towards Jackman as the cursed tragic hero Valjean.  Initially, I was more on the side of Jackman as Javert...but it seems Hollywood won't allow their leading man to be a bad guy.  Yet, oddly, they want him in what is a brooding man role but also a very paternal one.  Jackman's done the paternal thing before, over a decade ago with X-Men, but his relationship with rogue was just weird if you ask me.

So there we have it.  Our two leading men.  Jackman as Valjean and Bettany as Javert.  I'm thrilled to see how the rest of the cast materializes.  I've always thought Geoffrey Rush would be brilliant as Thénardier, but with him having already played Javert in a film adaptation of Les Miz (not the musical), I doubt to see him back on the streets of Paris.  Who's in your dream cast?

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