Just like with Oscar ballots I'm weighting these with #1 as my top choice and so on down the list.
1. Charlize Theron - Young Adult
The second and third place performances on this ballot are without question equal in quality and depth to Theron's performance in Young Adult. So why does Mavis Gary top my ballot? I think it has to do with the daring of it. The thrill of watching Theron charge headlong out onto that tightrope without a net in sight and never miss a step. Every time she walks on screen it's like a fuse being lit.
In lesser hands Mavis could have come off as a writer's conceit, just an acid collection of traits writer Diablo Cody collected under a single character name. Theron manages the tricky feat of having Mavis make sense as a person. And even though she is top-to-bottom a venomous wreck, fully deserving of every bad thing that happens to her, thanks to Theron's finely-tuned performance we understand her conniving, delusional character more than we expect to, or are really comfortable with for that matter. Theron deserved a second Oscar for this time playing an altogether more unexpected kind of Monster.
2. Anna Paquin - Margaret
If Kenneth Lonnergan's Margaret had been released in 2005 when it was finished filming I would have easily given Paquin top honors for that year. Thanks to its delayed release Paquin lands in a much stronger year for actresses, but even against this stacked competition she still takes the silver. What a performance this is.
If Lonnergan has some difficulty meshing all the disparate parts of Margaret into a single coherent story, Paquin has no such difficulty playing the conflicting sides of the same complex character simultaneously. She is at times both fiercely intelligent and stunningly naïve. Passionately concerned for others and maddeningly oblivious. Heartbreakingly vulnerable and insufferably abrasive. And through it all she expresses herself with quicksilver, speed-of-thought dialogue, never missing an emotional nuance along the way. That Oscar win at age 11 was no fluke.
If Kenneth Lonnergan's Margaret had been released in 2005 when it was finished filming I would have easily given Paquin top honors for that year. Thanks to its delayed release Paquin lands in a much stronger year for actresses, but even against this stacked competition she still takes the silver. What a performance this is.
If Lonnergan has some difficulty meshing all the disparate parts of Margaret into a single coherent story, Paquin has no such difficulty playing the conflicting sides of the same complex character simultaneously. She is at times both fiercely intelligent and stunningly naïve. Passionately concerned for others and maddeningly oblivious. Heartbreakingly vulnerable and insufferably abrasive. And through it all she expresses herself with quicksilver, speed-of-thought dialogue, never missing an emotional nuance along the way. That Oscar win at age 11 was no fluke.
3. Viola Davis - The Help
(Emma Stone's ridiculous ever-morphing love interest gets more screen time than the scene where the maids gather to tell their stories? Come on! OK. Sorry. I'm done.)
Suffice it to say that even with my extensive list of gripes, nothing could diminish Davis's work at the center of the drama. She is a powerhouse. Her deep well of contained anger lends the film an impact and a dignity it doesn't rightly earn. As much as I'm aghast at the lapse of taste that lead to The Help's inclusion in the Best Picture lineup, if Davis takes the stage to accept the Best Actress honor, I will enthusiastically join in the applause.
4. Kirsten Dunst - Melancholia
When dealing with a film with a scope as grand as Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, it's easy to imagine the human scale drama getting dwarfed by all the cosmic action. From that perspective it's a testament to the quality of Dunst's performance that her character's debilitating depression feels at least as heavy and ominous as the giant planet that is poised to pull a wrecking ball right smack into the side of the Earth.
I think this is Dunst's career best work by a comfortable margin. She never loses the person getting smothered underneath the illness, and maybe more impressively, she is dead-on about where exactly to pitch her performance for maximum effect for those stretches where her Justine is not much more than a figure against the grand backdrop. Von Trier handed her a helluva task in this movie and she proved herself more than able at every turn. By all rights this should be a career-changer for her.
5. Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Tilda Swinton is on my short list of candidates for the title of best actor currently in movies. She has topped my ballots in three out of the last four years. She was my (and Oscar's) pick for Supporting Actress in '07 with Michael Clayton and she has topped Lead Actress for me the last two year's running with Julia in '09 and I Am Love last year. For 2011 she makes a third consecutive ballot but slips to fifth place because this time she has to prop up uneven material.
We Need to Talk About Kevin has its passionate supporters but I found it to be a shallow Bad Seed horror show dressed up in intellectual art house clothes. As written, Tilda's Eva doesn't have much inner life beyond the relentless torment of being a demon's mother, but that doesn't stop Swinton from giving her one anyway. Her bottomless performance alone makes this flawed film a must-see, from the buried anger underneath every gesture of motherly love, to the shell-shocked, uncomprehending daze of the post-tragedy scenes where she longer trusts herself with a moment's happiness.
I'll keep a spot ready for her on next year's ballot.
More Worthy Performances
Charlotte Gainsbourg went from sisterly concerned to unbridled panic to terrific effect in Melancholia. Kristen Wiig gave a performance in Bridesmaids that was unexpectedly moving in addition to being one of the year's funniest. I kept trying to wedge her into the top five right til the end. Elizabeth Olsen broke out with her complex head-turning performance as Martha Martha May Marlene and Stephanie Sigman was a riveting presence center of the storm in Miss Bala, Rooney Mara took an iconic role and made it her own and then some in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Meryl Streep does her usual A+ work in The Iron Lady but she is disastrously hampered by the mess that is the rest of the film. Saoirse Ronan positioned herself to be the next Jodie Foster with yet another stunningly mature, physical performance in Hanna, And finally, even though her excellent movie star mimicry in My Week With Marilynis hogging all the attention, it's Michelle Williams' slow burn in Meek's Cutoff that is going to linger strongest in my memory.
Big Honkin' Disclaimer: - Tyrannosaur had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it release in New York City, and I guess I blinked, so I can't testify to Olivia Coleman's much raved about performance. If she lives up to her considerable reputation when I finally see it, I will post an addendum to this ballot.
More 2011 Ballots
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