Best Actress 2013: Annette Bening, Look of Love

This year 2013 carries with it great potential as it will feature Annette Bening in another lead role.  Isn't she just smashing?  I don't really care that she hasn't won an Oscar, and considering the lengths one has to go to nab one, I'm kind of glad she doesn't.  It's not really her style.  She's kind of above it all.  She seems to choose parts that appeal to her as an actress, whether on film or the stage, while keeping all the career-strategy noise at bay.  She has been nominated four times now.  After her gangbusters performance in The Grifters, she starred opposite several of Hollywood's leading men, before marrying Tinsel Town's penultimate single man and settling down into motherhood.  Once she hit forty, she came into her own with American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right.  Her nominations are unusually spread out, so it may still be too early before she gets in the running again, if there's a model to go by.  But, who are we to complain if she rakes in another nod early, right?  Director Arie Posin cowrote Look of Love with Matthew Duffie (not to be confused with Steve Coogan's The Look of Love, which just screened at Sundance, and will probably force a title change on someone's part) about a widow played by Bening, who falls in love with a man who looks like her deceased husband played by Ed Harris.  The cast includes Robins Williams and Amy Brenneman.  The production designer is four-time-Oscar nominated Jeannine Claudia Oppewall (L.A. Confidential, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, The Good Shepherd), and costumes are by three-time-nominated Judianna Makovsky (Pleasantville, Harry Potter I, Seabiscuit).  The involvement of two of director Gary Ross peop's begs the question: what is he up to?  After directing the enormously successful The Hunger Games last year, next up may be Civil War/Reconstruction drama The Free State of Jones.  Mentioning Ross begs the question: Does everything he touch turn to gold?  Love filmed early last year in L.A.

Check out more Best Actress 2013 contenders

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Best Actress 1999: Just a Girl from a Trailer Park Who Had a Dream Part I

I already covered the 1998 Best Actress race, skipping forward, we get to the match between Hilary Swank and Annette Bening.  But, Bening was the only major nominee of her movie to not win.  Looking at everyone who took home a statue for that film, it looked like a Boy's Club.  Kevin Spacey's Best Actor win would lead to a ton of offers and screenwriter Alan Ball would leverage his Oscar to creating two hit cable shows Six Feet Under and True Blood.  Theatrical director Sam Mendes, hot off a gangbusters debut, would go on to make several critically appreciated films, but would be left out of the Oscar race for years to come.  With cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks, American Beauty won more Oscars than it lost.  Left out would be the film editors, composer, and its female lead, Annette Bening.  She was a rising star in the early 90s and seemingly nabbed every role and leading man she wanted.  Bugsy would prove to be fortuitous as it would team her up with Warren Beatty both professionally and personally.  They would marry and she would turn down such roles as Batman Returns and Disclosure to raise their four children.  She still managed to remain relevant, but a little luster was lost from her ascension and recognition for her talent would be delayed.

Ironically, her second nomination after nine years, she would be carrying her fourth and final child well into her third trimester on the night of the ceremony.  She'd lose to upstart Hilary Swank, who had a leg up age and bait-wise.  Bening's bipolar hysteronics wouldn't be enough for Oscar's stamp of approval, but she would go on to two more nods spread over a healthy amount of years.  Most recently, she was one of the only actresses to receive a nomination for playing a lesbian in The Kids Are All Right.  Incidentally, that same year, Swank lost out on a third nomination for Conviction.

But 1999 would be all about "going ugly" and performance (in the context of being a pretty twentysomething).  Boys Don't Cry would make a nice mint at the box-office and bowl everyone over with Swank's performance of real-life transgender teen Brandon Teena.  Swank, who up until then appeared in the movie version of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, 90210, and The Next Karate Kid, lied to the director to get the role, because "that's what Brandon would do."  Brilliant move Hilary.

The Nominated:
-Hilary Swank, Boys Don't Cry: GG Drama, Satellite, LA, New York, Chicago/Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Toronto, Dallas-Fort Worth, Southeastern, Florida, Broadcast, Chlotrudis, ISA, Stockholm winner; SAG, National Society (2nd), Online, London, BAFTA, Empire nominee ($2M / $11.5M, Fall; 88%)

-Annette Bening, American Beauty: SAG, San Diego, Palm Springs, London, BAFTA winner; GG Drama, Satellite, Chicago, Las Vegas, Southeastern (3rd), Chlotrudis, Online nominee ($15M / $130.1M / $356.3M, Fall; 88%)

-Janet McTeer, Tumbleweeds: GG Comedy, Ft. Lauderdale, Satellite, NBR winner; SAG, New York (3rd), Chicago, Online, Chlotrudis, ISA nominee ($1.4M; 83%)

-Julianne Moore, The End of the Affair: SAG, GG Drama, New York (2nd), Chicago, Chlotrudis, London, BAFTA nominee ($23M / $10.8M; 67%)

-Meryl Streep, Music of the Heart: SAG, GG Drama nominee ($27M / $14.9M, Fall; 62%)

And, last, but certainly not least, I want to thank ...

.... Brandon Teena ...

Will Pick Flick (Six Years From Now)

The Also-Rans:
-Reese Witherspoon, Election: Kansas City, National Society, Online winner; GG Comedy, Satellite, LA (2nd), Chicago, San Diego (2nd), Las Vegas, Southeastern (2nd), Chlotrudis, ISA nominee ($25M / $14.9M, Spring; 92%)

-Sigourney Weaver, A Map of the World: GG Drama, Satellite nominee ($0.6M; 65%)

The Rest of the Competition 
-Cecelia Roth, All About My Mother: Satellite, Chlotrudis, Toronto (2nd) nominee ($8.3M / $67.9M, Fall; 98%)

-Kate Winslet, Holy Smoke!: Venice winner; National Society (3rd) nominee ($1.8M; 44%)

-Julia Roberts, Notting Hill: GG Comedy, Satellite nominee ($42M / $116.1M / $247.8M, Summer; 83%)

-Diane Lane, A Walk on the Moon: Las Vegas, ISA nominee ($4.7M, Spring; 72%)

-Julianne Moore, An Ideal Husband: GG Comedy, Satellite, Chlotrudis nominee; NBR (supporting) winner; Chicago (supporting), National Society (2nd) nominee ($18.5M, Summer; 86%)

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Kidman's Third Lip Will Not Stand in Her Ambition's Way

The countdown to Kidman's Second
Oscar Begins

One of Lainey's favorite monikers for Nicole Kidman is Third Lip, because, well, those collagen injections or whatever she does to inflate her mouth make her kisses look monstrous (Granny Freeze is another codename she uses for the actress in regards, again, to her unhealthy and unaddressed love of plastic surgery, as well as perhaps her fashion missteps over the years).  But, lately, Third Lip is getting what she wants in larger gelatinous yields.  While Rabbit Hole was a career uptick (in more ways than one), it was really the only bright prospect after years of crashing and burning or, as far as the masses are concerned, underwhelming.  But, then, the masses didn't even show up for Rabbit Hole.  (Yes, Margot at the Wedding was engaging and Birth was interesting, but I digress.)  Three years ago, The Danish Girl made it sound like she was on a comeback, but when that production stalled and went through five or six (!) major female costars (let's see, from the top of my head, Charlize Theron, Rachel Weisz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman, Marion Cotillard; not necessarily in that order), I actually considered that Kidman may have met her Waterloo.  But, this is Hollywood. And, like her ex Tommy Girl (that's what Dlisted likes to call Cruise), Kidman doesn't give up so easily.  They were a good match in that respect; you could almost say they are having his and her comebacks.  And it has been quite a good week for her.  She has secured financing for her Oscar-bait Grace of Monaco; 2012 Oscar buzz has begun over her possible Best Actress performance in The Paperboy, and, she’ll be in Cannes for her “it’s-not-TV-it’s-HBO” film premiering for us plebeians this Monday.  [5/24 Note: Well, I spoke too soon, as the air is starting to wheeze slightly out of her inflatable lips.]

Interesting how, sixteen years after the first high-profile film treatment of a real-life Ernest Hemingway love (played by the trendsetting Sandra Bullock), there are now two similar projects due to come out in the next calendar year.  On May 28^th, HBO will release the uninspiredly titled Hemingway& Gellhorn (after the unprecedented Cannes premiere on the 25^th, which guarantees Kidman walking the Croisette and further blurs the lines between film and TV for better or worse) and begin Kidman’s push against Julianne Moore for the 2012 Best Actress in a Television Movie/Miniseries Emmy (which are now generally won by film actresses).  Seriously, does it really matter how good Kidman is?  She already nabbed the Oscar over Moore for arguably Moore’s most competitive nomination back in 2002.  Me thinks Kidman’s team should have considered delaying release until qualifying for next year’s awards.  But, alas, Kidman appears to be building up some steam finally.  I’m sure a loss won’t hurt her too badly. 

While she may not reach the pinnacle of her prime in 2001-2003 (who will?), her near future is starting to look actually bright again.  As of the last couple days, she has Oscar prognosticators giddy with the prospect that she might be a “late” addition to this year’s Best Actress race for The Paperboy (time will tell how big her role actually is; though, I admit, it’s hard to imagine Kidman settling for any designation less than lead (*cough*Virginia Woolf*cough*, unless it’s an obvious cameo).  There’s her impending vampire film directed by Chan-wook Park.  Stoker was originally rumored to star Colin Firth, who was hot off of an Oscar win for The King’s Speech.  But, how could we count Kidman out of nabbing one of Hollywood’s current hottest commodities?  She has begun filming Oscar-bait The Railway Man with him, already having partook in a pre-promotional junket (is this a fairly new custom, or have I been sleeping under a rock?).  And, unlike how much time and effort she invested in The Danish Girl, she rather swiftly lined up the production dollars for her go-directly-to-Go-and-collect-your-AMPAS-nod for Grace of Monaco. 

Back to the Hemingway film, Kidman is playing Martha Gellhorn, a celebrated American war journalist who was also Hemingway’s third wife.  They were married through the bulk of World War II, before she asked for a divorce.  The role will likely focus on Gellhorn’s desire to not “being a footnote in someone else’s life,” which parallels Kidman's existence somewhat during the 1990s as Mrs. Tom Cruise.  Gellhorn was neither maternal, not much of a lover, and completely devoted to her work.  After dealing with cancer and near blindness, she committed suicide at age 89.

Bullock played Agnes von Kurowsky In Love And War in 1996, who was an American rumored to have inspired the Catherine Barkley character in A Farewell to Arms.  Hemingway fell in love with her while she was a nurse working in Italy during World War I.  Upon being asked for her hand in marriage after he returned to the US, she rejected the author via letter.  She lived to be 102. 

Annette Bening in American Beauty

Also on the past-Hemingway lover radar is AnnetteBening.  She’ll play Mary Welsh in the creatively titled Hemingway & Fuentas.  Anthony Hopkins will play the title icon and Andy Garcia will play the lesser-known Fuentes, as well as cowrite and direct the film.  Welsh was also an American war correspondent and was the fourth wife and widow of Hemingway.  While I LOVE me some Bening, the movie’s potential is plagued with A LOT of question marks (and I’ll leave it at that).  

Do you think there will be films based on Hemingway’s other wives?  There is American Hadley Richardson, his first betrothed, who bore him his first son.  Her life was beset with tragedy, but she had the luxury of living off various inheritances, which funded her early 1920 Parisian years with Hemingway.  Nothing immediately jumps out about second wife Paulie Pfeiffer, the woman Hemingway left Richardson for, except that she had a child experiencing gender dysphoria who would later become a doctor and interpret her autopsy and attribute her death to an over secreting adrenal gland caused by a call she received from her eldest child informing her that her youngest biologically male son was arrested for using a female bathroom.  Her son/daughter sounds WAY more interesting. 

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