Best Actress 2013: Jessica Chastain, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

It will be interesting to see how The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby films will be marketed.  (Will one be held off until next year, will they be released simultaneously? etc)  One is subtitled His and told from the perspective of the husband (played by James McAvoy) and the other, Hers, the wife (Jessica Chastain).  Not much is known about the script, other than the story concerns a marriage between a man working in the restaurant business and a woman going back to school.  The films will reunite Chastain with The Help costar Viola Davis.  Bill Hader, William Hurt, Ciarán Hinds, and Isabelle Huppert are also in the cast.  Ned Benson is an East Coast writer/director making his feature length debut(s).  One of his scripts (or an amalgam of the two) made The Black List six years ago with a couple of mentions.  The cinematographer is Christoper Blauvelt (Meek's Cutoff, The Bling Ring).

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Examining Tariq Khan's Emmanuelle Riva Best Actress Prediction

Tariq Khan recently wrote a piece on Moviefone theorizing that Emmanuelle Riva may win the Best Actress Oscar.  It's an interesting possibility.  Riva delivered possibly the most riveting performance of the five nominees and it's rare for the AMPAS to actually choose the turn with the most depth and nuance, particularly when that actress is not in her more youthful years.  And what a story it would be if Riva, who will turn 86 on Oscar night, takes to the stage to collect a golden statue, especially considering she would be one of the most obscure wins of recent memory (since her fellow Frenchwoman Marion Cotillard), as well as the fact that she collected limited precursor nominations/wins and forewent an aggressive campaign.

Khan is correct in that Riva had the most challenging role.  She plays a physically disabled woman who slowly watches her independence and functionality permanently slip between her fingers.  He rightly singles out her compelling work.  He then goes on to correctly point out why this year's race has been so unpredictable: "Support is soft for the category's perceived frontrunners."  The 22-year old rising star Jennifer Lawrence, while the female lead, is not the lead of Silver Linings Playbook.  She has her own story, but the movie itself revolves around Bradley Cooper's Pat Jr.  While this doesn't diminish Lawrence's performance, the movie is partly a comedy, often light-hearted in tone (despite some rather dark edges), which is always a tough sell to The Academy.  Her spunky Tiffany is delightful, but, in more competitive years, wouldn't have a prayer at a win, especially if she was up against her nominated performance two years ago in Winter's Bone.

The also second-nominated, slightly older Julliard-trained Jessica Chastain has the benefit of playing a hero, but one who represses her emotions with little tension to spare.  While she is enjoyable to watch, one could argue that her performance doesn't run deep, and/or the character isn't written to allow a more nuanced turn.  Chastain has gone on and on in interviews about how she had to fight against her natural instincts to emote to relay the challenge she confronted to portray her Maya, that may or may not be in reaction to criticism of her nominated role.  Immediate comparisons to Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling come to mind, the major difference is that The Silence of the Lambs is a campy serio-thriller with more opportunities for the actress to allow her to reveal some of the cracks in her veneer.  Zero Dark Thirty is a sobering procedural without any hammy characters like Hannibal Lector and Buffalo Bill to play against.  The torture controversy regarding Zero definitely hurt when the critics sold it down the river and Oscar nominations finally rolled around, leaving out director Bigelow, as well as other categories it might have popped up in.  It remains to be seen if The AMPAS will have buyer's remorse and attempt a mea culpa come Oscar night by rewarding Chastain, screenwriter Mark Boal, or any of the other categories it's nominated for.

Both Silver and Zero are box-office successes nominated for Best Picture and both find themselves working overtime to make a case for their leading lady and pin their hopes on this category.  Khan purports that both Lawrence and Chastain have better work ahead of them.  I agree.  But, I don't appreciate him diminishing Lawrence's performance as being something that could have been replicated by "a number of other actresses."  I do believe she's something special and her work is unfortunately underestimated by the Oscar prognosticator.  While one might argue it's all surface and rudimentary, there's a movie star quality where you can't just add water and stir.  Just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman ... who went on to lose in 1990.

Khan proceeds to postulate that Riva's "age isn't an issue."  He cites instances in which many assert youth and/or "hotness" won, but, more importantly, the victories were more attributable to the nature of the work (i.e. the baitier role always wins).  However, the claim isn't full proof.  He neglects Julia Roberts winning over Ellen Burstyn (as well as Laura Linney), Hilary Swank over Imelda Staunton (who gave possibly the performance of the decade in Vera Drake).  The practically unknown Marion Cotillard beat the much older Julie Christie, Kate Winslet prevailed over Melissa Leo, etc.  There is no arguing that Gabourey Sidibe had the most complicated role the year she was nominated for Precious, yet the glammed up Sandra Bullock took home Oscar.  Nicole Kidman gave a lovely and painful turn in Rabbit Hole but lost to the much younger Natalie Portman.  Helen Mirren, who had won for playing up the dowdy with The Queen, has been singled out repeatedly for being a "babe" for her a woman of her "age."  He opens a pandora's box and throws in the unfortunate win of Jessica Tandy over Michelle Pfeiffer and quickly moves on not addressing The Academy's fear of an extremely beautiful woman portraying a sexually confident female who isn't a victim (not to forget the Tandy starred in the eventual Best Picture winner which made over $100M ... in 1989).

But, he leaves out other nuances.  There is also the history of SAG/Golden Globes in the context of the Best Actress Oscar.  You have to go all the way back to the 1980s to find an actress who captured neither (SAG didn't begin individual acting awards until 1994), yet still managed to win Oscar.  In fact, they were both old bitties Katharine Hepburn and Geraldine Page. They were each up against young and fresh competition.  Hepburn was pitted against Susan Sarandon and Marsha Mason (on her fourth and final nomination without a win), who had both been acting prominently in films for over a decade, as well as recent Oscar winners Diane Keaton and and Meryl Streep.  She was also Katharine-fucking-Hepburn, who had three Oscars, but hadn't won for over ten years, and this may have been the final opportunity to honor the world's most revered actress (it was).  And Geraldine Page was on her eighth Oscar nomination, not having ever won, up against three previous winners, with her main competition being Whoopi Goldberg, who had just made her film debut.  Riva's most famous role was from over a half-century ago (Hiroshima, mon amour).  If she wins, being French, her and her film having little commercial viability, being in her mid-80s, not campaigning, and starring in a film that is still building an audience, it will be quite a feet and worth applauding the AMPAS for stepping outside of their "comfort zone."

Adding BAFTA post-2002 (when the ceremony was moved up before the Oscars) only supports this data.  In the following graph, actresses highlighted in yellow are the Best Actress Oscar winners from their respective years:

But, it should also be noted that Riva was not nominated for a Golden Globe or SAG and BAFTA's will be decided on the 10th of February.

One of Khan's final points concerns the AMPAS's francophilia, which I found to be his most intriguing.  Not only is Riva celebrating her birthday on Oscar night, last year's Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin (who was obscure himself pre-The Artist) is handing out the award.  And, the AMPAS are arguably getting more international with their winners (look at all four winning actors from 2007).  Khan then blows his own horn about his track record.  Does he have me nervous about my Jennifer Lawrence prediction?  Of course.  Especially if she wins BAFTA.  Along with Lawrence and Chastain, they are the only ones nominated for both awards.  And BAFTA has gotten this category right more than wrong in recent times regarding Oscar predictions, with one of the times it went its own way being Imelda Staunton, of all people.  Guess it's back to the drawing board if Riva takes it.  Right now at Gold Derby, along with Khan, Guy Lodge, Anne Thompson, and Peter Travers are all predicting Riva.  Watch the rest (and perhaps me) do an about face if BAFTA changes the game right before the final stretch.  And, if she wins both, she makes history.  Right now, I'll stick with Lawrence.

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Golden Globe Rundown: Best Actresses

Jessica Chastain gets her game face on

After detailing the Supporting Actress Race, let us briefly examine the Best Actress Drama and Comedy/Musical.  As expected, Jessica Chastain is biting at Jennifer Lawrence's heals.  SAG will be VERY interesting.  Will they go comedy or drama?  For the Globes, Chastain's competition was Marion Cotillard, Helen Mirren, Naomi Watts, and Rachel Weisz.  As it turns out, her only real threat was Watts, as none of the other ladies made their way into the Oscar race.  As well, some suggest that Watts might be dark horse.  Which brings me to Chastain's speech.

Best Dressed out of
the nominees

First, "middle-aged" George Clooney got a little dig into Ben Affleck for forgetting to thank the Argo producers when his name was called for director, before proceeding to announce her name.  She hugs and acknowledges a few people including Megan Ellison and director Kathryn Bigelow (and her grandmother?  Amy Pascal?).  When she gets up to the stage, she thanks the HFPA and immediately expresses gratitude for being acknowledged "for YEARS" of toiling through the Hollywood maze.  What was going on through Naomi Watts' mind when Chastain said that?  She can relate, right?  Her 90s were Chastain's 00s.  Except, Watts has never made it up to the podium at the Golden Globes, SAG, or Oscar.  Mulholland Dr. was thirteen years ago, and she didn't receive a nomination by any of those institutions for the David Lynch film.  That was her breakout role (compare to Chastain's The Help).  The follow-through was 21 Grams (Chastain's Zero Dark Thirty).  While Chastain is up against Harvey Weinstein, Watts had to contend with Charlize Theron's performance of the decade.  Since, Watts has been plugging away, winning commercial-friendly, yet off-kilter remakes and sequels, while balancing her resume with more baity fare.  She has been doing what she does well and she doesn't fill her face up with chemicals.  She has also been waiting "for YEARS" to be validated.  Is this too much, too soon for Chastain?  Or does that get extended more to the younger Lawrence?  Watts isn't breaking a sweat, though.  Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, Gertrude Bell, etc.  Even with inevitable comparisons to Michelle Williams' Monroe and Australian Nicole Kidman's Princess Monaco, she is just getting started and is playing for keeps.  If Susan Sarandon did it at almost fifty, so will she.  She will give the AMPAS many chances to reconsider, and the inundation, like with Sarandon, may pay off.

Chastain thanks her team (and if her stylist is among them, it's time for him/her to move on), the crew, cast, specifically Jason Clarke, Annapurna's Ellison, Sony, Pascal, her grandmother, the screenwriter, and her director.  She compares her character to Bigelow.  "To powerful, fearless women that allow their expert work to stand before them.  You've said that filmmaking for you is not about breaking gender roles.  But, when you make a film that allows your character to disobey the conventions of Hollywood, you've done more for women in cinema [that you] can take credit for."  Bigelow was visibly moved and Chastain had taken the breath right out of her.

I already touched on Lawrence's win.  She was up against Emily Blunt, Judi Dench, and Maggie Smith, who, of course, had no real chance at winning.  However, much was made of her fourth fellow nominee Meryl Streep, after Lawrence made the fun and innocent reference to The First Wives Club.  Because I like to spend my time looking up insignificant facts, I learned that Streep has actually been nominated twenty-seven (!) times for a Golden Globe (two times were for television/cable projects).  While she won eight of those Globes, she lost nineteen times.  So, as Lawrence would rightfully point out, there were shockingly nine opportunities to make that crack before her: Kate Winslet, Sally Hawkins, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank, Cate Blanchett, Alfre Woodard, Brenda Blethyn (as well as pre-Wives: Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Miranda Richardson, Julia Roberts, Jessica Tandy, Jodie Foster, Whoopi Goldberg, Shirley MacLaine, Dyan Cannon) AND Meryl Streep herself.  Yeah, that's right, for 2009, Streep beat herself, having been nominated twice in the Comedy category for Julie & Julia and It's Complicated.  Not that any of the winners would have made the reference, as most of them are not Americans, and First Wives is a very American film.  As far as the First Wives themselves are concerned, Streep actually beat Diane Keaton twice at the GG's, but was never nominated opposite Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, or Stockard Channing, for that matter.  

As far as the fashion and styling of the nominees (Streep had The Flu; Maggie Smith and Judi Dench were also absent), there was a lot left to be desired.  Best in show was Helen Mirren looking classy wearing black Badgley Mischka with gold brocade.  Simple and elegant, she looked marvelous.  Jessica Chastain played it safe, so she didn't look bad, just predictable.  The sky blue shows off her eyes and hair, but then oddly she creases back the sides.  She certainly could look worse, but I'd like to see something more daring and sexy on her.  Emily Blunt was also boring, and almost repeated her outfit from last year.  I hated Jennifer Lawrence's dress the night of the globes, but, now, not as much.  It's certainly low cut and looks weird, but not terrible.  Still, she went with a safe, solid color from the Martha Stewart Jr collection like most everyone else.  Marion Cotillard looked beautiful in asymmetrical Christian Dior, but the dress length and shoes bother a little.  I give kudos to Naomi Watts for her hair and makeup.  Her face is smashing.  And the Zac Posen burgundy open-backed dress is dramatic, but I'm not sure if it works for her (or her skin tone).  The color is too deep and she is too milky/blonde.  Rachel Weisz probably has the best hair and makeup, but that black sheer Louis Vuitton is a hot mess.  Cute on top, but then what is going on around her legs.  So wrong.  Daniel Craig should have just gotten on all fours and tore off that gam-veil with his mouth.  That would have been hot and necessary.

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