Category:
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond (film review)
comment: Leonardo DiCaprio definitely deserves a nomination this year for either of his two outstanding roles in Blood Diamond or The Departed.
Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson (film review)
comment: This is a tough one because, honestly, I believe Ryan Gosling to be one of the most under-utlized, under-acknowledge, most brilliant actors of his generation. It nearly killed me when he wasn't nominated for his role in the "Academy completely missed the boat forcing director Nick Cassavetes to turn to Alpha Dog because they so ignored his brilliant" The Notebook. I'll never, ever comprehend that snubbing. But, honestly, I was one of the few people in the USA who actually saw Half Nelson, and as much as I adore Mr Gosling, I have to say this must be payback for not even noticing The Notebook. This was not his finest performance and not even close to his meatiest role. Truth be told, I stayed to see it a second time just to make sure I didn't miss something.
Peter O'Toole in Venus (film review--maybe coming soon?)
comment: Well, of course, most of us haven't gotten to see this critically acclaimed role--at least according to the previews showing mostly in Landmark Theatres in advance of it finally coming to a city probably not near you. I don't begrudge the Academy for wanting to nominate Mr. O'Toole. I still haven't seen the film to be able to argue their logic just yet. I may modify this statement once I do. All I can say is that the Academy's sentimental nature in nominations has never bothered me. What has bothered me is when they give the statue to the person they've snubbed for twenty years. That bothers me because it makes actually winning less meaningful. Did you win because your role was the best performance of the year like the name of the award proclaims or because you've given so many brilliant perforamances in previous years and never won? Sorry, folks, but my belief is you'd have fewer problems with this sentimental favorite business if you'd actually give the award to the most deserving performance regardless of the past.
Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness (film review)
comment: I am completely and utterly mystified by this nomination. This was not a good film. Mr. Smith's performance was fine. It was good. It was a real stretch for him. But, it was nothing in the league with some of the best performances of the year.
Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland (film review)
comment: When I saw this film, I knew he would be nominated no question. This was an amazing film with an amazing performance from Mr. Whitaker who's been hovering around the acclaim he deserves for a long, long time.
Who's missing?
- Edward Norton from The Illusionist or The Painted Veil--It is absolutely impossible to comprehend how on earth he was not nominated for one of these two brilliant roles. Un-be-lieve-able! Shocking. Based on these nominations, he should be able to play a cupcake in an animated film next year and get nominated for Best Actor to make up for this! Horrendous and inexcusable oversight!
- Paul Giamatti from Lady in the Water--Fine, hate Lady in the Water all you want because you didn't get the twist and think M. Night Shymalan has lost it. You are wrong, wrong, wrong on all accounts. I'm sick of it. This was a brilliant twist too global in scale and size for most people to ever comprehend, fine! Honestly, I actually cannot generally tolerate Mr. Giamatti. I cannot get that orangutan role of his in the Plantet of the Apes remake out of my mind any time I see him. So, for him to have impressed me beyond belief with this role says something. Again, the voters need to stop and really watch and think about the acting going. And they need to not reserve some sentimental slots. And, they should have nominated him for The Illusionist in the Best Supporting category if they just could bear to see the term 'Academy Award®-nominee' next to Lady in the Water.
- Will Ferrell from Stranger Than Fiction or Talladega Nights--Mr. Ferrell is another actor of whom I'm not overly fond. Honestly, I am not going to lie. Until this year, he's been in exactly one film I enjoyed, Elf. That's right. Elf. The one of his films most people I know thought was his worst--I don't think they saw Bewitched. Anyway, so this year he puts on two (count them 1 and 2) of the most hilarious performances of the year--sorry Johnny Knoxville, but Will Ferrell's eye-lashes were funnier this year than anything you pulled out of your Jack--- --as Ricky Bobby and Harold Crick and there's nada coming his way? Nada? How can this be? Seriously?
- André Benjamin from Idlewild--another snub for Idlewild.
- Aaron Eckhart from Thank You for Smoking--I guess Mr. Eckhart is building up credits for future nominations because this performance was definitely a vicitm of being released too early in the year.
- Christian Bale from The Prestige--someday, I guess, when Christian Bale is 74, he'll get nominated for any one of his countless snubs including his roles as: Jim 'Jamie' Graham in Empire of the Sun, Laurie in Little Women, Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Trevor Reznik in The Machinist, Batman in Batman Begins, and now Alfred Borden in The Prestige.
- Ben Whishaw from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer--a relative unknown, when you see this truly unbelievable performance, you will be unable to comprehend the criteria for this award nor how he wasn't nominated by people who supposedly know what they are doing and have access to all the performances.
- Toby Jones from Infamous--Last year, Philip Seymore Hoffman won best actor for his portrayal of Truman Capote in the film Capote. How is that possible when Toby Jones's portrayal was 50 times better than Mr. Hoffman's performance?
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