The Woody Awards: Best Actress

BEST ACTRESS

My Nominees:
Amy Adams, Sunshine Cleaning
Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer
Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds
Maya Rudolph, Away We Go

Oscar Nominees:
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

(NOTE - When I made my initial list of nominees, I nominated Leslie Mann for Funny People in this category. But when I thought about it, I realized that she shouldn't be considered for Best Actress, since she really doesn't have a very prominent role in the film, and because her performance simply wasn't on the same level as those of the other nominees. So I removed her, and now there are only four nominees in this category, since I couldn't think of any actress whose role was prominent enough and whose performance was good enough to take the fifth place on the nominee list. My failure to think of a replacement could be because I missed whatever movies may have had worthy female lead performances, but I would argue that it is at least partially because there simply aren't as many good lead roles written for women as there are for men in movies today. But regardless of the reason, I didn't want to pick a nominee who didn't deserve to be nominated simply for the sake of having a fifth nominee.)

I tend to have the most objections to the Academy's nominations in this category, and this year is no exception. Admittedly, of the films featuring the nominees for Best Actress, I've only seen An Education (which features a fine, if less than great, performance by Carey Mulligan). And although I realize that most of the films featuring my nominees failed to get much (if any) attention from Oscar voters, I am saddened, if not terribly surprised, that they managed to overlook Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds, a film that received 8 nominations, in favor of the likes of Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock. I haven't seen Julie & Julia, but I resent the fact that at this point in time, it is basically a given that Streep (with her ridiculous record of 16 nominations - is any one actress or actor that great?) will get nominated for any half-decent film in which she appears, just because she is who she is. And I haven't seen the Blind Side either, but I have seen the trailer, which I think tells me all I need to know. Sandra Bullock answering the declaration "You're changing that boy's life" with "No, he's changing mine," in an awful southern accent does not suggest to me that hers is one of the best performances of the year. Anyway, enough about the actual Oscar nominations, here are mine...

Amy Adams, Sunshine Cleaning

Amy Adams is great to watch in pretty much anything, and is, I think, one of the most promising actresses working today. In Sunshine Cleaning, she portrays a character who uses a bright, cheerful exterior to hide just how lonely and depressed she really is. Adams knows just how to effectively convey her character's seemingly sunny disposition while subtly hinting at the unhappiness that lies beneath at the same time. She creates a genuine, complex character who wants to be happy, but doesn't always know how, who is often overwhelmed by her responsibilities, yet keeps on going. Adams' ability to convincingly convey the balancing act her character performs every day draws the audience in and makes the viewer really care about her character.

Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer

Zooey Deschanel's character Summer, the titular woman who Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Tom just can't get over, is very complicated. She breaks his heart for apparently no reason, but she's not mean. She doesn't believe in love, but she's not cold. Deschanel takes a character who could be seen as the antagonist if not handled correctly, and gives her so much depth and intelligence that the audience can completely understand why Tom falls in love with her. A large part of what makes this movie work is that, even though it is a break-up story told from the perspective of the dumped, the dumper is not a shallow, cruel bitch whose appeal to the protagonist is unfathomable, like in so many movies. Thanks to Deschanel, the viewer likes Summer, and is genuinely sad to see Tom lose her, not because of some inexplicable love which the script tells us he has for her, but because the viewer understands why Tom loves her, and wouldn't want to lose her either.

Maya Rudolph, Away We Go

As expecting mother Verona De Tessant in Away We Go, Maya Rudolph is both funny and genuine. The relationship between Verona and her partner Burt (played by John Krasinski, whose performance is also excellent) feels more real than most Hollywood couplings - their affection isn't thrown in the viewer's face, but subtly inserted into their honest, intelligent conversations. Rudolph's is the more nuanced of the two performances, and she manages to suggest a lot about the history of her character and her character's relationships (to Burt, to her sister, to her dead parents) in small moments punctuated with just the right amount of emotion, never over-acting, but never devoid of feeling. She makes the changes her character experiences as she undergoes the process of preparing for parenthood obvious without drawing too much attention to them, and creates a thoughtful, intelligent character.

THE WINNER - MELANIE LAURENT, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Yes, this is yet another win for Inglourious Basterds. But let me stress that each of the winners for this film deserves the award independent of the other winners or the film as a whole, and Melanie Laurent, in her role as Shosanna Dreyfus, is certainly no different. The film's more flamboyant characters, such as Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa and Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine, make it easy to overlook the somber Shosanna, but Laurent plays her absolutely beautifully, and more than holds her own against the other performances. Whether Shosanna is brushing off a German soldier who's got a crush on her or planning her revenge with her lover Marcel, Laurent always projects a quiet, cold confidence. And the scene in which Shosanna is re-introduced to the man who murdered her family really showcases Laurent's talent as she perfectly conveys Shosanna's struggle to suppress her terror and maintain a calm exterior.