2005 Calvins: Best Actress
By David Mumpower
February 18, 2005
Every week, a star is born, or so it would seem. With each release of a new project, a first-time actress is anointed the next big thing in cinema. It Girls come and go faster than traffic on the 405. Err, bad example. The point is that there are very few actresses who ever live up to the hype by making even one role memorable. Most of them line up to look pretty but are every bit as disposable as the popcorn films they inhabit. But there are those few who prove not only noteworthy, but who also carve out a niche for themselves as the best among the best. It’s this 2004 group we are highlighting here with the Best Actress selections. Some of them are previously recognized BOP favorites, while others have just missed prior recognition. There is even one first timer who knocked the ball out of the ballpark on her very first swing.
Our winner for Best Actress should come as no shock to those of you who have been following the awards announcements all week. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has been dominant in this year's Calvins, so Kate Winslet’s triumph is not a shock. The actress dyes her hair in Eternal Sunshine more often than Morgan Webb does in an entire year of X-Play, but there is a greater depth to her work than a big batch of Clairol. Winslet is given the key task of portraying a woman who is so unforgettable that the memories of her must be scientifically erased in order to purge them from the system. But so marvelous is the neurotic, exciting Clementine that her ex-boyfriend, Joel, wakes up in the middle of the procedure and reconsiders his point of view. Winslet’s career has been a seemingly endless run of etiquette-driven ladies of wealth. Seeing her punked out and vulnerable demonstrates just how much range the Academy Awards darling has.
Uma Thurman might portray The Bride in the Kill Bill franchise, but she is once again reduced to being a bridesmaid in the Calvins Best Actress voting. Of course, she does improve a couple of spots from her 2004 fourth place result, allowing her to be more accurately described as the maid of honor. The reason for the improvement is rather obvious. The lone criticism we had of The Bride in our prior vote was that she let her actions speak louder than her words for the most part. We did not have the full sense of who she was as a character. That changed with Vol. 2’s verbose expositions. Once the staff was given a fuller, more detailed understanding of Thurman’s performance as an actress, we were that much more impressed by her efforts in both films. This is as much a retroactive vote for her prior work as it is a reward for her current one.
Natalie Portman finishes in third place for her performance in Garden State. The reigning Queen of Naboo complements her other bronze medal showing in Best Supporting Actress with this one. Portman’s portrayal of a helmet-clad woman with a fighting spirit is the emotional center of Garden State. It’s through the understanding of what she has had to overcome that the film’s protagonist, Andrew Largeman (Zach Braff), is able to understand his own fatal flaw. The chemistry between the two is overwhelming, but even in scenes where she stands alone, Portman shows exactly the sort of vigor and resolve that is missing in Largeman’s decision making. As the yin to his yang, she completes him as a person. The BOP staff is simply thankful that we were not forced to choose which of Portman’s roles this year was better. Both are extraordinary outings from an actress who is currently held back only by the limitations of George Lucas.
Our last two entrants in the top five are Julie Delpy for Before Sunset and Kate Winslet (again) for Finding Neverland, both of whom tied for fourth place. Delpy’s return to familiar territory is singularly unique in cinematic history. Really, the only comparison for this is the reality documentary series 28/35/42 Up by Michael Apted. Never before has a fictional character with an autobiographical tone been given a return engagement onscreen in the manner that Delpy did. She dazzled the staff not just with her singing ability but in the way that the absence only made our hearts grow fonder for her character. Winslet was deemed better in Eternal Sunshine, but it speaks volumes about her talent, that we feel she comprises 40% of the best five performances for the year in this category. Watching her enjoy the play of Peter Pan for the first time was already mentioned as one of the finest moments of 2004 cinema. Even more than that, though, Winslet proved to be a perfect match of spirit for Johnny Depp’s portrayal of J.M. Barrie.
Falling just outside the top five are Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby and newcomer Catalina Sandino Moreno for Maria Full of Grace. Swank shocked the world once before by following forgettable work in films such as The Next Karate Kid and Buffy the Vampire Slayer by offering a Best Actress performance in Boys Don’t Cry. With Million Dollar Baby, she demonstrates that recent career missteps such as The Core and The Affair of the Necklace were flukes rather than indicative of her true talent. Swank’s effort as a white trash woman with nothing to live for until she sports a pair of boxing gloves is the feminine answer (well, semi-feminine) to Rocky. For her part, Moreno announces her presence with authority in a memorable scene where she tries to deep throat egg-sized pellets. Rather than practice the sequence ahead of time, the neophyte made the bold decision to learn on camera. It’s exactly this sort of drive for believability which makes her titular Maria exactly as the film describes. Of course, it could have been just as accurately titled Maria of the Indomitable Will. Moreno might go on to be a star or we might never see her again. Whatever the future holds, she will always be able to stake a claim to one of the best ever first-timer film performances.
The rest of the top ten is comprised of BOP international faves Zhang Ziyi and Audrey Tautou for House of Flying Daggers and A Very Long Engagement respectively along with Holly Hunter for her voice work in The Incredibles. Ziyi and Tautou are unquestionably two of the most beautiful women in the world, but they don’t coast based on their looks. Instead, each seeks out the most complicated of work, emotionally resonant, moving subject matter that is oftentimes too challenging for mass audiences. Ziyi’s Flying Daggers performance creates an enchantress who seduces men into fighting a war that is not their own just to be near her. Tautou’s perky spirit leads her to stubbornly cling to the belief that one day, the love of her life will return. In the hands of a lesser thespian, A Very Long Engagement could have badly misfired as cloying and overly sentimental. With Tautou offering such a tour de force performance, though, it may only be described as uplifting. With Hunter, it’s difficult to reward a voice actress over other deserving selections. But as Elastigirl, she is, like most mothers, the quiet backbone of the family, its moral compass who never fails. That makes her both the most interesting character and the greatest of heroines. And it’s simply impossible to imagine any other actress but the southern belle Hunter providing the voice of such a character.
The close but no cigar contenders in Best Actress are Drew Barrymore (50 First Dates), Jennifer Garner (13 Going on 30), Su-jeong Lim (A Tale of Two Sisters), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village), and Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake).
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Top 10
|
| Position |
Actress |
Film |
Total Points |
| 1 |
Kate Winslett |
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind |
114 |
| 2 |
Uma Thurman |
Kill Bill Vol. 2 |
74 |
| 3 |
Natalie Portman |
Closer |
72 |
| 4 (tie) |
Julie Delpy |
Before Sunset |
64 |
| 4 (tie) |
Kate Winslett |
Finding Neverland |
64 |
| 6 |
Hilary Swank |
Million Dollar Baby |
59 |
| 7 |
Catalina Sandino Moreno |
Maria Full of Grace |
52 |
| 8 |
Zhang Ziyi |
House of Flying Daggers |
34 |
| 9 |
Audrey Tautou |
A Very Long Engagement |
30 |
| 10 |
Holly Hunter |
The Incredibles |
29 |
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