Bale has won most every major award this season, so he is the heavy favorite. But is there a Sugar Ray Leonard in contention that will become champ instead?
John Hawkes is fantastic in
Winter's Bone. He'd been a working actor, teeny parts and one-off TV guest roles, for many years before he broke through in 2004 and 2005 starring in Miranda July's quirky indie
Me and You and Everyone We Know and on HBO's
"Deadwood". If you didn't know Hawkes from those projects or any of his other dozens of credits, you need only see
Winter's Bone to become an instant fan. Past the age of fifty now, he's one of those thirty-five-year overnight success stories. This nomination raises his profile and should get the top directors and producers in the business seeking him out, but he has virtually no chance of winning this Oscar night.
Jeremy Renner gets nominated for a second year in a row, following his breakthrough in last year's surprise Best Picture winner
The Hurt Locker. His fiercely proud and loyal bank robber in Affleck's
The Town proves that he isn't letting what could be his best bite at the apple go away anytime soon. He'll be parlaying some of that industry heat for cash and franchises with his upcoming projects of the next
Mission: Impossible flick and the Marvel Comics all-star group
The Avengers (playing the archer Hawkeye). That will increase his bank account and his TVQ, but I would expect he's smart enough to seek out some harder hitting fare after that. He won't win an Oscar this time, either, but people are starting to know his name, yeah?
For me Mark Ruffalo is what made
The Kids Are All Right sing. His scruffy sperm-donor who reluctantly and awkwardly makes his first stabs at fatherhood is a charming cad that, Hell, even a lesbian might take a shot at. This is his first Oscar nom, but by all rights he should have gotten at least a nomination if not an Oscar for his breakthrough in
You Can Count on Me a decade ago, a similar type also taking his first steps toward the responsibilities of family. Since then his career has had ups and downs and maybe even a bit of bad luck with a couple potentially big projects in
All the King’s Men and
Ride with the Devil that turned out to be resounding flops, and his attempts at the Hollywood mainstream in the formulaic likes of
Just Like Heaven, Rumor Has It and
13 Going on 30 best left forgotten. But when he sticks to his indie roots, he’s usually worth the price of admission. Back in the summer when
Kids was released he became the early front runner in this category, but predictably the Oscar fare at the end of the year has bumped him down the list.
If anybody is going to upset the favorite here, it's probably going to be Geoffrey Rush. While he is recognizable the world over to kids from ages five on up from the ubiquitous
Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it can be easy to forget that this makes Rush's fourth Oscar nom in his career, and that he even won Best Actor for his international breakthrough in
Shine fourteen years ago. His failed actor turned speech therapist to a reluctant and insecure monarch in
The King's Speech is a fun role that Rush has a ball with. His King, Colin Firth, is a lock for Best Actor, and his Queen has a good shot at Supporting Actress. But in the history of the Oscars, only two movies have had three acting wins: Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight from
Network (1976) and Viven Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden from
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Will
The King's Speech join their ranks with a Geoffrey Rush upset? Odds are against.
It's been quite a road from the little kid in Spielberg's
Empire of the Sun to the unlikely star of mega-blockbuster superhero movies, but the quality of Christian Bale's work has never been in question, even as things like an on-set profanity-filled rant to a cinematographer grabbed headlines for months. He's about to turn thirty-seven in a few days and this is his first Oscar nomination. He may not be quite as strong a lock as Firth or Portman, but this is definitely his award to lose. The physical dedication to his craft became legendary after his scary and dangerous weight loss for
The Machinist six years ago, and while he didn't get that skeletal here, his commitment to the role is on gaunt display.
The Fighter is, ostensibly, the story of Micky Ward's transformation from stepping stone with potential to champion, but you cannot take your eyes off of Bale every instant he's on screen. His former boxer turned addict deluding himself about another shot while being careless with his own brother's welfare is a great role, and Bale makes the most of it. After getting the less showy role of Batman while Heath Ledger pulled out all the
Joker stops on way to an Oscar, now it is his turn.
Reply to Topic
Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
