Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1988: M. Emmet Walsh in Clean and Sober

M. Emmet Walsh did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Richard in Clean and Sober.

M. Emmet Walsh, the other great character actor along with Harry Dean Stanton, seems almost a guarantee of something worthwhile to the films he appears in, even often in a very marginal quantity. Walsh, like Stanton though, is always fascinating to see when he is allowed a bit more material to work with given his success with such minor roles. Walsh here isn't given a major role, but there's more than enough for him to make an impact which we see in the opening of the film. The film opens apparently in a support group where we see Walsh's Richard speaking about addiction, which we return to one other time, I actually wish we had gotten more of these scenes throughout the film. These are some of the best moments in the film though due to Walsh's performance. Walsh reveals Richard as vulnerable former addict creating such a strong sense of his past decay in the somber quiet pain such as when speaking of looking in the past for the headlights of his drug dealer, or when his nose was misshapen from a drug bender. He creates a vivid sense of the man's history as in every word there are these memories of this terrible time filled with a palatable anxiety and loss over the broken man he once was. Although these scenes initially have no connection they are essential to the film, and Walsh uses them brilliantly to establish the man Richard was before we meet him in the central story.

Walsh's Richard appears in the main story as a man who offers his services as a sponsor to the hesitant addict Daryl (Michael Keaton). I love the whole presence that Walsh brings his scenes that are actually essential to make it convincing that Keaton's Daryl could beat his addiction. Walsh's approach is remarkable in the very specific way he handles these scenes. He has this interesting way of offering this certain intensity in all of the scenes, as he delivers his lines towards Keaton with a definite incisiveness. His eyes pierce towards him with a real examination of the man as though he is trying to decipher him but Walsh never makes that all Richard is doing. His intensity he fashions always carries this real warmth. In every word there is this definite care and tenderness to it even when speaking harsh truths to him. In his eyes there is a strict empathy that Walsh brings that creates Richard as a man who is there to always help Daryl, through this rather forceful support. It's a moving performance because of how genuine every moment of the work is through Walsh, and he gives a real honesty to a role in the wrong hands could have seemed just a one dimensional plot mechanism. Walsh, as typical for him even if his role is only a minute long, gives a real life to the role that fulfills his purpose so well yet develops him far beyond that purpose. It's terrific work from him, and as usual I only wish we had gotten more of him as it would have probably resulted in a stronger film overall.