Best Supporting Actor 2021: Ciarán Hinds in Belfast

Ciarán Hinds received his first Oscar nomination for portraying "Pop" in Belfast. 

Belfast is Kenneth Branagh's semi-autobiographical film about his time as a young boy in Belfast during the time of "the troubles" between protestants and Catholics. An imperfect, but wholly affable, film that works best when it is lower key in its largely sentimental and nostalgic approach. 

The always reliable character actor Ciarán Hinds takes on the essential role of so many coming of age stories, that of the loving grandfather. This actually is a pretty big departure for the type of roles Hinds is known best for, those being the often cold or at least stoic authority figure. Hinds though makes you instantly forget all that, and steps right into the role of the loving grandfather as though he's been playing this role his whole career. Hinds really is fantastic in crafting this role, that is technically very mannered, but you really wouldn't know it unless you know Hinds from elsewhere. Hinds alters his accent as well as his overall voice to be reflective of this elder man of Belfast from an older time. This delivering the Belfast accent while also accentuating a greater age within his deeper more labored voice. His physical manner is much the same as exudes the age of the character. He moves around with this natural difficulty. He moves around as a man who needs to be mindful of his steps and careful of his movements. He simply is this grandfatherly type who has that age of his life as simply a part of him and Hinds's performances grants that gradualness as a part of who Pop is. What is again impressive about this is that if you've never seen Hinds before you just simply accept it, but honestly what's even more impressive is that if you have he instantly makes you forget that you've seen him before. At the very least you wonder if Hinds simply aged a great deal since you've seen him last, as he's so comfortable in this role. 

 

Hinds comes in and out of the film most frequently providing some kind of council to his grandson Buddy, typically as Buddy struggles to get close to a girl in his class he has a crush on. Hinds has such a wonderful sincerity in the role, despite again technically being a mannered performance, but you don't think of any of that as he inhabits this loving natural state of Pop. Hinds's delivery is filled with warmth and a loving mischievousness as he attempts to offer Buddy a few pointers. Hinds has this wonderful tone as he brings this sort of eagerness to match the energy of the boy, and a playfulness in his eyes. Hinds shows that as much as the old man is in a way playing on the boy's field of thought, he's also loving to do so and so overjoyed to be able to give him a bit of his perspective. Hinds brings the right sort of fun in this as Pop teachers Buddy the valuable lesson of cheating slightly in math via bad handwriting or just suggesting he try to see his crush outside of school. In each instance Hinds has this wonderful way of showing the way Pop is processing Buddy's problems with this keen thoughtfulness of a man truly thinking for his grandson whom he loves. Hinds is in so many ways the representative of the major virtue of the film, which is when the sentiment completely works. Again so often it is when it is low key. This as Pop serenading Granny (Judi Dench) with "How to Handle a Woman" from Camelot, I think could have gone wrong, but Hinds's delivery of it is filled with such striking earnestness. 

 

There is no pushing for the lovely moment, he just simply makes it by singing the song with such an easy grace and honest love. Every one of his scenes is a little bit of a gem, largely just through how good Hinds is here in making all the material here work. The highlight of such being when Buddy comes to visit Pop while he's in the hospital. Hinds is amazing in this scene and shows not only the virtues of his performance but the virtues that do exist within his film. Hinds, for a lack of a better word, is lovely in this scene. Again the warmth he brings and the sweetness of his performance is here. This in the earned humor of commenting on a old story about robbing the rent man which Hinds delivers with this spirited remembrance so filled with personal nostalgia and again that playfulness as he's actively entertaining the boy with the tale. There is a greater depth though in Hinds's work, this as in the scene Buddy is speaking about the family moving from Belfast, where Pop obviously will not be coming too. Hinds so naturally brings just in these momentary glances a quiet sense of the concern and unease that Pop is feeling for himself to lose that family, that the man actively hides within him to try to do what will be best for his children and grandchildren. This subtle distress makes his encouraging words towards his grandson all the more powerful. Hinds's delivery though is filled with warmth as he advises the boy against fear and reminding him that he has so much no matter where he is. Hinds delivers the speech just so simply and in that way so powerfully by showing a man foregoing any of his own loss, but just trying to wholly comfort his grandson. Hinds finds just that right tone where of course there's sentiment there, the right sentiment as he so honestly portrays this sense of familial love. This is true for every second of Hinds's work here that represents the film's greatest virtues through the honest ease in which he realizes this loving old man from Belfast.