Alternate Best Actor 1981: Jeremy Irons in The French Lieutenant's Woman

Jeremy Irons did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a BAFTA, for portraying Charles Henry Smithson and Mike in The French Lieutenant's Woman. 

The French Lieutenant's Woman tells of two actors having an affair portraying a forbidden romance of the past. 

It must be said Jeremy Irons has a peculiar relationship with the academy with his one nomination and one win to his name, though a most deserving win to be sure. Being ignored throughout what was his most prominent decade of the eighties consistently including this film, which did quite well with Meryl Streep's leading role, as Charles's eventual lover Sarah and Mike's lover/co-star Anna, I would say just missed winning, losing out over an unneeded fourth win for Katherine Hepburn, given that Streep had won the drama Globe and later the BAFTA for her performance. Anyway Irons I think, as much as he would be dynamic in many more off-beat roles, seems tailored made for a period drama. That is his patrician look and far more patrician voice of his, but also Irons being just an especially striking performer. What makes him striking though is very specific in that Irons has all the surface-level qualities of a stuffy performer however he doesn't feel as such. Irons is rather brilliant in being able to ply his trade in this form as he is an actor very much of the eyes in a film like this where Charles is the proper gentleman. The proper gentleman in as we see him with his more proper fiancée do we have Irons projecting the gentle smile and upright demeanor expected of such a man. His eyes though are the truth of the man, and when he first sees Sarah dramatically at the end of a long dock, Irons's performance so subtly, yet potently, reveals the emotional conflicts of the man as the image of the woman clearly weighs within the man's mind, almost against his wishes. 

The development of this affair is the classic narrative of the man really of deep contemplation of Charles. Irons is exceptional really at that as he really does it with such ease, and for the best work, grace. He knows exactly how to contain emotion in his performance while still portraying a very reserved man. In this relationship, we get the scenes of the two together that slowly develop and really begin with Charles just being fascinated with this woman. Irons portrays this so well because he doesn't make it really this obvious lust but rather genuinely this captivation with her that goes far beyond that. This is carried in their conversation, as she describes her state after a lurid affair with the titular French Lieutenant, and Irons is exceptional in presenting this deeply rooted empathy and interest even as she reveals herself in this way. Irons presents his man not as a lothario but rather with this deep compassion for this woman that becomes a real love for her. This even in the moment of forgetting his fiancée, even having to face society who is against any rejection of the expected match, Irons presents Charles's attitude so effectively as this man burdened by this truth in his mind. We see everything that is going on through his mind so carefully and elegantly in his performance. Again Irons is ideal for such a film and such a character because as much as he can be a magnificent broad performer, he can contain so much in a look. That is what we get here from Irons and he naturally creates the sense of the development of the relationship with Streep's Sarah. 

Contrasting all of that is his performance as Mike where Irons doesn't put on any overt mannerisms per the change, other than somewhat less emphasizing the properness of his accent, Irons though demeanor naturally segues in a way where you might not even take notice. The stiffness of the man is removed and there is just much more of a man a more modern man as we see him with Anna. The two share a moment in bed being purposefully far less dramatic but effectively far less dramatic in that sense. The two are much more bluntly having an affair, but here you get very strong work from Streep and Irons in portraying a modern affair in this sense. Although there is a reserve in their scenes out among others, as they are hiding an affair, and there Irons presents a different kind of pressure in Mike as opposed to Charles. A man who is more overtly frustrated at times. This is against their intimate moments where there is an ease between the performances. Both in a way that articulates this connection as almost too blithe in a way and perhaps too casual between the two. They just really are with each other, you get a playful sense of them together. The change here is not that burden of the woman on his mind in such a grandiose way as with Charles, but much more viscerally of the now. Irons is as good at presenting this much more overtly in his performance and expresses it more openly. Irons really excels in showing two different distinct shades of the same idea. Each shows a man needing to deal with this affair, one with that deep contemplation and the other just a direct pressure upon him to try to make their relationship more than it is.  

The performances of both actors really are the key to this film working, as much as it is certainly well helmed and rather beautifully shot. These are the differences in the two performances is which help to craft the contrasting affairs of the film of Sarah and Charles again Mike and Anna. We see two people going through a similar thing but very differently by the age they live in. And in turn, you get two great moments of building towards their finale in facing the affair. Irons as Charles in the past confronts Sarah where it is this unleashing of emotion, a powerful unleashing where the restraint naturally goes away as basically the quiet man having the secrets within him forced out of him at this moment. Although in that release seemingly find solace and perhaps tenderness between the two. Contrasting that one final time is Mike and Anna as their wrap party. A simpler and now it is quieter resolution. The two just kinds of very subtly portray each considering each other, but not quite embracing each other. Both find just the right sense of two people with a secret that is almost too separated within the loud world of the party to share. The final moment is the last spoken word of Mike trying to cry out. Irons is great though in showing not the distraught pathos of old, but this modern just recognition of the failed state of the affair. Although as dual role performances go, even in Irons's career, this is relatively reserved, it is strong work in presenting and articulating the same idea though as changed by the nature of time and place.