Alternate Best Actor 2016: Adrian Titieni in Graduation

Adrian Titieni did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Romeo Aldea in Graduation.

Graduation follows a doctor as he attempts to ensure his daughter's success on a final exam after she suffers a traumatic attack.

In this character study, we follow Adrian Titieni as the doctor who from the off-set seems your average enough man who supposedly loves his daughter and simply wants what is best for her. Titieni's performance then is an examination of this father seemingly set in his ways as a member of the community, and how everything about what follows challenges that. Titieni carries himself in a slightly tired manner, someone who works hard, but also is set in his ways even when somewhat amorally. We see him warmly interact with his daughter as he gives her a ride to school, just establishing an innate relationship there, however kind of detached, though with history, manner towards his wife as a relationship past its due. And the first challenge to himself comes there as we see Romeo with his mistress, a school teacher, and you see a more lustful man, however, Titieni is as natural in presenting a man ruled as he might be by his sexual desires. Not as some extreme switch, but just a natural other aspect that does define the man. 

His existence is broken quickly again as his daughter is attacked with the attacker having attempted to rape her as well. What follows is the film basically as a series of unfortunate events that does nothing but shake the foundations of whoever it is that Romeo would define himself as. Titieni initially presents quietly but potently the sense of the man's initial concern but also with more once through the event he learns his daughter is no longer a virgin before this event. Titieni presents more so confusion than a complete shatter in the man, effectively presenting a man who quietly takes the information in rather than in a loud explosive way. This alludes towards in a way a man who may be an overly calculating sort, as his reactions are subdued yet feel honest with how subdued they are given how it is that we follow Romeo beyond this point. Although the man doesn't change overtly, Titieni's performance subtly adjusts as his physical manner becomes tighter and his manner less at ease. 

This only is exacerbated when it seems like her injuries may prevent her from taking her pivotal exam to ensure she is able to get into the college of her choice. A situation that Romeo tries to initially argue his way through, where Titieni brings the right calm passion about, however, things quickly spiral out of control when that seems like it might not be enough. And it is interesting for a lead character Titieni is almost always shown in profile, rare is the closeup and in a way, this defines the way we see his character as the plot thickens so to speak. A plot that is less really about all the different aspects he's trying to hold together, his failing marriage, his mistress, his change in perspective regarding his daughter, his attempt to find the truth about the potential rape, his attempt to save her academic future, and the world of corruption he gets involved into to save the former, and more so about all of them together. All together in terms of what it is that Romeo is trying to do to attempt to make it all work at once. 

What we see then in Titieni's performance beyond the initial scenes to the change is a man in constant negotiation, amplified by his positioning in most of the frames off to the side. Although this may seem like a repetitive notion it is actually rather compelling in creating this tangible state of the man as somehow retaining some basic sense of his purpose even as he really is negotiating every aspect of his life away. Titieni presents a man selling himself away with an interesting sort of ease. It isn't as a man who has suddenly lost all his morals but rather as a man who is in a constant just driven state of maintaining his daughter's path no matter what. What is remarkable is around it is we see how strange this caring father act becomes the more he attempts to apply it to every situation, whether that is coming clean to his wife, making a deal based on corruption, trying to avoid investigation by the authorities or even trying to convince his daughter of his misdeeds. Titieni's performance works in illustrating the failures of the very conceit of the man, who fails as loving father by in a way acting always on his always misguided expectation of one.