Alternate Best Actor 1990: Gabriel Byrne in Miller's Crossing

Gabriel Byrne did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Tom Reagan in Miller’s Crossing. 

Miller’s Crossing falls into one of the Coen brothers films for me where I actually preferred every re-watch than the initial watch because once you know where all the twists and turns exist, there is becomes a greater appreciation for them once you understand them all, know where they fit, and can more fully connect with how every character fits and lives within them. At this point I love this film where once you know what will happen it is all the more fun to go along with each beat, all the more intriguing to truly see just how much depth there is to these characters and just soak in the specific atmosphere and style of the film. Gabriel Byrne’s performance perhaps best represents this appreciation because so much of his performance comes in actually carefully denoting who Tom is, while playing it all so close to the chest, and his work becomes a treasure trove in discovery and frankly unlocking the seeming enigma of Tom on that first viewing. 

Byrne however is carefully crafting just who Tom is throughout and it becomes a little bit of a thrill to track Tom throughout the film once you know what he knows. Take the opening scene where up and coming Italian gangster Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) comes to meet established Irish gangster Leo (Albert Finney) in order to get a hit sanctioned against extra corrupt bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro). Where Caspar wants Bernie dead because he cheats the cheats essentially where Caspar feels a general mob code must be upheld, however Leo refuses based on the fact he’s romantically tangled with Bernie’s sister Verna (Marcia Gay Harden). Leaving Caspar, and his cold righthandman the Dane (J.E. Freeman) essentially to swear that “it's not over” leaving Tom, Leo’s righthandman, to discuss. Byrne’s performance is perhaps Tom at his most direct in a way where as he calls it a bad play by Leo Byrne delivers it without hesitation and very much an earnest intelligence as both a business partner gives his council and a friend with a little exasperation noting that Bernie is as corrupt as they say. Something, the honestly simple natured, Leo ignores speaking with loving overtones regarding Verna which are clearly clouding his judgment. 

That is the inciting incident where Tom will need to play many roles in order to “make things right”, and it is all the different shades of Tom that Byrne brings about so naturally and suggests a lot about the character that is rarely spoken. I think a pivotal aspect of Tom is when he is out of righthandman mode where we find Tom as the aimless man in most ways, literally chasing his hat around most of the time, often drinking himself to a stupor and failing to make a winning bet at any time. Tom is actually a man without a plan when he is given seemingly the most difficult task of just being himself. Byrne’s performance is fascinating in creating this sense of the drifting kind of anxiety within a character who we’ll see is often pinpoint accurate in his life and death choices. The “backbone” of Tom however Byrne reveals quiet listlessness. Where Tom left completely to his own devices is wholly lost except finding escapes in losing himself in the drink or a bad bet. Byrne makes the most of these moments showing a fundamental truth in Tom in a way, who odd as it seems, the difficult situations created within the plot of the film to be able to come to a different kind of life. As when Tom is alone Byrne’s expression truly of a painful detachment with a need to get lost in those vices, an element that feels so natural as a core to the character that in a way is covered up by all the various roles Tom needs to “play” throughout the film. 

Byrne has a brilliant way of playing the levels of honesty which means a lot of different things when it comes to Tom, and finds a specific captivating style within Tom’s way through the underworld. One of the roles he plays is the righthandman of Leo, but not when Leo is around, which is a different character from when Leo is around. We see this when Tom is chatting up other men in the organization, Leo’s barkeep, the constantly complaining chief of police and really anyone else who is part of the general status quo or at least won’t be influencing that status quo. Byrne wonderfully plays up a little bit gangster with this just slightly overt overly chummy way at times that segues towards a direct and also played up tough guy act. Byrne in these scenes represents the quick talking brains behind Leo where Byrne projects someone who seemingly always knows what’s up, while also knowingly brandishing the degree of power. I especially love Byrne's way of letting the chief vent before bluntly shifting to frankly menace as he reminds the chief exactly of his position. Byrne so effectively plays this certain style of power broker where he convinces those who don’t need too much convincing of his, though really Leo’s, power. 

We see Tom struggle far more to play his part in the scenes where he has to deal with Leo and Verna, because Tom is also having an affair with Verna therefore betraying his #1. Tom’s way of dealing with each though reveals much which Byrne amplifies in every instance we get between the trio. Tom with Leo is a great relationship as Finney and Byrne do suggest a long friendship, albeit with distinctly the since that Leo accepts himself as the brawn figurehead while Tom is the brain, who isn’t always listened to. Byrne is able to bring these complicated shades where there is an openness with Leo in moments supporting the friendship, yet when Verna or Bernie comes up, the shade of complication, some guilt, some frustration keep even a separation between Tom and Leo. With Verna Byrne is fascinating in playing between the margins of the moment because there is an overarching presentation of a coldness between sex, particularly when talking about her brother or accusing her of purposefully manipulating Leo. Byrne wonderfully plays the smallest moments where you sense the smallest break where we see a glint in his eyes of either a bit of self-loathing or genuine love that Byrne shows the act of bottling it up to attempt to present it as a heartless meaningless affair, even though it really isn’t. 

Then there is Tom as he deals with the various other players of the game where Byrne is fantastic in accentuating different sides depending on the mark. With Caspar, Byrne delivers every word with the utmost confidence and support, even greater than when being Leo’s man, Byrne’s charisma makes it entirely convincing that he sways Caspar to the degree as the man who sees all the angles, and would be even willing to betray Leo seemingly. Contrasting that however is dealing with the Dane who quite frankly has Tom pegged from moment one but just can’t prove it to his boss. Where we get the moments of Tom frequently taking punches from seemingly everyone, including Leo when Tom reveals his relationship with Verna, and honestly I do love Byrne’s reactions to “here comes another one”, suggesting a man who can take the punch, is willing to, but really doesn't want to still. Byrne finding a natural humor in those moments, yet within the plan Tom runs into more than a few problems. The first being when he sells out the corrupt Bernie, Tom finds unexpectedly he is tasked with killing Bernie by Caspar and the Dane. Byrne is amazing in the scene because you see throughout it his failing to “act” where his face manages to convey the man trying to keep together his composure yet terrified to go through with actually killing a man. Byrne in a way offers his least convincing version when he tells Bernie to go because he brings the fear of the situation in his eyes even as he threatens Bernie to go and not come back. 

Unfortunately for Tom, Bernie is as duplicitous as he seems as he almost immediately starts to make his presence known again, severely jeopardizing his scheme to make Caspar think that Tom is fully on his side. This is to the point Dane takes Tom back to the forest where he was supposed to kill Bernie to find a corpse, which Tom will be offered as the replacement if it is not found. In a way this is one of Tom’s most honest scenes because while Byrne still shows Tom keeping it close to chest, within that chest you see a man nearly petrified for his life as his whole expression in the scene is a man keenly aware he has no plays in the situation with Dane and is about to die. When Tom is saved last second because Caspar’s men find another corpse, murdered and placed there by Bernie, Tom’s relief as portrayed by Bernie is not of a cool composure rather this subdued yet potent combination of relief and even disbelief that he managed to survive this one. Although equally sloppy for Tom is when he runs into Bernie again, who blackmails him to kill Caspar, where Tom tries to get the drop on Bernie and Byrne’s physicality is great in the scene because you see the attempt from Tom to be the cold operator in the moment yet failing completely as Bernie instead trips and degrades Tom again. Where again Byrne doesn’t play it as particularly graceful, rather the Tom losing a bet and getting drunk as he sits on the ground.

What we then see is essentially Tom building the confidence in his biggest gamble which is to essentially get Caspar to kill the Dane then hope Caspar and Bernie kill each other. Byrne’s fantastic in presenting Tom getting basically into this flow state as he speaks every word so confidently as the truth as prods Caspar into believing his false story that the Dane has been conspiring against him, leading to the Dane’s death and even more easily getting Caspar to go his apartment where Bernie will be. Byrne’s fantastic because he manages to show the confidence of that performance, and the performance. I particularly love the way he very much whispers venom into Caspar’s ear as very much this move by Tom is so well realized by Byrne’s performance. This leaves only his greatest act as he leads to the ambush where Bernie kills Caspar leaving only Bernie to be dealt with. Byrne’s outstanding in the sequence because you see him playing the levels and really playing towards maybe his toughest mark in the exceedingly conniving Bernie. Byrne initially plays the man Bernie thinks he is, as he speaks openly it would seem, suggesting that they can pin Caspar’s murder on someone else, and playing in a way the old Tom who could never kill him. Byrne needs to convince both us and Bernie that he could get the gun away from him, and Byrne does by being the Tom who would only never scheme not kill. Once Tom has the gun though his whole demeanor changes, and before when Tom was trying to get the courage to kill Bernie essentially Byrne expressed the anxiety of someone with too much empathy to do it. Tom this time, aided by the truly wretched nature of Bernie, allows Tom to change to be truly cold and Byrne delivers in the real hollowness as now there’s no question if he can do it. The cherry on top being when Bernie again cries for his life, despite earlier claiming it to be an act, asking Tom to look into his heart, where we get the absolutely pitch perfect delivery from Byrne in the pure uncompromising moment of soulless determination as he replies “What heart?” before executing Bernie. We see the man Tom needs to become to finish his “smart play”, something Leo compliments him in the final, Bernie’s funeral, where we see Verna fully reject Tom and Leo’s intention to marry Verna. While not as cold as when he killed Bernie, Byrne exudes a changed manner in Tom, having a far more downplayed playfulness in his one liners, being altogether colder reflecting the man he needed to theoretically be to get back to the status quo. But as warm as Leo is towards him, we see in Tom/Byrne’s eyes that change as he essentially rejects Leo’s offer to come back. Byrne shows Tom brutally honest in rejecting the notion of being forgiven by Leo, where we sense both heartbreak in this but also a more pointed version of that old frustration towards his old friend. Tom chooses to remain where Byrne’s final expression powerfully presents the quiet sorrow of now truly solitary Tom where yet another bet has in the end made him again very little if perhaps nothing at all. Gabriel Byrne delivers a brilliant performance that gets better in every viewing where you see in his performance all the different angles Tom is playing, the fun of it, the thriller of it, but also the sadness of it as in every bit we see just a little more of just who Tom is behind it all.