Best Actor 2007: Results

5. George Clooney in Michael Clayton- Clooney in my opinion fails to create a very interesting character with Michael Clayton, as well as he fails to really be truly effective lead for a thriller.

4. Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd- Depp I do not find is entirely bad as Todd, but his approach to Sweeney is one note of anger and depression that just is not that interesting.

3. Tommy Lee Jones in In The Valley of Elah- I like much of Jones' performance, which is emotionally on the mark in showing the character's grief, and pain. I did not believe though was the entire change of the character, which was not made convincing by him or the script.

2. Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises- This  is a strong effort that relies effectively on both Mortensen ability to show the command and control of Nikolai, as well as Mortensen ability to suggest the underlining and hidden motivations of his character.

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood- The sheer scope, and achievement of this performance leaves an undeniable impression. 

Best Actor 2007: Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises

Viggo Mortensen received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Nikolai Luzhin in Eastern Promises.

Eastern Promises tells the story of the Russian Mob in England.

Viggo Mortensen in this role begins with quite a challenge actually considering he has to play a driver for the Russian mob. This to begin with is a challenge since it requires the use of a Russian accent, and frankly the Russian accent is one of the easiest accents someone can get a bad laugh with. Mortensen handles his accent well though, making it seem entirely natural, and appropriate to his character.

For most of the film Mortensen character is not all that much of a mystery at the beginning of the film, as he seems to be just a relatively low level Russian mobster who does all the hard work for Kirill (Vincent Cassel) the son of the mob boss Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Mortensen in these early scenes as the perfect demeanor and if I may say, coolness in the role. He just as has the right manner in how he portrays Nikolai. 

Mortensen is excellent in showing the manner in which he reacts with Kirill, and how he performs his jobs in the mob such as when he prepares a murdered mans body for disposal. Mortensen has the perfect ease and natural manner that suggests that Nikolai is a pure professional in even these gruesome jobs, as well as clearly having done this for awhile now showing the history of the character.

His relationships with the other characters are the key to Mortensen's performance, that show the truth underneath his tough exterior. His relationship with Kirill is interesting because at times Nikolai shows an incredible warmness to his like a caring older brother, who tries to protect the younger brother from harm such as from the abuse of Kirill's father.

His other relationship is with a nurse Anna (Naomi Watts) who is brought into the mob world due to helping a soon to die pregnant woman who was severely abused by the mob. His relationship with her is interestingly played, since he does show a quick attraction to her, before he really knows her, or she no he. Mortensen plays that first seen in a very charming fashion showing a different side to Nikolai, but later on when business decides his actions he puts on colder method, a facade of sorts, to deal with her.

Near of the end of the film though there is a rather big revelation that is most certianly a big spoiler. It is revealed that he is actually an undercover agent for the mob working for the Russian and British authorities in order to infiltrate the mob. This sort of turns the whole concept on the character on its head, and watching it a second time, Mortensen never clearly gives away the hidden nature of Nikolai, but does suggest it through a very slight air of distaste and disgust he has with the mob life as he goes about his tasks in that life.

Mortensen performance is an excellent piece of work, which is a nice smooth and slick piece of acting. He never exactly gets much of chance to slow down and develop but he brilliantly develops Nikolai as the film proceeds through anyways. It is a strong performance throughout and the strength of the performance is best summed through his last shot. It shows a now in power Nikolai, with a powerful outward demeanor, but Mortensen shows a great subtle suggestion of Nikolai thoughts of a better life of what he could have head.  Overall a strong effective performance which improves even  more on repeated viewings.

Best Actor 2007: Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd

Johnny Depp received his third Oscar nomination for portraying Sweeney Todd formally known as Benjamin Barker in Sweeney Todd.

Sweeney Todd is a musical about a mad barber who murders people who come to his shop, and than his land lady bakes them into a pie. I am a bit mixed on this adaptation on one hand the music is good, but on the other hand some of the singing does not quite cut it, and frankly its tone should have included more dark humor as the stage version has.

Johnny Depp portrays Sweeney Todd in an extremely one note fashion, and that is all there is to it. He shows him to be constantly angry and depressed at the same time, who constantly as the look of revenge on his face at every moment in the film. He barely even takes this expression off when he is attempting to lure people into his barber's chair.

Now this is how they chose to portray Sweeney in this film, and that does I think contribute to the tone that I find a little lacking. The film decides to use Sweeney as always a constant overtly angry figure, or as a dead pan character in that he is just internally angry figure who almost completely ignores all others.

Depp technically does the anger and the depression well enough, but part of what Sweeney Todd usually is portrayed as is a gleeful villain, as well as being a depressed one. You can see this sort of portrayal by George Hearn in the filmed stage version, which I do think is better than Depp's because Hearn not only shows the anger and depression, but also does show that Todd still gets a kick out of what he is doing, and really enjoys his chance at revenge.

Now Depp does sing the part well enough, certianly he handles his end better than Helena Bonham who just simply does not have the vocal strength for her part. He performs the song as well, showing the anger, and depression once again as well as the insanity of the character well. I don't think this is a bad portrayal overall, I just wish they had done more with Sweeney overall, and made him more than just dark and brooding basically throughout the whole film.

Best Actor 2007: Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah

Tommy Lee Jones received his third Oscar nomination for portraying Hank Deerfield in In the Valley of Elah.

In the Valley of Elah is an extremely heavy handed and slow film about a man trying to find his son, than learning of the mental state of many of the soldiers returning home.

The character of Hank Deerfield is the type of character right of Tommy Lee Jones' alley. Deerfield is a war veteran, hard edged working man, and Jones is instantly comfortable in the role. Jones' whole prescene also does a great deal in giving the background of the character in his initial scenes, showing him to be a quietly intelligent, and patriotic man, who needs to know what happened to his son.

This character and the film itself reminded me a bit of Missing, and Jack Lemmon's character in that film, which is a good thing in a few ways, but unfortuantely a bad thing in many ways. It is a good thing in that Jones does a strong job in showing his care for his son, and his honest loss he feels when he learns early on that his son has been murdered.

The problems come about though when he joins in the investigation completely for his son, where the film wants to be a message film as well as a police procedural, as well as a character study, and unfortunately the message is abundantly clear the whole time, the procedural is boring because the conclusion is obvious, and the character study of Hank is given a back seat to the rest of the film.

Jones is rigged into the investigation which unfortuantely gives him little to do, as he either just asks question politely, or gets angered by those who impede his investigation. Unfortunately that is all he really gets to do most of the time, which was part of my problem with Jack Lemmon's performance in Missing. All he does is investigate for too much of the time, in an investigation that is frankly not portrayed interestingly at all.

Jones does get an occasional scene away from the investigation such as with a police officer (Charlize Theron) who helps him in the investigation. He has a nice scene where he tells the story of David and Goliathe to her son, and he is okay in creating some sort of fatherly relationship with her as well, although not good enough for it to overcome the script and be considered anything special.

The most annoying aspect of his performance, to me is his relationship with his son in the film. He slowly finds out more and more negative aspects of his son, until at the end where he changes his entire worldview basically. Now this might have worked if the script was better written, or Jones was given more time but he is not. Jones is good in showing the pain over his son, and his frustrations, but he certianly is not able to show his character changing so much with so little time to develop this change.

The film frankly takes a well handled characterization by Jones and misuses by giving him thankless scenes, and than even worse trying to force his character to do that change of his. Now I must make this clear I think that the change in the character could have been done, but it desperately needed to be written better, and Jones needed more time for development. Overall this is a performance that is fine, but it is held back by a rather poor script.

Best Actor 2007: George Clooney in Michael Clayton

George Clooney received his second Oscar nomination for portraying the titular character in Michael Clayton.

Michael Clayton in my opinion is a pretty routine thriller about an evil corporation, and its ties with a large law firm.

George Clooney is an actor many people do find very charming, and say he has a certain ease, and sway on screen. I could not disagree more with these statements, since I almost always find him to be an actor who tries to be charming, but frankly tries to hard, and I just never feel he really has that interesting of a screen presence either. He never really is that charismatic of a performer either, to me he just isn't.

In this film I will say he does not at all try overly hard to be charming, since he is playing a down and out fixer for a law firm. The down and out character is no stranger to Oscar consideration, and no strange character for Clooney who won the Oscar for portraying the down and out character in Syriana.

In portraying this down and out character of Michael Clayton who shows just an annoyed, and tired reaction to the slightest job he is given, or the slightest thing he is given to do. Clooney I will say does make a tired face. Just making a tired face is not good enough, the actor needs to try to convey more than that through more. Clooney in this film does it just slightly, but does not convey nearly enough to make this a really effective performance.

In a thriller like this one must carry the film. A lead in a film like this is extremely important, because they are the one pulling the audience along through the journey of the film, and should probably create some sort of empathy or connection with the audience. Clooney fails to really do this in my opinion, since I never really find him to be a compelling or charming lead.

Clooney's performance is not terrible though, and probably is one of his better performances. Clooney does manage to be realistic enough in the role, and avoids being just Clooney. I really do not think he creates a compelling or, all that individualistic of a character either. For me it just is not ever an interesting performance, that fails to make the film at all compelling or interesting.

Best Actor 2007: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood

Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Oscar from his fourth nomination for portraying oil man Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.

There Will Blood tells the story of a greedy oil man's search for wealth during the early 20th century.

Daniel Day-Lewis's performance is generally regarded as a brilliant performance by many, but there are also dissenters as well who criticize it as being an over the top performance. Well I think it should be examined for both of these qualities actually.

This is one performance that can never be accused of playing it safe, Day-Lewis here goes for something completely outside what most performances try to do. Day-Lewis creates an entirely unique creation in Daniel Plainview with his whole manner, as well as his John Huston voice he uses in the role. The use of the Huston voice is certainly a bold move, and it is one that work well in Day-Lewis' favor since he is entirely consistent with the voice, and it just works incredibly well for this larger than life character.

Now in addition to his voice he uses he does also take on many mannerisms that further suggest Plainview as a character. The little things he does with his mouth, and his distinct way he walks in the part. I will say again these mannerisms are very well done, and do seem to be part of the character, and work very well in favor of his performance. Day-Lewis was clearly trying to recreate someone from the period, and Day-Lewis certainly does that incredibly well.

The sheer force Day-Lewis puts in the role is incredible. He controls every single scene period. There is never a single question, because Day-Lewis creates an overpowering presence throughout the film, that refuses to be challenged by anyone, even though Paul Dano tries as the town preacher Eli. Day-Lewis creates the right intense power in every scene, especially in his speeches to the towns people that perfectly suggest the overwhelming authority Plainview creates.

Now Day-Lewis is also effective in his creation of the greed in Plainview, and showing the intensity of his personality. He is best in his scenes with his "brother" where he tells of his true feeling about people. Day-Lewis brilliantly shows the insight into the mind of his character, and makes his greed something that cannot at all be swayed by anything or anyone.

The strongest aspect of his performance to me though might be with his adopted son H.W. It is interesting because this is where Day-Lewis does display some subtly. It is fascinating because he is able to suggest that Plainview does not only think of his son as a business tool entirely. Day-Lewis does carefully show he does have a love for the boy, even though Plainview does his best to hide it, Day-Lewis lets it show subtly in certain moments of the film.

Best Actor 2007

And the Nominees Were:

Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah

Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will be Blood

George Clooney in Michael Clayton

Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd