Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2002: Results

5. Richard Gere in Chicago- Gere throws himself completely into the role which certainly offers some entertainment even if he over does it at some points.

Best Scene: Give em the old razzle dazzle.

4. Dennis Quiad in Far From Heaven- Quiad is somewhat restricted by the writing of his character but he excels in his portrayal of a very repressed man.

Best Scene: Frank tells his wife about his early vacation.

3. Andy Serkis in The Two Towers- Serkis creates a unique and very interesting character through his portrayal Gollum and his multiple personalities.

Best Scene: Smeagol and Gollum face off.

2. Robin Williams in Insomnia- Robin Williams gives probably his best performance giving a chilling performance as a killer who seems absolutely genuine in his innocence even while admitting he is completely guilty.

Best Scene: Walter Finch tells why he murdered the girl. 

1. Bernard Hill in The Two Towers- This is another very personal choice but I love Bernard Hill's work in the Two Towers. He takes a character that could have been a complete throwaway but instead brings such humanity and power into his role of King Théoden.

Best Scene: King Théoden mourns his son.

Overall Rank:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York
2. Bernard Hill in The Two Towers
3. Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can
4. Robin Williams in Insomnia
5. Christopher Plummer in Nicholas Nickleby
6. Paul Newman in Road to Perdition
7. Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can
8. Brendan Gleeson in 28 Days Later 
9. Andy Serkis in The Two Towers
10. Brian Murray in Treasure Planet
11. Leandro Firmino in City of God
12. Brendan Fraser in The Quiet American
13. Timothy Spall in All or Nothing
14. Jude Law in Road to Perdition
15. Daniel Craig in Road to Perdition 
16. Brendan Gleeson in Gangs of New York  
17. Tony Leung in Hero
18. Tom Courtenay in Nicholas Nickleby
19. Chris Cooper in Adaptation
20. Min Tanaka in The Twilight Samurai 
21. Forrest Whitaker in Panic Room
22. Thomas Kretschmann in The Pianist
23. Sean Astin in The Two Towers
24. Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven 
25. Willem Dafoe in Auto Focus 
26. Alan Arkin in 13 Conversations About One Thing 
27. Tatusya Mihashi in Dolls
28. Gabriel Byrne in Spider
29. Matthew McConaughey in Frailty
30. Barry Pepper in 25th Hour 
31. Christopher Lee in The Two Towers 
32. Ralph Waite in Sunshine State
33. John C. Reilly in Gangs of New York
34. Seu Jorge in City of God 
35. Benedict Wong in Dirty Pretty Things
36. Stephen Dillane in The Hours 
37. Philip Seymour Hoffman in Punch-Drunk Love 
38. Eric Tsang in Infernal Affairs 
39. Brian Cox in 25th Hour 
40. Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon
41. J.K. Simmons in Spider-Man 
42. Philip Seymour Hoffman in 25th Hour 
43. Cliff Robertson in Spider-Man 
44. Anthony Wong in Infernal Affairs
45. Brian Cox in Adaptation 
46. John C. Reilly in Chicago
47. Ed Harris in Buffalo Soldiers
48. Powers Boothe in Frailty
49. Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears 
50. Phellipe Haagensen in City of God 
51. Scott Glenn in Buffalo Soldiers
52. Brad Dourif in The Two Towers  
53. Douglas Silva in City of God 
54. Mekhi Phifer in 8 Mile
55. Kenneth Branagh in Rabbit-Proof Fence
56. Nathan Lane in Nicholas Nickleby
57. Anthony Hopkins in Red Dragon
58. George Clooney in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 
59. Jim Broadbent in Gangs of New York 
60. Marcel Iures in Hart's War
61. Ian McKellen in The Two Towers  
62. David Gulpilil in Rabbit-Proof Fence
63. Matheus Nachtergaele in City of God
64. Jamie Bell in Nicholas Nickleby
65. Sean Bean in The Two Towers
66. Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man 
67. Dwight Yoakam in Panic Room
68. Dennis Haysbert in Far From Heaven
69. Max von Sydow in Minority Report
70. Joaquin Phoenix in Signs
71. Denzel Washington in Antwone Fisher
72. Liam Neeson in Gangs of New York 
73. Michael Byrne in The Sum of All Fears
74. Stanley Tucci in Road to Perdition 
75. Richard Harris in The Count of Monte Cristo
76. Ciarian Hinds in The Sum of All Fears
77. Timothy Spall in Nicholas Nickleby
78. Billy Boyd in The Two Towers 
79. Richard Harris in The Chamber of Secrets
80. Frank Finlay in The Pianist
81. Noah Huntley in 28 Days Later
82. Kenneth Branagh in The Chamber of Secrets 
83. David Wenham in The Two Towers 
84. Rutger Hauer in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
85. Christopher Lee in Attack of the Clones
86. Richard Gere in Chicago 
87. Nikolaj Lie Kaas in Open Hearts 
88. Barry Pepper in We Were Soldiers
89. Bruce Willis in Hart's War 
90. Harvey Keitel in Red Dragon
91. Brian Cox in The Bourne Identity
92. Luiz Guzman in Punch-Drunk Love 
93. Terence Howard in Hart's War
94. Michael Wincott in The Count of Monte Cristo
95. Matthew McConaughey in 13 Conversations About One Thing
96. Jared Leto in Panic Room
97. Sergei Lopez in Dirty Pretty Things
98. Philip Seymour Hoffman in Red Dragon
99. Jason Isaacs in The Chamber of Secrets 
100. Colin Farrell in Minority Report   
101. Alfred Molina in Frida 
102. Chris Cooper in The Bourne Identity
103. James Cromwell in The Sum of All Fears
104. John C. Reilly in The Hours 
105. Michael Shannon in 8 Mile
106. Rupert Grint in The Chamber of Secrets
107. Morgan Freeman in The Sum of All Fears
108. John Rhys-Davies in The Two Towers
109. Jeremy Irons in The Time Machine 
110. Peter Stormare in Minority Report
111. Alan Bates in Sum of All Fears 
112. Orland Bloom in The Two Towers  
113. John Turturro in 13 Conversations About One Thing
114. Dominic Monaghan in The Two Towers
115. Karl Urban in The Two Towers
116. Tom Wilkinson in The Importance of Being Earnest 
117. Jeremy Davies in Secretary
118. Guy Pearce in The Count of Monte Cristo
119. Gary Cole in One Hour Photo
120. Tim Blake Nelson in Minority Report 
121. Henry Cavill in The Count of Monte Cristo
122. Christopher Eccleston in 28 Days Later
123. James Franco in Spider-Man 
124. Jeff Goldblum in Igby Goes Down
125. Henry Thomas in Gangs of New York 
126. Luis Guzman in the Count of Monte Cristo
127. Rory Culkin in Signs 
128. Orlando Jones in The Time Machine 
129. Martin Sheen in Catch Me If You Can
130. John Noble in The Two Towers
131. Geoffrey Rush in Frida 
132. Ed Harris in The Hours
133. Jared Harris in Igby Goes Down
134. Olivier Martinez in Unfaithful
135. Rip Torn in Men in Black 2 
136. David Hyde Pierce in Treasure Planet
137. Tony Siragusa in 25th Hour
138. Dermot Mulroney in About Schmidt
139. Dylan Smith in One Hour Photo
140. Michael Madsen in Die Another Day
141. Howard Hesseman in About Schmidt
142. Toby Stephens in Die Another Day
143. Eric Lloyd in The Santa Clause 2
144. Johnny Knoxville in Men in Black 2 
145. Ryan Phillipe in Igby Goes Down
146. Rick Yune in Die Another Day
147. Martin Short in Treasure Planet
148. Rob Schneider in Mr. Deeds

Next Year: 1950 lead

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2002: Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven

Dennis Quaid did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a Golden Globe, a Sag, and being nominated for and winning several critic awards including the NYFCC, for portraying Frank Whitaker in Far From Heaven.

Far From Heaven is an interesting experiment at recreating the look and feel of a 50's melodrama although it deals directly with its topics rather than alluding to them. The only problem with this for me is that I never really cared for 50's melodramas, and as well I think it missteps somewhat in its partial attempt to replicate the style of the performances in that era.

Dennis Quaid actually has nothing really to do with the style found in some of the other performances in the film and pretty much tries for a realistic approach in his character. Quaid plays Frank the husband of Julianne Moore's Cathy Whitaker and the father of the children. They seem the ideal enough suburban household of the fifties except there is a severe problem in that Frank is a repressed homosexual who early on the film secretly attempts to find liaisons for himself which most often result in him being caught. Unlike many portrayals of gay characters Quaid in no way uses any mannerisms in his portrayal which makes absolute sense because he is playing someone who on the surface should at least seem just like any normal family man from the period. 

Although I know many love this performance I do not have quite the same appreciation for it as I feel Quaid's role is used as more of a plot point to Moore's central storyline muting the impact of Quaid's work somewhat. This is not at all Quaid's fault but it does set some limitations to his portrayal making his character not nearly as interesting as he could have been. What we see of Frank are really glimpses of his moments. We never really see the details, and no I don't mean the sex scenes. What I mean is we see the beginning and the end only of each part of his story. We see him look for liaisons, but then instantly only see the result of them. We see him hear about the therapy but we see none of it. We see him go back to his old ways at the end, but then we instantly see him having accepted himself fully.

What Quaid is left with are the glimpses of the man rather than the whole, but to Quiad's credit I did want to see the whole instead. Quaid is effective in the glimpses. In any of his scenes seeking liaisons they are almost entirely silent which Quaid works well with. Quaid always supports that Frank is a man of the time still no matter what, and even as he is doing something looked very much down upon he will still fulfill his role. Quaid is very good in this as Frank does keep himself within his structures even as he is breaking them, and Quaid leaves the desires in Frank subtle but known. Quaid brings across the repression with the right internalized intensity. Even when Frank seems the ideal man Quaid has the other element always present, but often only there if you look closely.

Quaid's work ends up being really episodic because we don't get the transitions instead we get the results.  Credit goes to Quaid though for realizing each of these moments the best he can and firmly in the character of Frank. Even when he laments his existence where he fights his repression with alcohol Quaid even as he breaks down still keeps that repression even within the scene. It is an interesting scenes as Quaid portrays Frank fighting against himself during the whole time, and leaving himself as nothing more than a bit of a confused mess. Due keeping the character always in this framework it is utterly fitting in the scene where Frank becomes angry over the rumors of Cathy's relationship with the black gardener as again Quaid shows Frank always keeping his role even if he hates that role.

This is a strong piece of work by Dennis Quaid in his creation of Frank, and it only helps that he doesn't go for any of the over the top moments so often in equivalent characters from the 50's. I do have my reservations in that I do think this could have been something absolutely incredible even Frank received much more focus and his arc consisted of more than just the base and then the peak in terms of every point of his story. I won't blame Quaid as that has absolutely nothing to do with him, instead I will credit him in giving striking portrait of Frank even within the sometimes extreme limitations put upon him, and I do believe that Quaid only would have been better if there was more material for him as he excels with what he has.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2002

And the Nominees Were Not:

Andy Serkis in The Two Towers

Bernard Hill in The Two Towers

Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven

Robin Williams in Insomnia

Richard Gere in Chicago