Alternate Best Actor 2006: Results

10. Matt Damon in The Departed - Damon actually is good being a despicable worm you want to see get his comeuppance, but he's never more and the potential seemed to be there in the role.

Best Scene: Sullivan and Costigan in the Elevator.

9. Hugh Jackman in The Prestige - The main reason he's so low is merely his extra character in the film where he goes a little too broad. He's great though in portraying his character's great showmanship and his underlying obsession.

Best Scene: Angier confesses the truth about his "trick".

8. Jean Dujardin in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies - This is just a really fun performance as Dujardin as he brilliantly replicates while satirizing 60's James Bond. 

Best Scene: The real version of his time with Jefferson .

7. Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly - Reeves gives a powerful depiction of a man who slowly loses his mind through his drug addiction while still trying to be an undercover cop.

Best Scene: Bob's break down.

6. Cillian Murphy in The Wind That Shakes the Barley - Murphy gives a great performance not as a larger than life freedom fighter, but as an average man doing what he believes in.

Best Scene: The execution.

5. Ken Watanabe in Letters From Iwo Jima- Watanabe manages to show the commander of men, but as well the man behind the uniform.

Best Scene: The General and the Private meet for the last time.

4. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed - DiCaprio gives a compelling portrayal of the intensity and pressure of an undercover cop.

Best Scene: Billy's visit to the psychiatrist.

3. Christian Bale in The Prestige - Christian Bale gives a memorable portrayal of a peculiar obsession and his duplicitous work makes the film's twist particularly effective.  

Best Scene: Borden meets Lord Caldlow.

2. Clive Owen in Children of Men - Clive Owen gives a powerful portrayal that makes his character's personal struggle resonate even though the film rarely focuses on that.

Best Scene: Theo watches his friend's execution.

1. Ulrich Mühe in The Lives of Others - Good Predictions Luke, Anonymous, Kevin, mcofra7, and  Psifonian. Mühe gives an exceptional performance as he so poignantly and convincingly portrays the transformation of a man from a heartless cog in a machine to a good man. 

Best Scene: The second interrogation.

Overall Rank:

1. Ulrich Mühe in The Lives of Others
2. Clive Owen in Children of Men
3. Christian Bale in The Prestige
4. Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
5. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed
6. Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland
7. Daniel Craig in Casino Royale
8. Ken Watanabe in Letter From Iwo Jima
9. Cillian Murphy in The Wind That Shakes the Barley
10. Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly
11. Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking
12. Jean Dujardin in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
13. Hugh Jackman in The Prestige
14. Adrien Brody in Hollywoodland 
15. Josh Hartnett in Lucky Number Slevin
16. Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond
17. James McAvoy in The Last King of Scotland
18. Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson
19. Edward Norton in The Painted Veil
20. Peter O'Toole in Venus
21. Sebastian Koch in The Lives of Others
22. Denzel Washington in Inside Man
23. Clive Owen in Inside Man
24. Hugo Weaving in V For Vendetta
25. Edward Norton in The Illusionist 
26. Greg Kinnear in Little Miss Sunshine 
27. Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction
28. Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible III
29. Matt Damon in The Departed
30. Patrick Wilson in Little Children
31. Richard Gere in The Hoax
32. Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond
33. Ryan Reynolds in Smokin' Aces 
34. Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa
35. Luke Wilson in Idiocracy
36. Kazunari Ninomiya in Letters From Iwo Jima
37. Mark Wahlberg in Invincible
38. Will Smith  in The Pursuit of Happyness
39. Josh Hartnett in The Black Dahlia
40. Hugh Jackman in X-Men: The Last Stand
41. Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
42. Owen Wilson in Cars 
43. Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights in The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
44. Matt Damon in The Good Shepherd
45. Brandon Routh in Superman Returns 
46. Ben Stiller in Night At the Museum
47. Tim Allen in The Santa Clause: The Escape Clause
48. Robin Williams in RV
49. Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Next Year: 2006 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 2006: Ulrich Mühe in The Lives of Others

Ulrich Mühe did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for BAFTA, for portraying Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in The Lives of Others.

The Lives of Others is an excellent film set in East Berlin still under communist control which depicts the monitoring of one writer.

Ulrich Mühe plays Wiesler who we are introduced to as a member of the secret police while he conducts a class to young recruits in training. He is instructing the class through the use of recording of his own successful interrogation of a man accused of being an enemy of the state. Mühe is fantastic in the way he instantly establishes Wiesler's nature at the beginning of the film. Mühe portrays him as the strict authoritarian perfect for his position as a Stasi agent. In the interrogation scene Mühe carries himself with such a striking coldness. There's no sympathy in his eyes just a piercing gaze as he stares right through the man who is he is quickly breaking down under his scrutiny. Mühe keeps a similar reserve in the classroom as he teaches the students with the same strict professionalism. He's particularly good in the quick moment when one student voices dismay at the interrogation and Mühe portrays the lack of hesitation as Wiesler puts a mark next to the students name to keep record of such a remark.

Mühe in addition to this portrays Wiesler as an extreme introvert. Mühe seems to keep everything strictly calculated within Wiesler as even the way he walks seems to be something specific and coded for his own protection. In these early scenes Mühe makes Wiesler basically the perfect tool for such a regime that wishes for mindless devotion and service without a hint of individual thought. Mühe plays Wiesler as barely a man, but rather just a cog in the organization. There's nothing particularly human about he does and there is almost no emotion in him as he performs his duty. Mühe rather brilliantly creates a man, who already would have trouble interacting with the outside world, being only shown a certain way of life that prides itself in constant suspicion and secrecy. Mühe gives us such a man, and he's particularly great in his interactions with his superior. Although they technically are suppose to friends Mühe still shows Wiesler never losing sight of his task as he only seems to interact when its his turn to advise on policy.

Wiesler is released from his oddly sheltered life though when he is assigned to monitor a seemingly apolitical writer Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). At the beginning of the surveillance Mühe keeps Wiesler still very much the operative he should be. As he initially bugs the house Mühe portrays Wiesler going about his job with the utmost precision without a hint of feeling as he makes preparations basically to ruin someone's life. This disregard for a normal humanity continues as Wiesler begins his routine of listening in on Dreyman's life basically just waiting until there is something for which they can arrest him for. Mühe not only portrays a lack of empathy in Wiesler but even a certain venom in the man's mind as though Wiesler just desires to see this enemy punished. While the monitoring continues we are given a glimpse of Wiesler's personal life, or more correctly the lack thereof. Mühe is very honest in portraying Wiesler very much out of his element in the real world, and suggests just a sad lonely man waiting until his next monitoring session.

Wiesler though does not stay on this course though as he learns that the real reason for the inquiry into Dreyman is his relationship with an actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), who is lusted after by a powerful official. Mühe does not portray the malice as suddenly leaving Wiesler though as can be seen when he purposefully causes Dreyman to see Christa-Maria being used sexually by the official, and in that moment Mühe keeps that disregard for anyone. The exposure of normal interaction between people, opposed to interrogating prisoners and spending time with other similair individuals, something seems to happen in Wiesler. Mühe's performance technically becomes almost dialogue free as there are large stretches of the film where we just see him listening to Dreyman's life and file the proper reports about what he hears. Mühe manages to make something so compelling though merely through his almost silent reactions as the monitoring continues. Mühe's performance though is particularly effective because the change in Wiesler is so delicately handled.

Mühe is outstanding by showing the process of Wiesler's growing involvement. At first, after he loses his callousness, Mühe does suggest an investment but with a certain distance. Mühe conveys the interest in Wiesler not to be that of one human being caring about another, but rather at first as though Wiesler is merely listening to an interesting story on the radio. Mühe though slowly grows this fascination in Wiesler which seems to become stronger as it is his only true contact with the outside world, the most we see of Wiesler in a personal setting is having sex with a prostitute. Mühe is great in that scene though by rather honestly showing the desperation in Wiesler to reach out, as he asks the prostitute simply to spend more time with him, and Mühe makes it particularly understandable why he would be caught up in Dreyman's story. The greatness of Mühe's performance is the natural and extremely subtle way though he shows the slow change as he continues to listen even when it becomes obvious that Dreyman will be committing an act against the state.

What is so remarkable about Mühe's work is that he earns every moment of Wiesler somewhat improbable transformation. Mühe not only make Wiesler's growing empathy believable. Mühe is wonderful as he expresses the heartbreak, perhaps better than actually suffering the heartbreak, as Wiesler hears about the losses in Dreyman's life. The scene where Dreyman plays a song for his friends death is made most moving not through what Dreyman does, but just Mühe beautiful reactions as he shows Wiesler being truly changed by what he hears. Wiesler becomes so involved though that he even makes contact with Christa-Maria in a bar. Mühe shows Wiesler put on a slight act as though he is just fan, but portrays such earnest emotion as tries to propel here out of despair. Wiesler's investment though causes him to hide Dreyman's activities and Wiesler himself comes under suspicion. To prove his loyalty Wiesler has to interrogate Christa-Maria to find the whereabouts of Dreyman's hidden typewriter. Mühe is perfect in this scene as he partially returns to the old Wiesler to interrogate, but with a noticeable and powerful difference. Now you see in his eyes how it shames him to have to break her especially since she obviously remembers him from before. I love this performance by Ulrich Mühe as his quiet work is what makes the film work. He creates the  portrait of such a man finding humanity both convincing and poignant.

Alternate Best Actor 2006

And the Nominees Were Not:

Hugh Jackman in The Prestige

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed

Ken Watanabe in Letters From Iwo Jima

Clive Owen in Children of Men

Jean Dujardin in OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies

Predict Those Five or Predict These Five:

Christian Bale in The Prestige

Matt Damon in The Departed

Ulrich Mühe in The Lives of Others

Cillian Murphy in The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly

Or predict both separately if you want. I'll give you two requests.