Best Supporting Actor 2010: Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech

Geoffrey Rush received his fourth Oscar nomination for portraying Lionel Logue in The King's Speech.

Lionel Logue the Australian speech therapist for King George VI (Colin Firth) as written in the King's Speech, is the sort of role that does seem to demand a certain style and form of acting. This particular style being show boating acting. The type of acting where the actor pretty much says look at me, I am doing all that I can to show of my acting skills. This type of role therefore fits Geoffrey Rush well he has his distinct style, voice, does fit well for this type of acting.

One could argue that Logue could have been portrayed in a less showier fashion, and yes perhaps he could have been, but really in the way he is written in this film it seems unlikely. He is character who is always making sly remarks, and purposely acting a bit theatrical. After all there automatically is the scene where he is entertaining his sons through his acting, it would be very difficult to act that scene without doing it in a theatrical way.

Rush takes the theatrical style, and he does do it with gusto. Rush most certainly does know what he is doing here, and he does do it well. His whole point is to purposely provoke the King, and in a way manipulate the King to help him speak more properly. Rush handles this well, being quite flamboyant in his way of mocking the position, and institutions of the royals, allowing for entertaining performance when he does this. His reactions to Firth's actions are always well timed, and well done even though they are not exactly subtle, but entertaining which is what he was going for. Rush knows how to use his manner, and his voice just right in a performance like this to this effect.

Rush does have more quiet scenes when Logue tries to find the psychological problems behind the King's stammer or more specifically when he is giving the ques to the King when he makes his climatic speech. Rush somehow remains still always very controlling, even in this quieter scenes. Again what he does are reactions to Firth, which again he does well, and I did believe his ability to manipulate the King, because of Rush's special manner of delivery. A showy role for a showy performance, I could easily see someone really disliking this self-aware performance, but I thought it did work out for the character.

Best Supporting Actor 2010: Jeremy Renner in The Town

Jeremy Renner received his second Oscar nomination for portraying James "Jem" Coughlin in The Town.

Renner portrays part of Affleck's bank robbing crew. He is the toughest and the meanest of the group, who doesn't seem to mine creating a few casualties for the cops when he is given the chance. Coughlin is a man who lives on the streets wanting to commit crimes, and would rather go out in barrage of gunfire than ever be sent to jail. Renner is very intense in this performance, in fact he is always intense no matter what the situation is. He always keeps his psychotic stare in almost every scene he is in.

Renner has a challenge here in that Jem is fairly thinly written. There is not a whole lot to him in terms of the film, and his whole point is just to be another factor to keep Affleck's character in the life. Renner though absolutely makes the most of everything he does have giving an effective performance. Although he plays him as written he does take small moments to give some depth to him such as a subtle sadness when talking about going back to jail even though he never loses that aspect of the character. He has some great just small moments giving a little humanity to Jem like the way he takes a drink from a soda before going out to face a legion of cops. It is not an overly complex performance but he goes beyond what is written with his character.

Best Supporting Actor 2010: John Hawkes in Winter's Bone

John Hawkes received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Teardrop in Winter's Bone.

Winter's Bone is an effective film with a strong sense of place. A film like this could have gone all wrong with terrible supporting acting, which it does not have, or too slow of a pace, but in fact it moves along quite smoothly.

John Hawkes portrays Teardrop who is the uncle of Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) who is looking for her father dead or alive to save her house. Hawkes early in the film sparingly appears. As at first he is unwilling to help Ree in her search, and acts in quite a hostile fashion to her. Hawkes is terrific in portraying Teardrop because as soon as he steps in just is the part from there on. Hawkes simply has the right quality of his performance that is just right for Teardrop.

Hawkes' performance in incredibly effective due to the intensity of his performance. The intensity he brings to the part is rather interesting because it is rather quiet intensity. Hawkes shows this to be something Teardrop has learned to use, and has grown to know through his life. Hawkes has the right air about him that there is always just a feel of tension when he is in a scene merely due to the way he carries himself. This specific quiet intensity Hawkes utilizes makes the fear others have for him no  doubtless. Also the fact that he he is quiet most of the time, when he does briefly break out more violently much more effective.

The most interesting part of Hawkes' performance though does come when he finally decides to help Ree out. Hawkes quite interestingly shows a certain amount of restrained warmness that he does actually have for his niece. This is very difficult part of Teardrop to show as it could by very unnatural especially considering how Teardrop acted before in the film, but Hawkes manages to make it work.

I think two scenes in particular show the strength of Hawkes, and how fully he realized Teardrop as a complex character.  The first being his showdown with the Sheriff he is downright chilling in this moment, but it is incredibly interesting to see this scene compared to his last scene where he spends a little bit of time with his family. The difference between his coldness in the first scene, and his warmness in the latter is incredible, but Hawkes weaves both of these aspects together to make one very compelling and very interesting character.

Best Supporting Actor 2010: Mark Ruffalo in The Kids are All Right

Mark Ruffalo received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Paul Hatfield in The Kids are All Right.

I think the Kids are All Right had its moment, but I really never found it to be that well written or told overall.

Mark Ruffalo portrays Paul Hatfield who was the sperm donor for two lesbian women Nicole and Jules's (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore) children Laser, and Joni (Josh Hutcherson, Mia Wasikowska). I actually felt Ruffalo's Paul actually was the male lead in the film, well until his last scene where he is sort of given the supporting player treatment. Paul is a seemingly successful man who like to do his own thing, and seemingly live for the moment. This performance here really I do not have that much to say about despite his abundance of screen time actually. He smiles a lot, has his independent personality going on I guess, but little more than that. Ruffalo I suppose is charming enough, and he does fit with the character well enough, but he never really honestly seemed to be doing very much with his performance.

Ruffalo is technically fine for most of the film until near the end of the film where his character is suppose to have a change. He is suppose to show that now his character no longer wants to be a free wheeling man, but rather settle down and have a family. I really did not believe this part of the character at all, and mostly because of Ruffalo. Ruffalo never made any suggestion to wanting more before he declares it. He never showed a desire, nor did he show any build, suddenly Paul just wanted it which came off quite unrealistically. If he did not fail in this more challenging part of his performance.. Overall his performance simply is unimpressive and when he has a chance for more he fails.

Best Supporting Actor 2010

And the Nominees Are:

Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech

Mark Ruffalo in The Kids are All Right

Christian Bale in The Fighter

John Hawkes in Winter's Bone

Jeremy Renner in The Town

Best Supporting Actor 1972: Results

5. Eddie Albert in The Heartbreak Kid- Albert gives an enjoyable mostly reactive deadpan performance. He was not given that much to do, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything he did do. 

4. Robert Duvall in The Godfather- Duvall is perfectly fine in the somewhat limited role of Tom Hagan. He is always exactly as Hagan should be, and does show more to him when he has the chance.

3. James Caan in The Godfather- Caan gives the best supporting performance in the Godfather, with his absolutely brilliant portrayal of Sonny handling every various aspect of Sonny from his particular charisma to his hair trigger trigger temper brilliantly.

2. Joel Grey in Cabaret- Grey's performance is a brilliant energetic performance, that creates an incredibly memorable character and makes for a very entertaining and interesting performance.

1. Al Pacino in The Godfather- A leading performance to be sure although a great performance either way. Pacino effectively shows the transformation of a man.

Best Supporting Actor 1972: Joel Grey in Cabaret

Joel Grey won an Oscar from his only nomination for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret.

Cabaret is a well made musical, character study, and an incredibly interesting look at Germany's decay into Nazism.

Joel Grey's performance here is quite interesting in that he really does not portray a character in the more traditional sense. The Master of Ceremonies does not really seem to be a real person but rather a symbolic creature of sorts. The Master is only seen on stage or briefly back stage. The only main character he interacts with is Liza Minnelli's Sally Bowles, and that is mostly in performing with her or introducing her. There are two incredibly brief moments where Grey interacts with her beyond performance, by they still do not suggest a man but a creature.

The Master of Ceremonies is just a device used in a film to give an interpretation or thematic narration of sorts of both the actions of the main story or the decay of Germany itself. This sort of device in a film could seem too odd, or too forced like in Bob Fosse's later film All that Jazz, but in this film it works incredibly well. I think part of the reason it works so well is Joel Grey's performance.

Grey's performance is a brilliant oddity that always amplifies the film it is in. Grey's creation of this creature that is the Master of Ceremonies is simply brilliant. He really does not seem to be a normal human being which works very well. He makes his odd gremlin like little man of sorts incredibly memorable. Whenever he is on screen he completely controls the screen with his strange but exceptionally compelling presence. Everything single one of his musical numbers or skits are made especially compelling because of the energy Grey puts into them.

Everything that Grey does in his performance simply adds to the film, and just works out perfectly. Every little moment he has he makes the most of it. He gives not only an entertaining performance, but one that does always suggest a wider meaning to what he is doing that surprisingly seems natural, well as natural as something like the Master of Ceremonies can be. Grey entire performance is simply a perfect example of a brilliant character creation, that utilizes just about everything he has to make a great performance which I believe is essential to the effectiveness of Cabaret on the whole.