Many a standout performance has been hamstrung by a weak plot or poor direction over the years. Not that those things specifically are the case with any of the following, but here are ten standouts from several areas of filmmaking that made it worth paying eight bucks a ticket.
And because we've come to expect greatness from the likes of Martin Scorsese, Peter O'Toole, Helen Mirren, and the formidable tag team of Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, you won't see their names or performances singled out here. They're worth mentioning almost every time they do something.
1. Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)
The ferocity with which Whitaker becomes Ugandan President Idi Ami could almost force you to look away. How regrettable that so many did. Despite immediate and overwhelming praise for this Best Actor lock, about half a million people saw this movie in its initial run in theatres. But it's the best performance in a year full of them.
Whitaker, of course, has shown flashes before, but he's always seemed a bit of a teddy bear with his quiet, placid disposition and his enormous size. Should he win the Oscar, which is more probable than not, he'll be the third African-American to win acting's top prize in five years. That he deserves it is probably the best reward.
2. Bond, James Bond.
There were websites demanding Daniel Craig be fired before he even shot a scene of Casino Royale. There were websites heralding better Bonds. And then, everybody saw what he could do.
By astronomical units the most talented actor to ever put on 007's tuxedo, Daniel Craig reinvented Bond as a steely-eyed hitman who might even have woman trouble from time to time. His rough-around-the-edges creation not only resurrected a franchise that had been dead in the water since the late 1970s (GoldenEye notwithstanding), he gave the single greatest James Bond portrayal of the 21 movies. Time will tell, of course, but it appears likely that the Bond nobody wanted will be the best Bond of them all.
3. Ellen Page (Hard Candy)
When the film was released many months ago, I wondered in my review where Page found her inspiration for Hayley, the fourteen-year-old prey of Patrick Wilson's online stalker. There's a little girl in there, which Page herself is not; the actress was 18 during filming. There's a mature woman in there, which Page herself is not yet. And there's another side of Hayley I dare not mention in case you haven't seen Hard Candy.
The best part about this performance is the way Page camouflages the rest of Hayley's instincts when one takes center stage. She turns one side on and the others off like a light switch, but does so with a degree of mastery you don't often see with material that has such a high degree of difficulty. Helen Mirren or no, Ellen Page is the best actress of 2006.
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
Great job, Colin! I've shamefully missed most of the above -- thankfully that's what netflix is for!
2 - Ty
"Helen Mirren or no, Ellen Page is the best actress of 2006"
Finally, some respect for Hard Candy!
3 - Victor Plenty
Or respect for Ellen Page, at any rate.