Countdown to the Oscars: Best Supporting Actress

and the nominees for best supporting actress are:

amy adams, doubt
penélope cruz, vicky cristina barcelona
viola davis, doubt
taraji p. henson, the curious case of benjamin button
marisa tomei, the wrestler

tonight we arrive at my favorite category... best supporting actress. i'm not sure why i have a special affinity for this category but i just love it. maybe because you get a nice, diverse group of actors? maybe because you find the best character actresses in this category? maybe because they love giving the award to woody allen actresses?

but we'll get to ms. cruz later.....

first i'd like to start with what i perceive as one of the worst nominations of the night: taraji p. henson. my only thought is there remains some residual guilt on the part of the academy for not nominating her for the superior performance she gave in hustle and flow. but whatever it is... i knew two things as i watched benjamin button:

1. this entire film and this particular role was created to woo the oscars.
2. the academy would probably be duped by both.

and they were.... the entire movie is overblown and over-lauded. but here we are....

luckily, i don't think ms. henson has a chance at winning the award (unless the academy is looking for a way to reward benjamin button because it will not win any major award and has so many nominations). i would also like to point out that she has not won a single, major award (critics or otherwise) except the austin film critics. exactly.

so let's look at the other contenders....all of whom, conceivably, have a shot.

we have the prior nominee: amy adams, nominated before as best supporting actress for junebug. ms. adams will one day win an oscar, i believe that. but she is greatly overshadowed here by the other three actors nominated for doubt. i'm afraid she'll have to wait a bit longer.

we have the previous winner: marisa tomei who won in the same category for my cousin vinny. OVER, i might add, a much more deserving judy davis for woody allen's husbands and wives.

a side note: tomei's win over davis continues to be the thorn in my academy's side. tomei is marvelous in vinny, yes... but davis dominated that year and should have easily won. one of the biggest mistakes, in my opinion, in academy history.

tomei was also recently nominated again for in the bedroom. i honestly go back and forth and whether or not i feel she deserves this nomination. she is very good in the movie, but i don't feel the same groundswell for her as i do mickey rourke for that film.

no...this year i see the ranks of the woody allen supporting actresses taking their revenge.

but more on ms. cruz in a minute.....

we also have the first timer: yes, henson is also a first time nominee.... but viola davis quietly and intensely took hold of her first nomination. there was no need to showboat and overact.... instead, her performance is all about holding back.... every struggle her characters endures must take place within.... and davis allows you to see it all without ever letting you see inside.

davis deserves to win this category. she takes on the greatest living screen actress and steals the scene without chewing the scenery. she is easily, the greatest performance in doubt.

and much will be said for her lack of screen time. most estimates have her screen time around 8 minutes.... just over 10 when you include a scene that contains no dialogue for the actress. and her lack of screen time is the biggest hurdle she has to overcome in order to take home the gold.

but there is precedence: judi dench won best supporting actress for shakespeare in love with a mere 8 minutes of total screen time in a much longer film. and her performance was spread out over four scenes.... davis must accomplish it all in one remarkable scene.

beatrice straight won a supporting actress oscar for her 6 minutes in network. they are six amazing minutes.... but again: only six minutes.

so will davis win? sadly, probably not..... i'm not sure she can escape the naysayers who simply say there wasn't enough time.

so the oscar will go to the second most deserving nominee in the category, the woody allen supporting actress. i categorize penélope cruz as a woody allen supporting actress because she comes from a long line of supporting actresses nominated for woody allen roles.

there's the aforementioned judy davis. dianne weist has been nominated twice, and won twice, for supporting roles in hannah and her sisters and bullets over broadway. maureen stapleton received a nod for interiors. mira sorvino turned her nomination into an oscar win for mighty aphrodite. samantha morton in sweet and lowdown. and mariel hemingway in manhattan.

yes, cruz joins a long list of actresses to be recognized in the supporting ranks via an allen film.

and cruz gives the academy voters everything they like... beauty, wit, a range of emotions with lovely dramatic scenes.... and there is a beautiful mixture of fire and insanity behind cruz's eyes throughout her performance.

i basically see the race between davis and cruz. it's difficult to gauge based on prior awards due to kate winslet's oft inclusion (and win) in this category for the reader.

but cruz has raked in an impressive list of wins including: the LA film critics, national board of review, ny film critics, boston society of film critics and the BAFTA.

ms. davis has only won a breakthrough award via the national board of review. cruz topped here in the actual supporting category.

this year, the academy keeps it's current european streak alive:

will win: penélope cruz, vicky cristina barcelona
should win: viola davis, doubt

e.