THE BEST LEADING ACTRESS BATTLE
Viola Davis (The Help) Vs Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
In one of the most interesting ones in the Best Leading Actress Oscar race, there was an ugly snub (Tilda Swinton for We Need To Talk About Kevin), a "not-that-deserved" nomination (Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs, comparing her performance with Swinton's) and the "unexpected nomination people were expecting" to come true (Rooney Mara for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), but there were locks since the beginning of the Best Actress war: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Viola Davis (The Help) and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn). Streep and Davis have been collecting the big awards and everything says one of them will win the Oscar this year, but Williams should not be ignored in the Oscar folks minds...
VIOLA DAVIS - THE HELP
I would say The Help gave Viola Davis her first leading role in a movie and if it is the case... what a wonderful way to prove people she can carry a movie. In fact, Davis is the whole emotional center of the movie and she's simply moving in her role as Aibeleen and she's deserving of all the awards she has been receiving, but I don't think she should steal Meryl Streep third Oscar. I mean, Viola is wonderful and being Streep's major threat is already a hell of a big compliment, but, you know... Viola took home the Critics' Choice Award of Best Actress and of Best Acting Ensemble, the SAG Award of Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture, the Satellite Award of Best Actress and a big couple of critics associations' Best Actress prizes. She benefits from being a black actress in a movie about racial discrimination, which makes her a sympathetic possible winner and earns her a lot of votes.
MERYL STREEP - THE IRON LADY
This is Streep's 17th Oscar nomination and for cinematic health, I hope this is the nomination that's going to give her the third Oscar win! Streep gives us a technically perfect portray of one of the most controversial female figures in world's History - Margaret Thatcher - in a far from perfect The Iron Lady. While the movie overall doesn't match Streep's performance quality, it benefits her in the way that in a movie with a lot of "wrong things", Streep shines brighter than never. She won the Golden Globe of Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, the BAFTA Award of Best Actress in a Leading Role, the New York Film Critics Circle Award of Best Actress, the New York Film Critics Online Award of Best Actress, the London Film Critics Circle Award of Actress of the Year, between a couple of other wins, and she was nominated for almost everything. A win isn't sure for Streep, but I think most Academy members are tired of not seeing her winning nomination after nomination, which affects the AMPAS credibility at some point - why not give the Oscar to the most Oscar nominated Actress in history, who has two golden statues, when Hillary Swank has two golden men at home too and she was only nominated two times? Meryl Streep in a perfect role, delivering a perfect performance seems an perfect excuse to give her the Oscar she's has been asking.
THE OTHER...
Marilyn Monroe... I mean... Michelle Williams, who embodies Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, may be seen as the third point of this triangle-battle. She got rave reviews for what seems to me a performance of a lifetime. Williams got such a juicy role and she did wonders with him and won the Golden Globe of Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical and a lot of critics awards, but it seems that the big battle is between Davis and Streep. Williams is young and she can wait, but she's playing a Hollywood legend and only God knows how the AMPAS loves to give an Oscar to an actor/actress who plays a cinematic icon. Maybe Williams is a stronger contender for a win than most of us think, but a win for her would be a really unexpected Oscar upset!
Comments