My Favorite Performances of 2010

by Lani

The Golden Globes will be given out this Sunday. As every year, some of the nominations are a bit mystifying (was The Tourist supposed to be a comedy?), but I was happy to see that a few of my favorite films of 2010, like Inception and The Social Network, are in the running. The arrival of award season always inspires "best of" lists, and I am not immune. Since I have not seen every notable film of the year, rather than make a list of the best films of 2010 I have been thinking about which individual performances made the biggest impressions on me. Here's my list of favorites (not necessarily the best), in no particular order:

Tom Hardy, Inception
One thing I'm sure of after watching Inception? You don't want to be in a scene with Tom Hardy - that is, unless you're okay with him stealing it right out from under you. Hardy plays Eames, a "forger" recruited for Leonardo DiCaprio's dream-team. But he isn't there to make fake passports; within a dream, people can be forgeries, too. Among a cast with charisma to spare, Hardy was the standout for me.

Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Jesse Eisenberg is not an actor whom I would usually describe as having an expressive face, but this trait is to his advantage in the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, a character who keeps his emotions and motivations largely to himself. But then, with slightest curl of his upper lip, Eisenberg conveyed operatic levels of bitterness, contempt, and betrayal. If there were an award for best lip-acting of 2010, Eisenberg would be a lock.

Armie Hammer, The Social Network
In The Social Network, director David Fincher used cutting-edge technology to create the characters of identical twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss by filming actor Armie Hammer opposite a body double, Josh Pence, then digitally grafting Hammer's face onto Pence's body. The effect is seamless, but it works so well because Hammer makes each of the brothers a distinct, separate character - allowing the audience to just believe him when he says "I'm six-five, 220 pounds, and there are two of me!"

Kim Hye-Ja, Mother
Though she has been acting in South Korean film and TV for 30 years, Kim Hye-Ja was basically unknown to American audiences until her starring role in director Bong Joon-Ho's noirish suspense film, Mother. As a single mother determined to clear her adult son of a murder charge, she is engaging and exasperating from minute to minute. She faces the world with an expression of innocence and naivete, but by the end of the film you wonder just how much she has chosen to forget.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
I praised Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams a couple of months ago, and despite all the great films I've seen since then, their performances as the troubled couple at the center of Blue Valentine are still at the top of my list. As Roger Ebert noted in his review of the film, it is one thing for an actor to age onscreen from 24 to 60 - old-age makeup and physical tricks can do a lot of the work. It is much more difficult to show someone at 24 and then at 30. The physical differences are subtle, the real changes occur within. Critics have been singling-out Williams's performance, and I would love to see her win an Oscar for it; however, I can't help thinking of Gosling and Williams as a unit - one performance couldn't exist without the other.

James Franco, 127 Hours
As with Williams and Gosling, I have praised James Franco in a previous posting, but this list would not be complete without mention of his intense portrayal of a hiker stuck between a rock and a hard place in 127 Hours. After his hilarious role in The Pineapple Express (2008), an impressive supporting performance in Milk (2009), and this one-man showcase - I am convinced that Franco can play anything and I can't wait to see his next film.

Honorable Mention: Rosamund Pike, An Education and Made in Dagenham
An Education is technically a 2009 film, but I didn't see it until February 2010, which makes Rosamund Pike's performance as dumb blonde, Helen my first "favorite" of the year. The character is meant to be a contrast to the precocious, plain Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan); but Pike took what could have been a stock "bimbo" role and made her more surprising, warm, and real than I ever expected. Later in the year, I took notice of Pike again in a small, but memorable role as an upper class housewife who befriends a striking auto worker (Sally Hawkins) in Made in Dagenham.

Others of note: Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone; John Hawkes, Winter's Bone; Hilary Swank, Conviction; Sam Rockwell, Conviction; Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech; Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Notes from the Austin Film Festival

Last month I attended the Austin Film Festival & Conference and got an early look at some of the films now playing (or soon to be) in theaters. Lately I've become accustomed to avoiding new releases, so I am happy to be able to recommend three new films which I saw at the festival. Because it is based around a screenplay competition, AFF has branded itself as a "writer's festival," so it is ironic that what impressed me most about these films weren't the screenplays, but the strong performances that anchor each one.

Conviction tells the story of Betty Anne Waters, a working mother and high school dropout, who spent nearly two decades trying to clear the name of her brother Kenny, sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. Since the film is based on a true story, the eventual outcome is never in question; however, the film is compelling because we want to know how they got there, what obstacles they faced and what sacrifices were made. Because it comes to define her life, Betty Anne's single-minded quest to free her brother is repeatedly questioned. But she simply cannot conceive of giving up. Ultimately the film challenges the audience to ask themselves, "what would I have done?" Hilary Swank as Betty Anne is the standout among a talented cast which includes Sam Rockwell as Kenny and Minnie Driver as Betty Anne's classmate. While I don't think that this role will earn her another Best Actress Oscar, her performance here reminds us why she deserved the first two.

Another real-life tale of endurance is 127 Hours, starring James Franco as Aron Ralston, an outdoor adventurer who is forced to amputate his own arm after being pinned under a boulder in a remote canyon. TV shows like Survivorman or Man vs. Wild explain how someone might survive alone in extreme conditions. What is hardly mentioned, except in the fine print disclaimer, is that these are situations you would never, ever, encounter except in the most disastrous of circumstances. As we learn more about him, it is clear that Ralston approached his excursions into the canyons, and life in general, with a misguided hubris. Watching him learn humility and the folly of shunning meaningful human connections makes us aware of our own fragility and how our relationships with other people help to keep us safe. Rather than making you wonder if you could survive such an ordeal, this film might make you realize that, thankfully, you will never be in that situation because _____. (Fill in the blank for yourself: you live with someone who loves you, you call your mom every Sunday, you always go hiking with your buddy from REI...) Since most of the film takes place in the canyon, it is basically a one-man show for Franco, and he is riveting as he deftly shifts between comic affability and tragic desperation.

My favorite movie of the festival was Blue Valentine. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling play Cindy and Dean, a working-class couple with a young daughter, whose marriage is becoming increasingly strained. They are two basically decent people who just aren't meant to be together. But they are together, for better or worse, and through flashbacks we see the progression of their relationship from first meeting to the present day. The concept and presentation are not new, but the filmmakers prevent the story from becoming overly predictable by continually taking a scene that feels familiar and using it to reveal something new about these characters. Characters, by the way, who are portrayed brilliantly by Gosling and Williams. It is the strength of their performances that keeps you interested in this doomed romance. The MPAA has rated Blue Valentine NC-17, presumably due to several sex scenes (the MPAA does not have to give a reason for their ratings). So, most movie-goers may have to wait for the DVD; however, the film is set for a limited release on December 31 to qualify for Oscar consideration. It would be very unfortunate if people were discouraged from seeing this film because of a misguided rating.