Not to discredit any of the competitors for Best Supporting Actor, but this award is sewn up and delivered. Christoph Waltz will win the award for playing the quadrilingual villain from Inglourious Basterds. From the very beginning of the movie, Waltz put his foot in the award circuit door, switching effortlessly from German to English to French to Italian, etching his name in Quentin Tarantino’s evil-doer hall of fame (presumably in whichever language he chooses). But for fairness sake, let’s look at the other nominees.
Matt Damon was nominated as part of an acting bone thrown by the Academy toward Clint Eastwood for the less than stellar Invictus. Although this is some due praise for one of Hollywood’s more prolific talents (Damon hasn’t been nominated for acting since 1998’s Good Will Hunting), this was more of a political nomination than anything.
Stanley Tucci played an utterly chilling child murderer (rapist?) in Peter Jackson’s flat adaptation of The Lovely Bones. But he was arguably outdone by his own performance in Julie and Julia, which is hardly great for award circuit momentum. Though he had the finest year of his career, he is scarcely considered a legitimate contender for this award.
Which brings us to the two who stand at least a moderate chance at the upset. Christopher Plummer, who played Tolstoy in The Last Station likewise garnered some much overdue applause with this nomination:
Plummer is undoubtably worthy of the praise he’s been receiving. He’s subtle with all the sadder shades of the great author, despite having to act on the theatrical side more than once. Plummer has always had a commanding onscreen presence and here’s no different [Jack’s Review].
Should he win however, it would be a mostly sentimental Oscar for the legendary actor and it would look very suspect for the Academy, but we’ve seen worse.
Woody Harrelson is the front-runner for runner-up with a career-defining performance in The Messenger. One needs to look no further than the climatic scene of the movie to see how intently Harrelson is entwined in this role. It was a beautiful shot that typified a stellar performance and in any other year he would have walked away with this award.
But the statue is deservingly headed to the mantle of Christoph Waltz, who has gone home with every major award so far this season. Seamlessly traversing languages, Waltz delivers a villain so enthralling you want to see more. He makes Colonel Hans Landa as intriguing as he is ruthless and at times appears benevolent. Take for example the second act; he orders Shoshana Dreyfus a glass of milk and does so with an omnipotent glaze of geniality, disguising a genuinely nefarious man. With a convincing smile and an idiosyncratic drawl he welcomes himself on screen, all the while offering up some cultural gems. Waltz will win and should win this award? “That’s a bingo!”
Will win: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Should Win: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Do you agree that Waltz will and should win?