For the category of BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE, my personal favorite category in any award-giving bodies, two veterans, two novices and one "underdog" will compete for the golden statue. Helen Mirren got chosen for her sizzling performance in The Last Station as an aged but still passionate wife of Leo Tolstoy. And of course, the Oscar favorite with her 16th Academy Awards nomination, Meryl Streep for bringing luminous humor in Julie and Julia as the very charming Julia Child. However, these two have been proven to be two of the most pre-eminent actors of our generation and it’s kind of dreary of having them as the winner for this year’s Oscar.
On the other hand, we have other three actresses who are new in this class and this what makes this category really exciting. We have two neophytes who come from very different cases. First, it is Carey Mulligan, as the smart and sprightly, yet naïve and wide-eyed 16 year old teenage girl Jenny who is a target of a sophisticated seduction in this very stylish drama An Education. She is now hailed as the next “Audrey Hepburn” though I think the main reason of resembling her to Hepburn is that at one point in the film, she sported a Hepburn-style hairdo which doubtless most of the young women did in the 60’s. The film by the way is set in 1960’s London. Nonetheless, her performance in this movie blooms before our eyes and proves to be highly promising making the character luminous when it could end up being sad and awkward. She never failed to exude variation of emotions especially her character highly demands it; she has to play an exceptionally quick-witted 16 year old teenage girl yet remains to appear naïve and fragile. She maybe is not the next Hepburn for me, but perhaps the next Keira Knightley.
On the other hand, we got Gabourey Sidibe who broke the audiences’ heart with her powerful performance as an obese and illiterate, abused black teenage girl in the riveting movie Precious. Based on a novel called Push by Sapphire, the movie is about this teenage girl of while being in the most utterly disturbing and terrible CRAP life situation learns how to hold her head up high, dust off herself and continue walking forward. The film is a relentless one in radiating pain; but this is not a problem movie. Despite of the entire landscape of despair, this one actually delivers the message of optimism and it redeems this work of art from beginning so bleak yet ending so inspiring. And Gabourey Sidibe, being the centre, gives an incredibly striking performance, so realistic one would feel so useless of just sitting there and unable to help this girl in struggling in a very harrowing harsh life condition.
And lastly, we have SANDRA BULLOCK as the underdog, who appears to be leading the pack as the very feisty Leigh Anne Touhy in this highly lovable, feel good real life fairy tale The Blind Side. It is no doubt that the film is mostly carried by the tough love performance of Bullock, the wild card and backbone igniting every scenes she was in. Sandra Bullock delivers a performance that is millions of miles away from her typical portrayals in such films like Miss Congeniality and with it; this has positioned her as an Oscar favorite. The film evokes a roller-coaster ride which started seemingly as a trite one but after a few minutes of prologue, amazingly turns 360 degrees and has become one the great movies I have seen at the start of this year and probably the entire 2010. Bullock here was at her absolute finest scorching with an exceptionally shrewd piece.
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