it was an almost unanimous prediction amongst the critics that 5-time nominee julianne moore would nab the oscar for best actress this year, and she did. the strength in her performance in "still alice" had garnered much praise & her chances for winning her first ever academy award was as good as how cate blanchett swept all the major film awards including an oscar last year for "blue jasmine". with this win, moore has in fact joined blanchett in the league of acclaimed actors to be recognized for their excellence in acting, having won the five awards generally considered to be the most important annual awards given for the big screen; namely the oscars, BAFTA, golden globes, SAG and critics' choice award. and why not, i fully agreed with moore taking the award this year. her devastatingly mesmerizing portrayal as a 50-year old linguistics professor diagnosed with inheritable early-onset alzheimer's is to me her career-high performance. it takes away the need for every drama about illness to be staggeringly high in fluctuating emotions, her pain delivered through the her subtleties is equally if not more heartbreaking. the film in fact anchors heavily on moore's performance, and her diminishing journey into alzheirmer's is thoroughly moving. she was my best bet for the actress in a leading role category, kudos!
i can't comment on marion cotillard 's performance as i've not watched "two days, one night". as for reese witherspoon, i think i've said enough about how i feel of her as an actress in my previous post on her nominated role in "wild". suffice to say, it is to me overrated, sad to say that she is one of the actors who the academy seem to have a soft spot for, and her slightly above average performance is definitely not oscar-worthy. the spot could have been given to more deserving performances like essie davis ("the babadook") or julianne moore ("map to the stars").
labelled as UK's fastest-rising screen actress since kate winslet, thanks to her convincing portrayal of jane hawking in "the theory of everything", 31-year old felicity jones received her first ever oscar nomination. in fact, the "sudden stardom" has even irked the english actress that she was recently labelled as a new actress despite having started acting since twenty years ago. i was rather impressed with her performance, having both the appearance and ability to portray jane hawking convincingly as a teenager and then transforming into a wife to stephen hawking. jones tackles jane’s resilient yet soft nature with grit, delivering truly poignant scenes with eddie redmayne.
the most interesting and hair-raising performance came from rosamund pike. with david fincher's "gone girl" it was her much bigger break; having started off debuting at the lowest ebb bond-dom in "die another day" and had since then not been given much opportunities, resorting to lower-ends of acting roles in "wrath of the titans" and "jack reacher". her gut-wrenching portrayal as amy dunne in the hitchcockian-thriller is nailed with total gusto. both pike and film are dark, sleek and sexy.
shouldn't win - reese witherspoon
should win - julianne moore
predicted will win - julianne moore
won - julianne moore
snubbed from nomination - essie davis for "the babadook"
#oscar #bestActress #julianneMoore #felicityJones #reeseWitherspoon #rosamundPike #marionCotillard #wild #goneGirl #stillAlice #theTheoryOfEverything #twoDaysOneNight #filmAwards
