CHICAGO – From Heath Ledger’s searing portrayal of The Joker in “The Dark Knight” to Sean Penn’s riveting embodiment of Harvey Milk in “Milk,” 2008 has been an excellent year for on-screen performances. However, the onslaught of high-caliber performances at the end of the year – including Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon,” the reunion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in “Revolutionary Road,” Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and the quartet of regularly nominated actors from “Doubt” – has left some great work from earlier in the year underappreciated and underrated.
Sometimes it’s a case of critics and award voters seemingly only being able to remember one actor from a certain film and sometimes it’s a tragic case of an entire movie not being recognized thoroughly while late-season, high-profile films incorrectly steal their thunder. Either way, it was shockingly easy to come up with 10 performances that are barely getting mentioned in this season of nominations and year-end lists and truly should be especially considering the overrated ones that are getting such undeserved praise.
First and foremost, deciding what determined the qualification for “underrated” needs to be defined. Josh Brolin in “Milk,” Eddie Marsan in “Happy-Go-Lucky,” Michelle Williams in “Wendy & Lucy,” the cast of “In Bruges” and James Franco in both “Milk” and “Pineapple Express” all deserve at least one nomination or two that they didn’t get. When they have been snubbed, they’ve been mentioned and they’ve all received at least one major nomination. Academy members should definitely take a second look at all of them (especially Marsan, Brolin and Franco), but they can’t exactly be called underrated when they’ve already gotten so much press.
10. Hiam Abbass as Mouna Khalil in “The Visitor”
It’s been wonderful to see the very-deserving Richard Jenkins get the press and nominations he richly deserves for “The Visitor”, but the performance wouldn’t be nearly as complete without the decisions made by his lovely and underrated co-star, Hiam Abbass. Walter (Jenkins) is a man whose heart has been closed since his wife’s death and it’s first re-opened by the friendship of Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), an awakening that takes Walter to unexpected places, particularly his response to Tarek’s unjust incarceration and the arrival of Tarek’s mother, Mouna. It’s not your typical love affair, but Mouna and Walter change each other’s lives forever and the final act of “The Visitor” wouldn’t have nearly the emotional power that it does without BOTH of their performances. It’s a turn by a supporting actress that hasn’t even been mentioned in the year-end conversation, even though it stands far above many performances that have already been nominated.
9. Emily Mortimer as Jessie in “Transsiberian”
Great thriller performances are often underrated. If critics are too busy scribbling down the twists and turns of an intricate plot, they sometimes miss the acting involved. Well-reviewed thrillers may get credit for their director (the word “Hitchcockian” is one of the most overused in the critical vocabulary), but the cast misses out on the acclaim. Brad Anderson’s “Transsiberian”, one of the best thrillers of the last several years, would completely collapse if not for the three-dimensional performance by the always-great Emily Mortimer (who also rocked this year in “Redbelt” and was the best thing about “Chaos Theory”). As Jessie, Mortimer has the biggest burden in “Transsiberian” - to make her extreme actions believable. In retrospect, you or I probably wouldn’t have gone on that field trip with Carlos and might have acted a little more rationally afterwards, but Mortimer sells it when it counts - during the film. The thriller genre is in a state of disaster nowadays because too many writers and directors forgo character in favor of plot twists, but Anderson and Mortimer know that films are a lot more thrilling when the people and their actions are believable.
8. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry in “Redbelt”
American audiences seem to be having a tough time catching up with the greatness of Chiwetel Ejiofor. That’s not the case overseas, where Ejiofor won the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Actor earlier this year, beating out Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen. Sure, that was stage work, but what Ejiofor has accomplished on-screen in films as diverse as “Serenity”, “Dirty Pretty Things”, “Kinky Boots”, “Talk to Me”, and this year’s “Redbelt” has been consistently fascinating. As much as any actor of his generation, Ejiofor has a charisma and an on-screen resonance that brings gravity to everything he does. He was the perfect choice for Mike Terry in David Mamet’s “Redbelt”, a film about a man with an unbreakable moral code. Mamet has long-been fascinated by good men surrounded by wolves, but Mike may be the most morally righteous character that the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/director has ever written. It’s not easy to sell unshakable beliefs to an audience, but Ejiofor is perfect yet again, bringing a touch of grace and calm that you don’t often see in Mamet characters.
7. Michael Fassbinder as Bobby Sands in “Hunger”
One of the most riveting scenes in any movie this year is the emotional centerpiece that kicks off the final act of Steve McQueen’s “Hunger”, a must-see on every level that we’ll cover more upon its release. You may be asking how a performance in a film that hasn’t been released could be underrated. Well, most critics and journalists have seen “Hunger” and, while McQueen has been getting some appropriate raves, Fassbinder seems to be sliding under the radar. Don’t let it happen. “Hunger” is a surreal, riveting experience with no clear protagonist for at least the first half of the film and very little dialogue. The mesmerizing, nearly silent film is shattered by a sequence that is just as jaw-dropping in its simplicity. IRA activist Bobby Sands (Fassbinder) has a meeting with his priest to convince him why the hunger strike he’s about to go on is the only morally correct decision for his future. With no cuts and very little blocking beyond smoking for SEVENTEEN minutes, Fassbinder is impossible to ignore. In 2008, Michael Shannon and Viola Davis have earned heaps of praise for brief roles in their respective films. With just one, extended scene of dialogue in “Hunger”, Fassbinder is just as hard to forget.
6. Elsa Zylberstein as Lea in “I’ve Loved You So Long”
Kristin Scott Thomas has rocked critics and audiences with her work in “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Richard Roeper even called it the best performance of the decade), but her co-star has been largely ignored. Elsa Zylberstein is the emotional “heat” to the “cool” of Thomas’ performance, and neither would be nearly as complete without the other. She’s the perfect balance to everything that Thomas accomplishes in one of the best performances of the year, but she has been completely absent from the Best Supporting Actress conversation. In a year for good female roles, it could be understandable that Zylberstein might not make a critic’s top five, but she damn sure should have been considered. The cold exterior of Thomas wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the decisions made by the nearly-as-good and more externally demanding work done by Zylberstein.
5. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell as Annie and Glenn Marchand in “Snow Angels”
Easily one of the ten best films of the year, David Gordon Green’s “Snow Angels” is an emotionally devastating portrait of the ripple effect of relationships gone wrong and their impact on small town life. The most damaged pair in the film are Annie and Glenn Marchand, brought vividly to life by Beckinsale and Rockwell. The latter has been one of the more intriguing character actors working for years and also did good work in “Choke” and “Frost/Nixon” this year, but the popular opinion of Kate Beckinsale should have changed in 2008. After “Snow Angels” and nearly-as-good work in “Nothing But the Truth”, Beckinsale will no longer merely be known for how she fills out leather pants in the “Underworld” movies. Under pitch-perfect direction from David Gordon Green, Rockwell and Beckinsale gave two of the most tragically powerful performances of the year and their names haven’t even been mentioned in the year-end conversation. I’d hate to think that people who get paid to write about movies can’t remember one that came out nine months ago, but it seems to be the only logical reason that the cast of “Snow Angels” has been so incorrectly ignored in light of far-inferior-but-recent work.
4. Josh Brolin and James Cromwell as George W. and George Herbert Walker Bush, “W.”
“W.” is definitely not a perfect film, but everything that works about Oliver Stone’s part-satire, part-comedy, part-drama is in the two performances by Brolin and Cromwell. Brolin was ignored last year for his great work in “No Country For Old Men”, and it’s unexplainably happening again in 2008 with his lead work in “W.” and supporting work in “Milk”, with neither role getting the credit it deserves. And Cromwell brings a gravity to Bush Sr. - a gravity that I’m not sure he has in real life - that makes him one of the most intriguing characters in the film. We’ve seen the Cheney impression before. We’ve seen the war room stuff and “Mission Accomplished.” What was new about “W.” was the dynamic of a man-child always trying to impress his superior father and just always missing the mark. “W.” never quite comes together, but it only gets close to doing so because of Brolin and Cromwell.
3. The Ensemble of Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” may feature the most “in-tune” ensemble of the year (don’t be surprised to see it appear in the Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble category). Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Samantha Morton, Dianne Wiest, Hope Davis - it’s like an art movie dream cast, and you won’t find a group more committed to a filmmaker’s unusual vision than this group. Perhaps it’s because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Academy don’t have ensemble categories and no one in “Synecdoche” stands out enough to warrant individual acclaim, but it seems a shame to discount all of the note-perfect work in Kaufman’s film just because no actor is better than another in the final product. Like most of Kaufman’s films, “Synecdoche, New York” is a puzzle of a script, one that has gotten appropriate acclaim, including a screenplay nomination from the Chicago Film Critics Association, but the cast has been ignored, which, frankly, is a puzzle as well.
2. Benicio Del Toro as Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in “Che”
Del Toro reportedly worked for years to get as deep under the skin of such an incredibly complex man as he could, and his commitment to the research shows in every frame of the riveting “Che”, a film that challenges viewer expectations on every level. With “Che”, Soderbergh tries to give the viewer the feeling of what it was like to be around Guevara, and it takes a consistent performance to even attempt to make something that ambitious work. Del Toro’s work in “Che” is defining for both people involved. Benicio is committed and believable in every single scene of what is ultimately a 260-minute movie. He’s in nearly every shot of the complex film and carries the entire project on his back. A four-hour-plus movie about Che Guevara wandering through the jungles of Cuba and Bolivia is a tough sell already, but if critics did their part and let readers know how flawless one of the best actors alive is in the film then the entire project might be getting more of the year-end press it deserves. When anyone who’s seen the film thinks of Che Guevara, they will picture Del Toro and vice versa. It’s easily one of the best acting performances of the year and it’s shocking to me to see far-lesser performances - Tom Cruise in “Tropic Thunder”, Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino”, Amy Adams in “Doubt” - getting nominations while no one’s talking about “Che”.
1. Everyone but Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight”
Ledger’s work in “The Dark Knight” is both remarkable and Oscar-worthy, but don’t be surprised if the entire ensemble scores a nomination for their group work by the Screen Actors Guild. What Christopher Nolan accomplished with the best superhero movie ever made wouldn’t have worked without his note-perfect ensemble. Yes, maybe Maggie Gyllenhaal doesn’t do enough to make this one of the more notable performances of her career, but “The Dark Knight” contains career-best work from Aaron Eckhart, one of Gary Oldman’s best turns in years, and a foundation of warmth to offset The Joker’s cold, pale exterior from Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. And, of course, Christian Bale has redefined one of the most recognizable characters in the history of the genre (even if he does growl a bit too much in “TDK”). Eckhart, Oldman, Bale - none of them have been mentioned as being notable 2008 performances in any way this awards season because Ledger steals so much of the show. The fact is that Ledger’s work wouldn’t have been nearly as good without his cast-mates in “The Dark Knight”.
 [1] | By BRIAN TALLERICO [2] |