The 83rd annual Academy Awards are less than a week away, and the Quad is here to bring you up to speed on the most popular nominees, potential upsets, and can’t miss winners for this year’s Oscars. Each day, a different critic will be counting down our top picks (and the safest bets) for the winners in each of the big categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress.
The Best Supporting Actress category, usually one of the only places where the Academy gets a little adventurous, is a bit of a letdown this year. There’s a couple of crazy mothers, a determined wife, a young adventurer and a loving bartender, but no real surprises to get excited about. That being said, let’s take a look at the contenders:
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
The Favorite: Melissa Leo — The Fighter
Leo has been raking in awards for her performance as the Ward family’s fiercely protective matriarch, including big wins at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards. The smart money says she’ll take it home this Sunday, and that’s certainly nothing to complain about. Leo plays her part with a calm viscousness, always cool and collected but ready to strike if need be. She’s a human rattlesnake. With her help, The Fighter had the second best ensemble cast of the year (behind only The Social Network), and between Leo and Bale it looks like a lock to take home both of the Supporting Performance awards.
Should Win: Hailee Steinfeld — True Grit
If Leo is the favorite, perhaps the most deserving actress in the group is Steinfeld. At a mere 14 years old, the Coen’s put her at the forefront of True Grit, giving her the unenviable task of acting up to par with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. But Steinfeld did more than hold her own; rather, she was the driving force behind the film, effortlessly fitting into the time and place of the picture and creating a character so well rounded that audience members of any age could connect with her. It’s a bit of a mystery why she’s landed here in the supporting actress category since she was clearly the lead performer, but the Academy seems to have a knack for not making sense (Crash as best picture?!) so I suppose there isn’t much that can be done about that. Leo may take home the hardware, but Steinfeld deserves it more than anyone else.
Really, Just Being Nominated is an Honor: Jacki Weaver — Animal Kingdom
Weaver’s nomination for her part as the mother of a criminal family in the little seen Animal Kingdom is nice, but it’s likely that the nomination for her is the award, and she won’t be going any further. If nothing else, hopefully this gets a few people to check out Kingdom, which was full of rich performances and solid, gritty action.
Suspiciously Absent: Mila Kunis and/or Barbara Hershey — Black Swan, Julianne Moore — The Kids are All Right
Missing in action are Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey of Black Swan. Sure, both performances were a bit over the top, but so was the whole movie and for my money, both Kunis and Hershey did as good a job as Carter or Adams. It’s something of a wonder that neither got a nod here. Hershey, playing Portman’s bear-trap of a mother, may have just had the bad luck of landing in a year when there were already enough crazy mothers to go around.
Julianne Moore’s turn as Annette Bening’s conflicted wife in The Kids are All Right also seems to have gotten the shaft, even though Moore’s performance was just as well rounded as Bening’s, and could be seen as a more driving force in the film. Instead of any of these three women, we get Amy Adams and Helena Bonham Carter in roles that are far from their best work. But going by the standards set by the Academy in the past, getting 3 out of 5 right isn’t too bad.
The Verdict- Melissa Leo
She’s won pretty much everything so far, so there’s no indication that she won’t bring it home on Oscar night.
