Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Top 10 Oscar - Best Actress Predictions

Top 10 Oscar - Best Actress Predictions
Which 5 Ladies will be nominated in the best-actress category and which of these movies will win the coveted Oscar for Best Actress at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24th 2008? Here's the latest hotlist of the 10 most serious contenders.

Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Relatively unknown outside of her native France, Marion Cotillard, stars as the legendary French singer Edith Piaf in the biographical La Vie en Rose. From the poverty and abandonment of childhood, Piaf becomes the toast of Paris and France. Marion Cotillard 'is' Edith Piaf, with an emotional and utterly convincing performance as the star in her tragic, alcohol, drug and pain strewn life. Unfortunately the film La Vie en Rose itself fails to reach the heights of Cotillards performance.
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth:The Golden Age
Cate Blanchett reprise's her academy nominated role as Queen Elizabeth I in the 1998 film Elizabeth. Negative reviews for the film itself upon its recent US release do not deflect from Blanchett's excellent portrayal of the Monarch. Hotly tipped as deserving of the Oscar last time out, will her stunning performance as the Queen win the judges around this time? Set in 1585 a time of betrayal and bloodlust, this story explores the 'virgin' Queen Elizabeth's relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh.
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Julie Christie plays Alzheimer afflicted Fiona in Away From Her, and with a performance this good Christie would be advised to see her own doctor for a check-up. Fiona's initial forgetfulness graduates to a full-scale affliction, and throughout Christie is superb portraying the confusion and sadness, courage and defiance as a wife in her early 60's is consumed by Alzheimer's. It's almost 42 years since Julie Christie won the Oscar for best actress in 1966 for her role as the amoral model and socialite Diana Scott in Darling, has her time come again?
Keira Knightley, Atonement
Atonement, reutites Keira Knightley with director Joel Wright, with whom she received a previous Best Actress nomination for 2005's Pride & Prejudice. Keira stars as Cecilia Tallis in Atonement and her discipline and range of performance are a vast improvement on any of her previous roles. If Knightley can get nominated for the sub-standard performance in the aforementioned Pride & Prejudice then she must surely be a cert for at least a nomination here.
Halle Berry, Things We Lost in the Fire
Halle Berry plays Audrey Burke a wife in emotional turmoil, as she try's to cope with her husband's death. Things We Lost in the Fire revolves around Audrey's tense and highly strung relationship with Jerry Sunborne (Benico Del Toro) a recovering heroin addict who was her husbands friend. A typical 'Monsters Ball' style performance from Halle Berry, excellent in places and although perhaps outshone by Del Toro, again deserving of a nomination.
Laura Linney, The Savages

After two previous oscar nominations for You Can Count on Me in 2000, and Kinsey in 2004 will it be a case of third time lucky for Laura Linney in The Savages? As the intelligent, funny and single Wendy Savage an aspiring but unsuccessful playwright, Linney and her brother John (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) must confront each other and their dementia-afflicted father (Philip Bosco). Linney's character is complex and her performance special in this funny but sad, heart warming tale.
Ellen Page, Juno
Ellen Page stars as the smart, funny and extremely likable 16-year-old title character Juno. Diablo Cody's screenplay is at times comic genius, as Juno confronts her unexpected pregnancy with maturity, deciding to go ahead with the birth and give the child up for adoption. Pages performance is commanding throughout as she carries the movie from start to finish, will Juno earn Ellen Page a best actress nomination?
Jodie Foster, The Brave One
As radio host Erica Bain, Jodie Foster emerges from a coma to avenge her fiancés death. OK the plot is a little slow and far-fetched but Jodie Foster excels in a roller coaster emotional ride from shy and retiring innocent victim to ass-kicking vigilante. Jodie Foster carries The Brave One and as such is perhaps an outside chance of a nomination?
Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
A Mighty Heart is based on the kidnapping and brutal execution of Daniel Pearl the Wall Street Journal reporter in Karachi in 2002. Take a box of tissues, for when Mariane Pearl (Angelina Jolie) find's out the fate of her husband, her blood-curdling howl is guaranteed to bring on the waterworks. In this scene alone Angelina dispels the myth, does away with the glamour and shows us as a heavily pregnant and spine chillingly emotional Mariane what a fine actress she really is.
Amy Adams, Enchanted
A family comedy from Disney - Enchanted may seem an unlikely vehicle for Amy Adams to receive her second oscar nomination but as Giselle the 2D animated princess she just might. Amy Adams is enchanting bringing Giselle to life as she is banished from her animated world to fend for herself in the streets of New York. A great comic role but in a Disney romantic comedy will it be enough for Princess Charming Amy?