The 2011 RopeofSilicon Movie Awards

Michael Fassbender (Shame)

NOTES:

Of the performances I saw this year, the one that truly stood out most was Michael Fassbender‘s in Shame. He became Brandon. I could feel his pain. I believed in his plight. It was a true showcase of talent, and yet another performance to add to a growing list.

Fassbender has been able to draw us into his world, most often in fits of despair, but nevertheless there’s a pull, and he’s found a true creative partner in Steve McQueen who directed him in a previously compelling performance in Hunger and with which he’ll work once again on 12 Years a Slave.

Of the names on my runner-up list, George Clooney gave the best performance of his career and Brad Pitt, yet again, impressed, but he’s been impressing me for a long time. Woody Harrelson also delivered a revealing performance and one I would say is far more impressive than his Oscar-nominated turn in The Messenger, which was tame by comparison.

Finally, I came close to giving this award to Ryan Gosling and if it was a comprehensive award I would have. Before this year I didn’t have the same lofty image of Gosling most people held. His work was solid, but there wasn’t a large measure of diversity in that work that made me think he would ever breakout of the Sundance Film Festival type of roles. Well, Drive, The Ides of March and even Crazy Stupid Love to some extent proved his range went beyond independent and mumblecore features. My eyes have been opened.

Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk about Kevin)

NOTES:

From Best Actor to Best Actress things don’t get any easier as I could very easily name any one of the five women above as a favorite from 2011. Charlize Theron gave us a beautiful bitch like none other. Elizabeth Olsen burst onto the scene with a performance in a film I’ve grown to respect more and more. Olivia Colman was part of one of the biggest surprises of the year and that surprise is in large part due to the empathy we feel for her and her character. And Rooney Mara was able to breathe life into her very own interpretation of Lisbeth Salander, a task I wasn’t sure she was up to but it wasn’t long before I was convinced.

Which brings me to Tilda Swinton in a film that left me stunned. Just what kind of mother was Eva? A bad one? A naive one? Was she not caring enough? Not attentive enough? As much as I can imagine people arguing one side of the story I can just as easily come up with a counter.

As I wrote in my review, “[We Need to Talk about Kevin] forces the audience to either defend or condemn however they see fit,” and while I won’t deny the ignorance shown by her husband (John C. Reilly) to the situation and their lack of a communicative relationship, one thing that remains is Swinton’s performance. She’s the guiding force in this art house horror that remains one of my favorite films of the year.

John Hawkes (Martha Marcy May Marlene)

NOTES:

I’ve included a clip from Martha Marcy May Marlene to this category as it marks one specific moment in this film that absolutely gave me chills. To think writer/director Sean Durkin stumbled across Jackson C. Frank’s aptly titled “Marcy’s Song” and that John Hawkes could make it all his own is astonishing in and of itself, but the effect this moment has on the film and the feeling you have for Hawkes’ character from this moment on is all due to this performance. The words of the song certainly have their value, but without Hawkes they could have lost a lot of their power.

Looking over the runners-up, I could have just as easily included Albert Brooks from Drive among those four names, but there is only so much room. Jonah Hill really surprised me in a role that proved he isn’t just a schlubby comedian (though 21 Jump Street appears to be trying to convince me otherwise). Peter Mullan is an emotional force in Tyrannosaur and Corey Stoll brings to the screen a rendition of Ernest Hemingway I’m quite sure anyone that sees Midnight in Paris won’t soon forget.

Finally, Christoph Waltz plays the needling husband to Kate Winslet in Carnage and he gets the bulk of great dialogue in a film that will likely be forgotten by most once things are said and done, but his delivery of some fantastic lines in that film helped me enjoy it as much as I did.

Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)

NOTES:

Choosing a performance to call the “best” in this category was a tough task and it was primarily between two contenders — Janet McTeer and Carey Mulligan. On the one hand I thought Mulligan gave a performance that far surpassed her work in An Education. It was a tragic role and one that left questions to be answered and at the same time was revealing enough to let the audience know she might not ever be willing to reveal those answers any more than her body language and attitude already gave away.

So why did I go with McTeer? Well, when you not only give a great performance, but do so in a film where you’re given a limited amount of screen time and make every moment worth the audience’s while in a film that would otherwise be forgotten entirely, then you deserve my respect. McTeer’s performance stands out in the face of the expectation Glenn Close was going to be the shining attraction of Albert Nobbs, but every moment McTeer’s Hubert Page is on screen all I could do was wish she was the star of the film. That, to me, is enough to call that performance the best supporting performance of the year.

Of the other three ladies above, Amy Ryan was excellent despite being ignored for such an honest and open performance in Win Win. I wrote about how I felt it was the first Oscar worthy performance I’d seen back in March where I discuss my thoughts on her performance a little further as well as provide a few clips.

With Anjelica Huston, she may not have had a large role in 50/50, but I felt her role as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s mother spoke to the film’s theme and how when cancer affects those we love it’s not only the person with the disease that suffers. Huston embodied the role of a loving mother and when she says, “I only smothered him because I love him,” it’s a line that cut to the emotional core of the feature for me.

Finally, Shailene Woodley is superb in The Descendants with a performance that stands out among several great performances in that film and I’m sure we’ll hear plenty more from her in the future.