2002: Men in Film

The men were pretty matched. There were a few outstanding ones, a couple of fair ones and then the rest.

                   

Supporting Actor

Runners Up: Jeff Bridges in The Hours, Tom Hanks in Catch Me If You Can

Tier Two

Chris Cooper in Adaptation

Ian Mckellen in The Two Towers

Paul Newman in Road to Perdition

Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven

John C. Reilly in Chicago

Cooper should have been nominated for American Beauty, maybe. But I wasn’t too hot on him in Adaptation. Still, I wasn’t that mad at him for getting his Oscar and stuff. It was cool seeing Newman and Reilly nominated, though absent from my five both did good jobs.

          

The Nominees

Stephen Dillane in  The Hours

Ed Harris in The Hours

Jude Law in Road to Perdition

Viggo Mortenson in The Two Towers

Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can

It was surprising that Jude didn’t pick up traction for his Road to Perdition performance. It was a haunting performance in a good film. It was no surprise that Dillane was ignored, but he was the perfect ally to Kidman and gave a solid performance. One reason the train scene works is because of the reaction shots of him. Viggo does his best work of the trilogy in The Two Towers and it’s a pity that no acting nods came his way. Christopher and Ed had the top two spots for me. I know many felt Ed was a major hambone, but he was my favourite. Figures.

          

Lead Actor

Tier Two

Adrien Brodey in The Pianist

Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York

Hugh Grant in About A Boy

Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition

Guy Pearce in The Time Machine

Brodey is the best of this bottom five, but I still didn’t see what exactly the hubbub was about. And I’ll always be miffed that he has the title of youngest winner in this category. I don’t know how Leo picked up no traction for either of the performances he gave that year.

             

The Nominees

Tom Cruise in Minority Report

Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity

Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York

Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can

Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt

Leo wasn’t my favourite of the bunch, but it was an excellent performance that went completely ignored. There is no other actor that could have creditably sold the teenage and adult life of his character, and it goes to show that he’s been better than people give him credit for. No one could top Daniel Day Lewis’ monstrous turn in Gangs of New York, and when it looked like the SAG were on to something it’s a pity that Oscar couldn’t follow suit. Tom Cruise gave what is arguably my favourite performance of his in Minority Report where he brought all his assets to the table. Damon and Schmidt didn’t exactly take stretches, but both performances were effective and the single most important performance in both pieces.