Forgotten Characters 3:2 (2010 in Review)

Honestly, I don’t get the guilds. From the WGA consistently qualifying screenplays that didn’t follow their format to the SAG nominating films for Ensemble Cast and missing out on key actors. I was especially annoyed when An Education earned an Ensemble Nod and Cara Seymour and Olivia Williams failed to get mention, and this year they were at it again. I suppose, in theory, with legendary thespians around you’re bound to get forgotten but it’s a damn shame for

                       

Yaya DaCosta in The Kids Are All Right

as Tanya

One of the things that’s most obviously great about Cholodenko’s work in The Kids Are All Right is her ability to juggle the storylines of the main quintet without ever short-changing any of them – but it’s a sort of disservice to her and Blumberg when we think of only the main quintet they’re not the only characters in the film that exude authenticity. Tanya is Paul co-worker at the vineyard and his on-and-off again lover. And, true, in theory she’s essentially a sounding board for Paul to voice his insecurities, but I love how she’s not written narrowly as a flat character. Moreover, I love the little things DaCosta does with the performance. She has a winning charisma about her and I just love that early conversation where Paul is telling her that he can’t believe they used his stuff. She responds with: “Why not? I’d use it.” With this type of character who’s literally acting on the sidelines it’s important to get line-readings down, and DaCosta does it beautifully. It’s part of the charm of The Kids Are All Right that has you feeling you can reach out and touch all the characters.

                                          

Tanya is probably most noticeable by her Foxxy Cleopatra hair from the eighties, and I probably being a bit too anal when I wonder if that faux-eighties hear is redolent of the faux-African necklace she wears recalling some deeper meaning (probably just me). I love that scene, though, where that other worker comes in and Tanya is all mocking – “I thought you should have the first taste...of my pussy.” Another line-reading I’m always liable to remember, not that she’s only good with the readings, though. As Paul shifts into the lives of Jules and the children you kind of get that he and Tanya are heading nowhere. Like that first time he turns down their liaison, her face is just a little disappointed – but it doesn’t go on too long (kudos to the Jeffrey Werner’s excellent editing). And that final scene where they do part ways manages to have some semblance of profundity because we’ve actually come to care about DaCosta’s kooky sidekick. And the fact that the film is only 90 minutesa and still get that sort of a relationship with a palpably secondary character is something worthy applauding – not only Choldenko and Blumberg, but DaCosta too.

                           

Do you think SAG snubbed her? Or was she rightfully forgotten?


Previously Forgotten: 
3:1 Cillian Murphy in Inception