[this post is a part of Stinkylulu’s Supporting Actress Blogathon; to find out more about it or to participate click immediately on Stinkylulu]

There were at least three performances of Naomi Watts released in 2010, none of which gained too much love from the critics. However, I was completely captivated by her performance as a cold-hearted seductive lawyer in the fabulous indie film Mother and Child.

Naomi Watts, as Elizabeth in Mother and Child

One might actually argue that this is a leading performance, due to the three-separate-stories structure that dominates the first part of the film. Mother and Child is a story about adoption and talks about three different women, each of them representing a different perspective on the subject: a woman obsessing on a decision made years ago, the child she gave up for adoption who’s now a successful lawyer and a woman desperately trying to adopt.

Naomi plays Elizabeth, a beautiful, confident, seductive woman who’s made a great career for herself, but who decided on a rule of not getting emotionally attached to anyone, most likely due to the lack of love from her childhood. As a baby, she was given up for adoption, but her not-so-happy childhood made her become a woman who’s completely against the idea of a family or any kind of stability and long term commitment.

In the first part of the film we see her as a seductive woman, who plays with men and has no guilty conscience about destroying somebody’s marriage. She is determined, aware of her charms and finds pleasure in sexdates that always put her in a domineering, in control, situation. Naomi, of course, is great at playing this side of the character, combining both the flirtatious nature of Elizabeth and her coldness and distant way of treating those around her.

With one single look, she can easily turn into the bitchiest woman, yet always giving us the feeling there’s more to this character than we might’ve thought. Naomi creates her in such an interesting way, that I was constantly curious to see what’s gonna happen to Elizabeth, as I was anticipating a change in the character.

And the change does happen, as a completely unexpected pregnancy transforms Elizabeth into a totally different woman, liberating her in a way from her childhood trauma and finally giving her something/someone to love and to protect, someone who might love her unconditionally and become her reason for existing.

With great talent, Naomi makes the change completely believable and delivers an even more likeable Elizabeth. Because I don’t want to spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it, I’ll stop here with my writing. But I do have to give Naomi credit for her acting in what is by far the most touching, heartbreaking scene in a 2010 film for me: the elevator scene, with Elizabeth and a blind girl that she befriends – in a scene that lasts less than a minute, Naomi manages to gives us so much without saying a single word, making this film moment completely and undeniably heartbreaking.

Meet me there on Sunday :D

... because it's Stinkylulu's Supporting Actress Blogathon!!!

So, if there was a Supporting Actress from a 2010 film that you'd feel like promoting or write about and such, write the profile on your blog and join us at stinkylulu.blogspot.com

I'm sure many of you know about it, so this is a reminder. :)

I won't be in town, but I'll definitely post my stuff by then.

Click HERE to read all about it!

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And now for the unusual selection for a Best Supporting Actress profile… It had to be foreign-language. It had to be unique and surprising. So I’m gonna write a bit about…

Roxane Duran, as Anna in The White Ribbon

Just to get something out of the way: in my opinion, The White Ribbon has the best ensemble of the year and probably the best child performances (as a group) I have ever seen in a movie, with ages from like 5 to 14! The best performance belongs to a boy, but considering we’re here to analyze achievements in Supporting Actress, I’ll mention one of the most moving female performances of the film…

Roxane Duran plays Anna, the Doctor’s daughter, a shy teenager, whose life hides more drama that we might’ve guessed at first. Her screentime is limited and she gets most attention in 2 important scenes for the character.

The first one is a minimalistic scene, a dialogue with her 5 year old brother at the kitchen table. Someone in town had died and the child does not understand what “death” means. So he keeps asking simple questions, one after the other, provoking rational, justified responses from her sister. It’s probably the best written scene in the film, due to its simplicity and how honest it feels. Behind this innocent dialogue is the truth about life and death and how all of us are really heading the same direction!

Each question gets more difficult for Anna and we soon realize that the dialogue is digging deep into her own past, revealing her mother’s death and how this drama still has an impact on her! Roxane’s acting is simple, natural, adequate and terrific! There wasn’t a second I didn’t believe she really is this well-intentioned, insecure girl living a traumatic life. Her eyes and the line-readings really tell us the story of the scene.

The other one is the incest scene (call it a SPOILER, but it isn’t really one, as this fact has no twist value for the story and it happens somewhere in the middle of the film). It’s a short scene, focused on the young boy catching his father touching Anna. Obviously, the boy does not understand and Anna is trying to protect him by reassuring him, with her trembling voice, that everything is fine and he must go back to sleep! It’s an uncomfortable scene, well acted and respectfully shot!

The screenplay doesn’t allow us to find out what happened to Anna in the end… If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I mean. But in just a couple of scenes, Roxane Duran manages to give a very touching performance which perfectly fits this acting group of enormous talent. [unfortunately, not even imdb shows her proper respect, as she’s not even mentioned in the list of actors; too bad].

[scroll down for Marion in Public Enemies]

[this link is a part of Stinkylulu’s Supporting Actress Blogathon; to find out more about it or to participate click immediately on Stinkylulu]

This was a demanding year for Marion Cottilard! In one film, her husband made movies; in the other one, her sweetheart robbed banks! I am happy to write some words of appreciation on her second-mentioned acting challenge…

Marion Cotillard, as Billie Frechette in Public Enemies

The gangster’s/outlaw’s girl has always been a very common supporting role for actresses! She’s sexy, always a bit suffering, but loyal enough to stick with him until the very end! They are tough women, but feminine, street-smart and with a very good instinct.

Marion plays Billie, a mixed race poor girl who becomes the love interest of bank robber John Dillinger. When they meet, Billie proves to be a stubborn girl, with a mind of her own, but gradually falls for his promises of a future simple life together!

It’s not hard to tell Marion was cast because of the French accent and the exotic look the role required. She’s charming in the cheap red dress and I can truly believe their attraction, as Marion has a very good chemistry with Johnny Deep. They make a nice pair and the success of the love story helps justify some of Dillinger’s actions in the film!

Marion gives a good performance and she’s charming all the way! Her face is very expressive; those gorgeous eyes suggest both the schoolgirl madly in love with the bad boy, but also the mature woman terrified of what’s going to happen. Her presence is very reassuring and it’s always a pleasure to see her on screen, as an escape from this all-boys-movie.

The screenplay doesn’t disappoint her! Marion seals the deal in a tough interrogation scene (actually 2 scenes), which I’d call one of the best acted scenes from 2009! Aggressed and humiliated, she doesn’t surrender; her blind loyalty puts her in two opposite situations: she’s a victim of the abuse, but at the same time Billie knows she’s on the smart side and reassures the police of how stupid her arrest was! Under that vulnerability, we can feel a victory of the character, as she knows that HER man outsmarted them all!

Marion is obviously very close to perfection and has no problem in going through all those emotions previously described! Her portrayal of a strong woman put in a vulnerable situation is both reinforcing and heart-breaking!

Fabulous, Marion! It’s ridiculous how the critics and the Academy totally ignored this performance! Can’t wait to see you in Nine! :P

Special:

Penelope Cruz, in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

As I still have a couple of movies to see, I’m not sure if this is my favorite 2008 supporting actress performance. What I can say is that I had high hopes for Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of BB) or Kathy Bates (Revolutionary Road) and I was quite disappointed.
That’s why I went back to Vicky Cristina Barcelona and started to give more credit to Penelope Cruz for her much appreciated, solid, perfect fit performance as crazy Maria Elena, a hot blooded Spanish woman who’s got some… well… love issues.

It would probably be some kind of a cliché to say that it takes a European like me to really understand and connect to such a European character as Maria Elena or even with Woody’s most non-American film that VCB is. The first thing I noticed and appreciated about Penelope is how comfortable she feels with this character, how well she embraces the spirit of Maria Elena and how nice it must be to create a character so close to home (Spain) in a film that will be noticed worldwide.

Though not a leading character (she appears onscreen 50 minutes into the film), we hear about Maria Elena early on from her ex-husband Juan Antonio and we get an idea about her, a very colorful poignant perspective. Before we meet her, we already know that she stabbed him with a knife, that she’s very beautiful, strong-minded, all the fire and music that characterize a Spanish woman. All that’s left for Penelope is too live up to the expectations :) and she does…

Penelope portrays Maria Elena as a fine mixture of crazy and fragile, a free-spirited woman whose life and actions are dominated by her unfiltered instincts. Her big love story with Juan Antonio is also her biggest failure; they’re made for each other, yet there’s a missing ingredient (Cristina, as we’ll later find out) that starts up the destructive part of love.

I loved her especially in the first part, when she gets to meet Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) and to act all superior around her. The breakfast scene is very memorable; without any effort, Maria Elena manages to subtly banter Cristina and to show the audience and Juan Antonio that, despite recent frailty, she’s still got the bone to face anyone. Yet, Cristina isn’t even serious competition; Maria Elena is so bored and blasé that she can’t take her seriously.

I loved the chemistry between Penelope and Javier Bardem, nothing fake there. I liked her powerful voice when calling him by his name (JUAN ANTONIO!), her lack of hesitation when calling him a hypocrite and her naturalness with Spanish language (of course) and the way of pronouncing some English words demonstrating the unfamiliarity of the character with this language (her clumsy pronunciation of “genius”).

There’s also lots of comedy, usually coming from her direct way of speaking, without hesitating: when she simply tells Cristina How could I be sure you were not gonna hurt me? After all, I have thoughts of killing you. :))

Crazy has rarely been so much fun. Yet, the big thing with this performance is that is also has lots of heart and Penelope knows when to let the drama (the real one) come out: her last two appearances in the film are very relevant. Maria Elena is helpless when discovering again that her love story if falling down. Her desperation feels honest; fortunately, though, for the tone of the film, these moments of tension usually end in something funny or ridiculous (the gun scene).

Penelope’s Maria Elena represents both the heart and the balls of the film. Comfortable in her character, Penelope easily manages to create her 2nd best performance to date (making us forget some of her past failures) and will mark the comeback of Woody’s girls in Oscar history.