I had two main upsets when the Oscar winners were announced, however neither of them were ‘This person/film shouldn’t have won because they were terrible’. As I said last night, I really enjoyed Brave, but simply thought that better films were nominated. And it’s the same with my second, possibly more upsetting upset.
I don’t think Jennifer Lawrence should have won.
Yes, I’m going after the current ‘It-girl’ of the moment and yes, I’m going after someone who I think is quite talented. As with Brave, there were just better contenders in that category that deserved it more. Well, let’s be fair, contender. Emmanuelle Riva’s subtle performance in Amour was definitely worth note, with some incredibly emotional scenes hinging on her; and Quvenzhane Wallis (the greatest Scrabble move ever) was outstandingly powerful considering her age – it could have easily gone wrong, but Wallis carried Beasts of the Southern Wild all on her own. I didn’t get to see Naomi Watts’ performance in The Impossible, so I am unable to comment.
So, by process of elimination, the final two contenders are Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain, and while Lawrence took home the trophy, Chastain deserved something to place on her mantlepiece. Don’t get me wrong, I thought that Lawrence was superb and her turn in Silver Linings Playbook was worthy of the award, but Chastain’s intense and strong performance in Zero Dark Thirty was nothing short of miraculous to watch. My brother always talks about seeing the connection in someone’s eyes when they act, but of Chastain, all he had to say was ‘She wasn’t acting’.
Chastain has exploded onto our screens in the past two years and is obviously an intensely hard working actress, not to mention wildly talented. She was excellent in her nominated performance from The Help, and played a completely different character to her nominated role this year, flawlessly, I might add.
Lawrence did give a fantastic performance, I shall say that, but Chastain was just… better. That said, I feel that – like Brave‘s victory – the win was political. Lawrence was getting the media attention and was being hyped up like you would never believe, while Zero Dark Thirty suffered from unwanted and unnecessary controversy, and it did lose a lot of favour with the public, whereas Silver Linings was more accessible to more people. That’s what I think it comes down to – Lawrence’s performance was less controversial and less challenging (not to say that it wasn’t challenging, it’s just that she was dancing with Bradley Cooper while Chastain was hunting Bin Laden. There’s a bit of a difference) to the public, and therefore the voters.
I think that Zero Dark Thirty was quite heavily overlooked when it came to handing out the awards, but the Academy seemed to shy away from the controversy surrounding the film, that had nothing to do with the quality of the film in itself. It had flaws, yes, but every film does, and at least Zero Dark Thirty tried to challenge itself and the cinema goers. The torture scenes were absolutely brutal, as they needed to be! Not only did it need to be to engage with the audience emotionally, but the vast difference in the torture (which didn’t work) and the kindness (which eventually did work) needed to be very obviously and clearly demonstrated. Which is was. However, the controversy stemmed from people watching the beginning of the film, knowing that Bin Laden died at the end (oh, spoiler or whatever) and thinking the two were directly linked, without really listening or watching the film… Anyway, I digress…
Chastain was robbed, but at least she was robbed by someone who had the decency to deliver a pretty fantastic performance. That said, Chastain has had two nominations in two years – at the rate she’s going, they’re just going to keep nominating her each and every year until she’s finally handed that golden statue.
Crazy is Perfect 