Best of 2011: My Favorite Performances

The following are my favorite performances of 2011. They are the men and women* who stood out to me, who were vital to the success of the films they were in, who I thought about weeks and months after seeing. They are presented in alphabetical order by last name except one that I have chosen as my absolute favorite of the year.

Joel Edgarton, Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte – Warrior

There is a lot to love about the rousing fight drama Warrior but its cast is especially impressive. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgarton give understated performances as estranged brothers, one an angry Iraq War veteran (Hardy); the other, a devoted father (Edgarton). Together, with Nick Nolte, who plays their recovering alcoholic father, they form a fractured – and believable – family whose complex relationships elevate the film beyond the ring.

Michael Fassbender – X-Men: First Class, A Dangerous Method

Michael Fassbender had a great year. He starred in a new Jane Eyre as Rochester, a plum role for any brooding actor, and got a lot of attention playing a sex addict in Shame (both films unseen by me). His intensity was a standout of X-Men: First Class where he played the young, Nazi-hunting Magneto, and he gave a more nuanced performance as psychologist Carl Jung in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method. I don’t doubt we will continue to see strong work from him in the future.

Ryan Gosling – Drive, The Ides of March

Speaking of great years, how about that Ryan Gosling? After the romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love, he had two killer leading roles. I wasn’t as wowed by Drive as some were but I admired Mr. Gosling’s work as the nameless protagonist whose silence hints at a deeply troubled past. And in The Ides of March, he held his own sharing scenes with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. I’d be hard pressed to name a better young star.

Jeremy Irons – Margin Call

The financial thriller Margin Call boasts an exceptional ensemble cast (including Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci) but I want to single out Jeremy Irons who plays John Tuld, the CEO of an investment firm facing certain doom. Mr. Irons has a voice well suited to villainy (his voice will still be familiar to many as that of Scar from The Lion King) but his portrayal of this cold, calculating billionaire is not one-dimensional. Tuld conveys the gravity of their dire situation without wavering from his brutal, capitalist morals, and Mr. Irons delivers some potentially heavy-handed monologues forcefully and convincingly. He is a compelling, absorbing presence in every scene.

Hunter McCracken – The Tree of Life

So few children in movies actually act like children but Hunter McCracken’s performance as Jack, the young protagonist of Terrence Malick’s cosmic opus, The Tree of Life, has astonishing depth and complexity. The film is, among other things, about a boy’s transition from carefree, childhood innocence to the emotional burdens of adulthood. Since the film has minimal dialogue, Jack does not feel like the artificial construction of a screenwriter but, rather, a living, breathing kid. He throws angry fits, is dependent on his mother’s love, and runs through the quiet, suburban streets of his home, unaware of the impossible hugeness of the universe he lives in.

Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method

Viggo Mortensen takes on the weighty role of Sigmund Freud and makes it his own with characteristic ease. His Freud is a highly intelligent man who knows full well the scope of his influence and intellect. He exacts his powerful, analytic mind not only on his patients but also his peers and even himself. He speaks with absolute certainty and clarity. This is Mr. Mortensen’s third collaboration and in each film he has turned in a strong (and very different) performance – a rural family man with a past, a Russian mobster. Few actors are so adventurous in their selection of roles and so consistent.

Christopher Plummer – Beginners

The heart of Mike Mills’s warm, autobiographical Beginners rests in Christopher Plummer’s performance as Hal, a feisty old man who responds to his cancer diagnosis with a continued, unflinching zeal for life. Having only recently come out of the closet, Hal is enjoying a newfound freedom in the lifestyle and Mr. Plummer expresses a wealth of happiness behind the smallest of smiles. The last act of life need not be a bittersweet goodbye and Hal’s optimism is contagious, both to his son, Oliver (Ewan McGregor), and to us.

John C. Reilly – Cedar Rapids, Terri, Carnage

John C. Reilly continues to prove how versatile his skills are. He is a gifted comedic actor whose lovable schmo persona was a joy to watch in Carnage, Roman Polanski’s comedy about bickering couples, and his insurance salesman with a rockstar-sized ego was a highlight of Cedar Rapids. He also gave the high school coming-of-age story Terri some laugh out loud moments as a jovial assistant principal. He is the rare actor who is as comfortable in a Will Ferrell comedy as he is in more “serious” fare, stealing scenes wherever he goes.

My Favorite Performance of the Year:

Vera Farmiga – Higher Ground

Faith is a very personal thing and though it is often celebrated in the company of others, such as in the evangelical community in Higher Ground, the process of exploring and discovering one’s faith must first happen internally. Vera Farmiga has the difficult task of playing a woman, Corinne Briggs, who wrestles with her faith, believing at first that she has found it only to question the role the Lord truly plays in her life. These are delicate feelings that are rarely displayed externally and yet, in the film, there is never a moment when we are unsure what is on Corinne’s mind. Mrs. Farmiga expresses Corinne’s hopeful optimism, her disappointment when her marriage and her church let her down, and her unflagging desire and willingness to open her heart to religion. This is a breakthrough performance from an immensely talented actress and is not to be missed.

* Looking over the eleven names above I notice there is only one woman. A sexist oversight on my part? Perhaps. Worth noting, however, is how few substantial roles there are for women in movies today. The majority of movies I saw this year were absent of female leading roles that were not romantic interests to a more heavily featured male character or sexualized. Also worth noting is that the one woman on my list, Vera Farmiga in Higher Ground, also directed the film. Whether or not women need to be behind the camera in order to get quality parts in front of it is a discussion for another time but these are issues worth thinking about.

(Two notable exceptions from this year are the box office hits Bridesmaids and The Help, both directed by men and featuring female ensembles. I wasn’t a fan of either film but in neither case do their faults lie in the acting, which is strong across the board. And I am happy the popularity of Bridesmaids may open doors for more female-centric comedies.)

- Steve Avigliano, 2/23/12

REVIEW: The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life (2011): Written and directed by Terrence Malick. Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken and Laramie Eppler. Rated PG-13 (some thematic material). Running time: 138 minutes. 

4 stars (out of four)

The Tree of Life, the latest from writer/director Terrence Malick and winner of this year’s top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, seeks to explore nothing less than the existence of God and life itself. The film makes no attempt to hide its artistic pretensions or theological overtones, but it also surprises us in its emotional directness as it follows an American family in 1950s suburbia. This is an ambitious film with great heart to complement its philosophical pondering.

In the opening scenes, we learn about the death of one of the family’s three sons. He was a soldier and has died in battle. Filled with grief, his mother (Jessica Chastain) prays and asks the ever-vexing question, “Why, Lord?”

In an attempt to answer that question, the film takes us back to the beginning of time and we witness the origins of life. As Malick shows us celestial wonders and the development of the first single cell organisms, one might be reminded of the gradual pacing of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. Indeed, the structure and approach of Malick’s film resembles 2001 in several ways. Both films begin their narratives in prehistoric times and end on decidedly abstract notes. Much like 2001, The Tree of Life contemplates the cosmos in an attempt to understand man’s place in the infinitude.

This portion of the film may get too abstract for some, but the patient viewer will find a wealth of genuinely human moments on the other side of the film’s ambitious prologue. Malick always returns to the humanity of his characters, symbolic though they may be. We see the fragmented memories of an infant, Jack, who grows into an adolescent (Hunter McCracken) and later an adult (Sean Penn) in the present day. As Jack ages, the film’s scenes become longer and gradually, a narrative forms. We learn about Jack’s contempt for his strict and authoritarian father (Brad Pitt), and the jealousy he feels toward his artistically gifted younger brother (Laramie Eppler). These relationships are not revealed in grand, dramatic scenes but through more intimate, familial moments – a conversation at the dinner table, a trip into town.

There is more, but the narrative defies summarization, itself trying to summarize the total experience of life. The film is fascinated by the impossibly large as it meditates on life, the universe and everything, but also takes the time to focus in on the smallest of details.

Each of these details are captured beautifully by Malick and his director of photography, Emmanuel Lubezki. Malick and Lubezki highlight the beauty of the natural world and find similar marvels in our man-made surroundings. The sun peeks through countless shots as the camera continuously moves upward, sky bound. Like the film’s characters, the camera is always looking to the heavens for an answer.

Structurally, the film does not unfold in scenes as much as interwoven moments that are connected by images and ideas rather than plot. Select shots remind us of others that came earlier and Malick invites us to consider all of the previous moments as new ones occur. Pulling these separate moments together, Malick creates a tapestry of life that occasionally drifts through dreams and fantasies with poetic vigor.

The performances in Tree of Life are uniformly strong which is impressive since Malick’s primary focus here is not on acting. Pitt, Chastain, and first-time actors McCracken and Eppler give their characters depth, conveying a great deal through subtle expressions and mannerisms. Many of the film’s major turning points hinge on nuances in the actors’ performances and yet the film never calls attention to the acting. Malick creates the illusion of dropping in on private moments.

At one point in the film, Jack does the same, watching a domestic quarrel through the window of a neighbor’s house, a self-referential moment that provides a key to understanding the film. We catch intimate glimpses of this one family only to find details that recall our own lives. The film captures people during the self-discovery of their humanity and watches as they find those discoveries alternately thrilling and terrifying.

The Tree of Life is a lyrical film that has the ambition and emotional richness of a great novel. It asks the Big Questions: How can God allow for suffering to exist alongside life’s beauties? To what degree should love and faith guide our lives? For what purpose were we created? In short, “Why, Lord?”

- Steve Avigliano, 6/15/11