Best Actor 2005

1998 through 2007

Best Actor 2005

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
5
14%
Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow
0
No votes
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
24
65%
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
0
No votes
David Straitharn, Good Night, and Good Luck
8
22%
 
Total votes: 37

FilmFan720
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by FilmFan720 »

One performance I haven't seen anyone bandy about here yet is Daniel Auteuil in Cache, and of course this list looks ridiculous without Bruno Ganz in Downfall.

As for the nominees, I agree with most of what has been said here. I think this is easily the best slate of my Oscar-viewing days. Terrence Howard is the weak link, and yet I am not unhappy at all with his nomination.

Joaquain Phoenix gives one of the best musical biopic performances I have seen, capturing the exterior of the character flawlessly and also manages to work an interior of the character in there. A lot of actors could take that lesson.

I would have nominated Heath Ledger, yet I am not as head over heels for the performance as everyone else here is. It is powerful, and you certainly see the blossoming of a great career here. However, I have always felt like he is trying a little too in the film, and there is a little too much gear turning for me. The way that he clenches his lips, as if that is the way that he shows us he is guarded, forces the issue a little too much.

So, it is down to the other two pitch-perfect real people performances. As much as I love David Straitharn, I am going to go against the board grain and vote for Hoffman here. He is one of my favorite actors, and I think this is a real triumphant performance. He may not capture Capote perfectly on the exterior, and he may not be as charismatic as the real Capote was, but he does exactly what the film calls for and gives his Capote a heart and soul that might be lost if he had gone more straightforward in the imitation category. I eagerly vote for the real winner here, my Damienite card be damned.
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ksrymy
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by ksrymy »

1. David Strathairn - Good Night, and Good Luck
2. Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
3. Tony Leung - 2046
4. Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line
5. Bruno Ganz - Downfall
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Reza
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Reza »

My picks for 2005:

Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Bruno Ganz, Downfall
Ralph Fiennes, The Constant Gardener
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line

The 6th Spot: Viggo Mortensen, A History of Violence
Uri
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Uri »

Ahm.

I couldn't agree with you more as far as your first paragraph goes, couldn't agree with you less when it comes to the second one. Many years ago there was this theatre in Tel Aviv where during the weekend they used to screen a different movie every couple of hours. One time I took a group of people to see DL and V back to back as a kind of a speed course in what a cinematic interpretation is. We all preferred Frears' though, brittle approach to Forman's mellow, forgiving and wrongly humanistic one.
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Big Magilla »

Uri wrote:I preferred Capote to Infamous. The real Capote is not imprinted in my consciousness – I off course know about him and read some of his books but not being an American I didn't see him regularly on tv or read about him in magazines, so, watching these films, I didn't have an image of him, his exact physicality, his unique speak pattern, imprinted in me to use as a benchmark, and I guess it made it easier for me to accept Hoffman's performance for what it was – an intelligent study of the complex process of writing a seminal literary piece. His characterization stand on its own as as a fine piece of acting.
I guess you've never seen Murder by Death either. Toby Jones does the better impersonation in Infamous, but Capote is the better film overall. I found all those famous actors/actresses in cameos in Infamous to be a distraction and although Sandra Bullock makes an impressive Harper Lee, so does Catherine Keener in Capote. Capote also has a couple of sterling supporting performers in Clifton Collins, Jr. as Perry Smith and Chris Cooper as Alvin Dewey. I found Daniel Craig as Perry Smith in Infamous to be all wrong for the part and although Infamous has the usually good Jeff Daniels as Dewey, he doesn't hold a candle to Cooper.

You have to go back to 1988/89 to find something similar with Dangerous Liaisons/Valmont. The one that came frist got all the awards while the one that came later got lost in the shuffle. Still, for many who have seen it, Colin Firth and Annette Bening are better in Valmont than John Malkovich and Glenn Close were in Liaisons and Meg Tilly is just as good as Michelle Pfeiffer. Henry Thomas, though he never again attained the heights of his E.T. breakout, acted circles around Keanu Reeves.
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Cinemanolis »

1. Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
2. Romain Duris - The Beat that My Heart Skipped
3. Damien Lewis - Keane
4. Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line
5. David Strathairn - Goodnight. and Good Luck
6. Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Uri »

This is really a year they should have gone with ten nominees for best actor and none for best actress. And still have two winners. It's between Ledger and Strathairn. Both are superlatively good, one in a raw, emotionally exposed turn, the other in a very measured, exact study which managed to convey, beyond being a perfect tribute to a very well known public persona, a sense of a full rounded human being without having any "personal" stuff to work with. Not an easy choice, but probably based on career points(if only for the Sayles stuff), I'm going with Strathairn.

Ok, for the record I must state that there is a possibility I may change my mind once I see Howard – the only nominated performance I haven't seen in this category in many years – it was never shown here theatrically and if it was on any of the film channels it must have been ignored for being conceived as a dismissable programmer.

I preferred Capote to Infamous. The real Capote is not imprinted in my consciousness – I off course know about him and read some of his books but not being an American I didn't see him regularly on tv or read about him in magazines, so, watching these films, I didn't have an image of him, his exact physicality, his unique speak pattern, imprinted in me to use as a benchmark, and I guess it made it easier for me to accept Hoffman's performance for what it was – an intelligent study of the complex process of writing a seminal literary piece. His characterization stand on its own as as a fine piece of acting.

The same can be said about Phoenix – it's a good, well defined realization of a written role and on top of it there's the bonus of being able, as a spectators, to suspend our disbelief and accept him as Cash in the context of the film.

Still I'm not sure I'd put both of them on my list. I may be of a minority opinion, but I found Gyllenhall to be finely complementing Ledger and he deserve a recognition, as lead, alongside him. I'm afraid my seasonal crash with Bill Murray is not quite over yet – I loved Broken Flowers and his turn in it may be his finest ever. And I'll add Damian Lewis to the mix for his hard to watch turn in Keane. And Daniels happens to be my personal choice as best supporting actor of this year.
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by MovieFan »

Heath Ledger- Brokeback Mountain, in my opinion this is the only Oscar he ever deserved, moreso than his overrated work in The Dark Knight

Hoffman was really great in Capote, but as an actor he often leaves me cold
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Damien »

There were 4 excellent nominees here. Of course, the Academy (like their dunderheaded brethren in most critics groups) gave its award to the one unconvincing schmoe in the group.

To see how off Hoffman's performance is, one just has to compare it to Toby Jones's marvelous work a year later in Infamous in which he transformed himself into Truman Capote. The lumbering Hoffman does nothing more than give a none-too-convincing impression of the writer/bon vivant, the kind of thing lots of comedians/impersonators did the 1970s. Hoffman gets the voice down well enough, as well as some of the mannerisms, but what he misses is the charm of the real Capote and his charisma, too. And without those qualities, his acceptance by the denizens of the Kansas heartland in the film is utterly unconvincing. One of the Academy's stupider choices and all the more infuriating because of the quality of the competition.

The best of the nominees is David Strathairn. Always a wonderful actor, he is simply amazing to me as Edward R. Murrow. It's an beautifully understated performance and I can't think of another performance in which so much was expressed through an actor's eyes. He IS Edward R. Murrow.

River Phoenix doesn't "become" Johnny Cash the way that Toby Jones and Edward R. Murrow were their respective real-life characters because he most impressively captures the essence and the spirit of the singer. Best of all, he truly conveys of love of performing.

Heath Ledger, a chameleon of an actor, beautifully conveys the deep feelings of an inarticulate man in Brokeback Mountain. A lovely performance, although my favorite performance of his is in Lords of Dogtown.

Terrence Howard is spot on as a pimp, but, ultimately, neither he nor director Craig Brewer can make you care about the amoral character. I would have preferred Howard to receive a Supporting nomination for Crash. His performance in that film is one of the reasons I don't seem to hate the Best Picture winner as most people here seem to.

In a just Oscar universe, Straithairn, Phoenix and Ledger would have given these performances in different separate years and each would have won. In my world, though, the 2005 Best Actor Academy Award goes to David Strathairn.

My Own Top 5:
1. David Strathairn in Goodnight, And Good Luck
2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Mysterious Skin
3. Ralph Fiennes in The Constant Gardener
4. Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line
5. Tony Leung in 2046
Last edited by Damien on Thu Oct 20, 2011 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jim20
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Jim20 »

Off my 2005 Shouldabeens...

ACTOR
Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale
Bruno Ganz, Downfall
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
**Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain**
David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck

In retrospect, Ganz' nomination should be in 2004, given Downfall's release in Germany in September 2004, but ah, screw it, in this case, I'll go off the U.S. release.

Ledger wins this race, with Strathairn close behind.
The Original BJ
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by The Original BJ »

Mister Tee wrote:Well, BJ, I'd say we did a pretty impressive mind-meld there.
It's kind of astonishing how often we're in utter agreement on basically everything.
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Mister Tee »

Well, BJ, I'd say we did a pretty impressive mind-meld there.
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Mister Tee »

Joseph Gordon-Levitt rates as my most-missed here; a really strong performance in one of the best, most under-rated movies of a weak year. Also would have loved to have seen Viggo Mortensen in there, for a better film and performance than what got him listed two years later. I was thrilled the voters got sick of Russell Crowe soon enough to deny him mention for that piece of cheese. I also don't much lament the absence of Jeff Daniels -- I like him as an actor alot, but I thought his father role was too ungenerously written by Baumbach for him to create a full human being.

Of the nominees: I can't say Terence Howard all that much impressed me, then or since. The movie is pleasantly entertaining enough, but quite second-tier, and I didn't get anything wildly special from Howard.

I, too, like Philip Seymour Hoffman more than aggregate opinion here would dictate, but I don't find this one of his better performances -- let alone the be-all/end-all that the critics' groups decreed. Toby Jones in the far more enjoyable Infamous didn't give a great performance either, but at least with him it seemed a role for which he was suited. With Hoffman, all you can really think about is how he's straining to overcome essential mis-casting -- and that effort was what most seemed to single out as Truly Great Acting. I far prefer Hoffman's work in many supporting roles prior to this, and his subsequent lead in The Savages.

Joaquin Phoenix is perfectly fine in Walk the Line -- in a lesser year, he'd obviously have been a candidate to win. But, especially in the wake of Ray the year earlier, neither the voters nor I were in the mood for another bio-impersonation in the category. And I don't think Phoenix brings any extra special touch, the way (for me) Witherspoon does to June Carter.

Heath Ledger obviously had it in him to be a great actor -- even in Monster's Ball he was a standout -- and I have little doubt many here will vote for his beautifully restrained performance, the heart of Brokeback Mountain. Knowing of his tragic end, there's an even greater after-the-fact impulse to vote for him. But I thought he ran second back in '05/'06, and that's where he remains, behind...

...David Strathairn, a wonderful actor who'd for years been providing the real performances that propped up lesser talents (like, for egregious instance, Tom Cruise in The Firm), and now finally got a role worthy of his great talents. Strathairn captures all of the on-screen Murrow I remember -- the terseness, the sense of command and purpose -- and also shows us the godawful tensions he was dealing with just below surface. His McCarthy broadcast commentary was the absolute pinnacle: confined by all journalistic convention, but letting us see the full moral outrage at what his fellow citizens were allowing. My theatre burst into applause at the end of that scene. Voting for Strathairn here is my way of endorsing what that audience did. Tight choice, but Strathairn carries the day.
The Original BJ
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by The Original BJ »

Here's where I start to really remember where everyone stands on the nominees.

This was a good field, particularly given what we were spared (i.e. Russell Crowe). But I can't say I adore all the candidates across the board like I did in '02. Among also-rans, I'd cite the decades-spanning (and probably ineligible) Luigi Lo Cascio performance in The Best of Youth. Among eligible players, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was mesmerizing in Mysterious Skin, and Viggo Mortensen's work this year was far more memorable than the performance that finally did bring him a Best Actor nomination. And, if you're going to nominate Jake Gyllenhaal...you don't pull that supporting nonsense.

I'd liked Philip Seymour Hoffman a lot as a character actor throughout the years, and I was prepared to be enthusiastic about his much-praised Capote performance. But I didn't think he captured what I've seen of Truman Capote at all. Toby Jones completely blew him out of the water a year later, capturing what made Capote's eccentrities (and humor) accessible to people; Hoffman, while commanding, mostly plays up the grotesque aspects of the man, which I didn't find as appealing. Basically this felt to me like another Jamie Foxx -- I can see why many were genuinely impressed, but I don't understand how either were such runaway favorites in two pretty strong years for leading men.

I remember thinking that Terrence Howard stood a better chance in support for Crash, but felt that if he were to receive one nomination, Hustle & Flow would be more deserving. I thought he was entertaining in this role, and anchors his film with grit and humor. The material is fairly generic, but he (as well as the rest of the cast) enliven it. At the end of the day, though, I don't think his film or performance are major enough to honor with this prize.

An actor playing Johnny Cash was never going to excite the crowd that views mimicry as the highest form of acting like Foxx did in Ray. But Joaquin Phoenix does some things substantially better. For starters, he actually sings those famous songs, and pretty well, too. And his performance feels far more lived-in, like an actual flesh-and-bones embodiment of the man and his demons. Walk the Line is also a better movie than Ray, partly because of the emotional dynamic of the Johnny-June romance. But it's not SO much better, and Phoenix never reaches greatness for me. Plus, I'm not one of those people who think it's ridiculous to honor Witherspoon but not Phoenix -- she stole the movie from him, in my opinion.

There are two great performances on this ballot, and one of them is Heath Ledger's. At the time, it seemed so impressive that this young actor could turn out such a finely controlled, deeply felt performance, and I know I imagined seeing many more Best Actor nominations from him in the future. Alas, the world had other plans for him. But I'm grateful we still have THIS performance, one that earned deserved comparisons to young Brando for its brooding intensity and naturalism. I haven't seen Brokeback Mountain since the actor's death, and I imagine that this already heartbreaking performance might seem that much sadder knowing what would be in store for the actor just ahead.

But, I'm still going to stand by my choice at the time, which was David Strathairn. Those close-ups in Good Night, and Good Luck are extraordinary, giving the actor tremendous opportunity to showcase his great, expressive face and those electrifying eyes. The actor's wonderful voice is also put to great use in one commanding speech after the other. And he conveys his character's moral quandary -- how to present fair and balanced news when your story is, by its very nature, unbalanced -- in an intelligent, delicate manner. Good Night, and Good Luck is a very quiet movie, but Strathairn's acting -- especially in those few scenes with Frank Langella -- has real weight to it. I'd love to see him get another showcase role again, even in support, where an Oscar win would be far likelier. For now, I'm happy to endorse him here.
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Re: Best Actor 2005

Post by Big Magilla »

Heath Ledger with David Srathairn a distant second, followed by Joaquin Phoenux and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but it should have been tougher out there for a pimp with Ralph Fiennes (The Consant Gardener) securing the fifth spot over Terrence Howard.
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