Big Magilla wrote:Winslet may have had more screen time than David Kross and Ralph Fiennes but Kross and Fiennes shared the lead character. She was my choice for Best Supporting Actress that year while Streep was my choice for Best Actress.
Winslet was much better that year in Revolutionary Road for which she should have won instead.
Was hoping she would win both categories like at the Globes.
I would not have nominated Winslet, but I do think she's lead. That movie is all about the relationship between Michael and Hanna; there's literally no movie without it, and while Michael is the bigger role, Hanna is in it enough and gets plenty of narrative focus to be considered a lead.
I would say that the others are all supporting, to the detriment of the film in the case of Hoffman whose character needed to be more of an equal with Streep's in order to keep that film in balance.
Winslet may have had more screen time than David Kross and Ralph Fiennes but Kross and Fiennes shared the lead character. She was my choice for Best Supporting Actress that year while Streep was my choice for Best Actress.
I haven't seen The Reader since its release but I think our feeling at the time leading through Oscar season was that Kate Winslet was slumming it in support to better have a chance at winning and there was something cynical about her positioning. But then that didn't happen. Whatever contingency of Oscar voters who pushed The Reader into the Best Picture lineup (and Directors) paid no heed to the campaign and locked her in for Best Actress. I still find this surprising because (unless I'm mistaken) not only did Kate Winslet get more votes for Best Actress than Best Supporting Actress for The Reader and place higher among the other potential nominees that year, but she also had to get more Best Actress votes for The Reader while splitting her own vote for those voting for her for Best Supporting Actress but she also had to get more votes for Best Actress than for her own performance in Revolutionary Road. This leads me to think that truly, she was competing against herself that year across the board. While 2008 was a pretty solid year in both categories, it's not inconceivable that a lot of other contenders that year for Best Actress were met by apathetic or divisive responses, including her Revolutionary Road turn.
But I digress. Was she properly categorized as a lead? She was on-screen for only 33.85% of the time in The Reader. That's reasonably borderline. Critics and awards groups were pretty split on her categorization between Best Actress and Supporting Actress. I think working against her placement as lead is the nature of her role. As I said, I don't remember everything about the film, but she largely exists in the film as a memory (also true of her Eternal Sunshine... performance). We are watching the perception of her by David Kross' character. But that perception largely *IS* the movie which also makes her the romantic lead in the film. I think another reason why she could be considered the lead in The Reader is that David Kross is such a recessive performer (he didn't go onto much of a career here) whereas Kate Winslet has movie star presence that dominates every minute of the film. I think those qualities warrant categorization as a lead where she won.
Something similar happened to me when I was initially assessing The Dark Knight back in 2008. I thought Heath Ledger might warrant categorization as a leading performer. He just sends an electroshock through the film that it made me think he was in the film longer than he was when in fact he is only on-screen for 21.85% of the film. And yet, he feels like he's on-screen for so much longer because so much of the film revolves around reacting to his plans. Also impacting my assessment at the time is the curious case of Christian Bale as the lead of the film. Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is so secondary to the plot and his Batman so uninteresting that someone like Ledger can't help but feel like the dominant presence. I think the minimal supporting time qualifies Ledger as supporting.
Finally another film I've seen once. What do we think of Doubt? Meryl Streep is on-screen for 49.73% of Doubt. Philip Seymour Hoffman is there for 38.35% of the time while Amy Adams is on-screen for 35.47%. The A Plot concerns the Streep characters convictions as does Philip Seymour Hoffman. Amy Adams exhibits more the B Plot, serving as an audience surrogate of uncertainty, and carrying out subplots that demonstrate the ripple effects of the A Plot. I don't think anyone would consider her a lead but I wanted to give the opportunity But what about Philip Seymour Hoffman? As a play, I wouldn't have any... waffling (to just use another word) that he would be considered co-lead. But movies are a different story. I don't recall much by way of inner life by his character. His actions are meant to be intentionally a mystery until the end.
I would need another viewing to say for certain but for now I think I'll vote Support but only lightly so. It might be substantial enough a role to consider lead but Streep is so much more clearly the lead, but I'm pretty swayable if anyone has a better memory of the film. Also, I think it's clear that were he campaigned as lead, the likely beneficiary of his spot for Supporting Actor would be an even bigger offense: Dev Patel in Slumdog Millionaire.
