Best Actress 1992
Winner: Emma Thompson, Howards End
Nominees: Catherine Deneuve, Indochine
Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish
Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field
Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo's Oil

The Field: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★


Ranking Oscar's Ballot
 
 My Pick:
Emma Thompson, Howards End ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

From There:
Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In a zesty, acerbic, but fully credible turnaround from her previously nominated role as Kevin Costner's hearth-tender in Dances with Wolves, Mary McDonnell plays the smart-ass frustration and furious exhaustion of being stuck in a wheelchair while side-stepping entirely the pathos of her character's paralysis. Accepting the script's dictum that May Alice is a "bitch on wheels," but maintaining, too, that everybody has their reasons, McDonnell also manages to score with a whole sling of nasty one-liners without just recycling Margo Channing clichés about the boozy dragon-lady actress. In fact, one never fully accepts May Alice as a daytime TV star, both because writer-director John Sayles doesn't seem so sure-footed in writing the scenes around her erstwhile vocation, and because McDonnell makes May Alice such a fully and proudly real woman that it's hard to imagine her curbing or quieting herself in service of a character. When she alludes to having played Cordelia, we just don't buy it (though she might have made a hell of a Goneril or Regan). Hemmed in slightly by Sayles' own prosaic rhythms, the performance is nonetheless superbly lived-in and charismatic, intelligent and sexy in very distinctive ways without letting us forget that May Alice is more fun to watch than she would be to live with. When McDonnell plays ambiguity, as when she leaves us guessing whether May Alice will finally seduce a married friend (played superbly by David Strathairn), she doesn't get blurry or evasive, slipping behind a cloud of far-off looks. Instead, she shows us a single, practical woman thinking many contradictory thoughts at the same time. Cinema should lead us inside the minds of such vivid, smart, unpredictable women more often—and with Alfre Woodard's complementary performance as Chantelle, Passion Fish does it twice.

Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo's Oil ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Catherine Deneuve, Indochine ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Who gets your vote in this field, and on my dream ballot below? VOTE HERE!


My Favorites from 1992:
(As determined by years of Oscar eligibility)

My Pick: Emma Thompson, Howards End
Nominees: Cora Lee Day, Daughters of the Dust
Nominees: Mia Farrow, Husbands and Wives
Nominees: Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish
Nominees: Tilda Swinton, Edward II

Honorable Mentions: Gong Li, Raise the Red Lantern; Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct; Alfre Woodard, Passion Fish; Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act; Michelle Pfeiffer, Love Field; Sigourney Weaver, Alien³; Thandie Newton, Flirting; Susan Sarandon, Lorenzo's Oil; Catherine Deneuve, Indochine


Gourmet Prospects: Brooke Adams, Gas Food Lodging; Pernilla August, The Best Intentions; Fairuza Balk, Gas Food Lodging; Karen Sillas, Simple Men

Further Research: Sarita Choudhury, Mississippi Masala; Geena Davis, A League of Their Own; Rebecca De Mornay, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle; Arsinée Khanjian, The Adjuster; Jessica Lange, Night and the City; Sheryl Lee, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me; Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female; Shirley MacLaine, Used People; Helen Mirren, Where Angels Fear to Tread; Dolly Parton, Straight Talk; Ione Skye, Gas Food Lodging; Anne Teyssèdre, A Tale of Springtime; Cynda Williams, One False Move; N'Bushe Wright, Zebrahead

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