Best Actress 1996
Winner: Frances McDormand, Fargo
Nominees: Brenda Blethyn, Secrets & Lies
Diane Keaton, Marvin's Room
Kristin Scott Thomas, The English Patient
Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves

The Field: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★


Ranking Oscar's Ballot
 
 My Pick:
Frances McDormand, Fargo ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

From There:
Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Brenda Blethyn, Secrets & Lies ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Kristin Scott Thomas, The English Patient ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Diane Keaton, Marvin's Room ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I would love to love this performance. Compared to all of the other turns for which Keaton has been nominated, her ruefully daffy neurotic and her radicalized writer and her bemused playwright, her Bessie is restrained and delicate, probably the actress's most muted creation in a career of under-acknowledged range. Keaton also holds heroically to her directness and restraint while the rest of the film pulls its levers and thumbs its buttons embarrassingly hard. She doesn't get in a twist playing a Normal Gal the way Meryl Streep does, and she calms Leonardo DiCaprio from his frenetic audition to be Hollywood's next wild rebel. She reads playwright-screenwriter Scott McPherson's blatant foreshadowing and contrived scenarios as though Bessie is just a woman talking, and she genuinely seems warmed and excited to spend time on screen with some kids. But there is only so much safeguarding and bulwarking an actress can do against the fundamental mediocrity of her material, and Bessie doesn't run deep or stretch very far. Keaton's soft voice and fragile face are always most interesting when she's playing a character confronted with prodigious self-discoveries, who's being tested against something big: the mob, divorce, the world, her own limitations and frustrations, her neuroses, trying to love Woody Allen or be loved by him or solve murders with him. Bessie already knows who she is through most of Marvin's Room—she knew it long ago—and though Keaton finds some quiet revelations for Bessie, she's a little helpless to make her genuinely interesting. Rightly perceiving that candor and simplicity will be the most revealing, surprising choice in the bulk of her scenes, she consequently foregoes opportunities where a little drama might have helped. But Keaton does succeed at making Bessie appealing, and mostly believable—more so, at least, than almost any equally famous performer would have managed. I love that Streep insisted on Keaton's casting as a condition for making the film, and I wonder why she didn't (or couldn't?) follow her down the same path of subtle control. And I love that Keaton can push her way through an awfully written monologue about a tragic boyfriend, heading right into That Scene where she takes off the wig she bought when she started chemotherapy, and she keeps Bessie a character, not just a series of beats. Marvin's Room doesn't allow for more than modest achievements, but Keaton, at least, doesn't allow anything less. (Recasting idea: wouldn't Sissy Spacek have been a peach here, and wouldn't you have loved to see Keaton swapped into In the Bedroom?)

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


My Favorites from 1996:
(As determined by years of Oscar eligibility)

My Pick: Frances McDormand, Fargo
Nominees: Brenda Blethyn, Secrets & Lies
Nominees: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Secrets & Lies
Nominees: Nicole Kidman, The Portrait of a Lady
Nominees: Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves

Honorable Mentions: Kristin Scott Thomas, The English Patient; Gina Gershon, Bound; Kate Winslet, Jude; Theresa Randle, Girl 6; Lili Taylor, I Shot Andy Warhol; Marisa Paredes, The Flower of My Secret; Heather Matarazzo, Welcome to the Dollhouse; Juliette Binoche, The English Patient; Catherine Keener, Walking and Talking; Anne Heche, Walking and Talking; Laura Dern, Citizen Ruth; Courtney Love, The People vs. Larry Flynt; Diane Keaton, Marvin's Room; Amanda Plummer, Butterfly Kiss; Gena Rowlands, Unhook the Stars; Gwyneth Paltrow, Emma


Gourmet Prospects: Maria Conchita Alonso, Caught; Emmanuelle Béart, Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud; Sandrine Bonnaire, La Cérémonie; Catherine Deneuve, Ma saison préférée; Makiko Esumi, Maborosi; Isabelle Huppert, La Cérémonie; Gena Rowlands, The Neon Bible

Further Research: Victoria Abril, French Twist; Fanny Ardant, Ridicule; Josiane Balasko, French Twist; Geena Davis, The Long Kiss Goodnight; Illeanna Douglas, Grace of My Heart; Fionnula Flanagan, Some Mother's Son; Whoopi Goldberg, The Associate; Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie; Le Van Loc, Cyclo; Catherine McCormack, Loaded; Helen Mirren, Some Mother's Son; Anna Paquin, Fly Away Home; Rene Russo, Tin Cup; Sharon Stone, Last Dance; Meryl Streep, Before and After; Imogen Stubbs, Twelfth Night; Reese Witherspoon, Freeway; Karen Young, The Wife

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