Have you ever watched a movie and then read or heard about a certain performance being raved about and thought "Did they watch the same movie I did because they don't know what they're talking about." Well what I want to talk about is both performances I think were overrated and underrated or even missed completely.
I'll start out with overrated and let's start with the obvious Sandra Bullock, I mean, come on, anyone who believes she deserved the Oscar for this performance, we can agree to disagree because this was not the best performance. In fact I shouldn't even be discussing this because it shouldn't have even been nominated, that nomination should have went to Mélanie Laurent from Inglorious Basterds. Watching that scene where she's at the restaurant sharing desert with the man responsible for killing her family and seeing both the disgust and fear of being discovered by this man was incredible. It's performances like these that add to a movie and I didn't see any performances like this in The Blind Side, in fact I can honestly say Sandra's performance in this movie is one I seen by her in most of her movies. Her role in Crash even as small as it was, was a revelation because it was something I haven't seen from her and it felt honest and true.
Anna Kendrick is another one whom I thought was given way too much credit for her role in The Air Up There. She was good but I don't feel her performance deserved the praise it got nor the nomination she got. I don't feel that she added anything more to the movie, in fact I would have given her nomination to and this might surprise people, Mariah Carey. Mariah's Performance in Precious was subtle yet powerful and added to the movie and I can't say the same about Anna's performance which to me could have been played by anyone else. What make Mariah's performance so shocking is look who we're talking about Mariah Carey!
One performance that I don't think gets enough praise is Hilary Swank in Insomnia, it is subtle yet strong and without her performance I don't think the film would be nearly as good. Her hero worship of Al Pacino's character and the discovery of his duplicity and how she chooses to honor him because in the end he's just a man is great stuff.
Noah Taylor is another who wasn't given his just due in the movie Shine, unfortunately Geoffrey Rush gets all the credit because he won the Oscar but it's Noah who did all the hard work. It's watching Noah go from a promising prodigy and that dissent into madness that is incredible stuff.
Heath Ledger in Monster's Ball is another performance that stands out, although small it showed the promise of an up and coming actor at the time. You watch that performance of a young man trying to get the love and respect of his father and the unfortunate outcome, great actor, he's definitely missed.
I could go on about over and under appreciated performances and maybe I will some other time but maybe I given you something to think about for now.
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