Brace for a close Best Actress Oscar race
Sally Hawkins in the Guillermo del Toro standout, The Shape of Water.
AS AWARDS season drew ever nearer, the most exciting Best Actress race in years was manifesting before the eyes of critics and industry folk gathered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Following their initial screenings, films boasting two immensely different yet equally towering performances were on everybody’s lips – Frances McDormand for her no-nonsense role in In Bruges director Michael McDonagh’s black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and the star of Guillermo del Toro’s standout The Shape of Water, Sally Hawkins.
McDormand plays the steely Mildred Hayes in one of those galvanising roles that causes viewers to rub their hands together in glee. Hawkins turns in an astonishing turn playing the mute Elisa Esposito, communicating her way through Del Toro’s fantasy tale using sign language.
Both performances will be bandied about come next February – nominations are all but guaranteed – aided by the fact the films surrounding them are, simply put, show-stoppers, with Del Toro providing his best film since Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
A few days into the festival, however, another actress entered the race in a rather unheralded yet unsurprising fashion: Jessica Chastain, who stars in Aaron Sorkin’s verywordy directorial debut Molly’s Game, a memoir adaptation recounting the story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic skier who became investigated by the FBI after running her own poker empire. Chastain is an actress long overdue an Oscar win and in Molly’s Game, she builds on the powerhouse performance she gave in the underrated Miss Sloane to deliver perhaps her best one yet.
Margot Robbie has been gathering chatter for her role as figure skater Tonya Harding in biopic I, Tonya ever since her transformation was revealed. While the end product – directed by Craig Gillespie – may be an illuminating, entertaining if overly unremarkable effort, it screams out to be a film in which the central performance elevates its staying power; a nomination for Robbie is inevitable.
Another unremarkable film based on an incredible story comprised of worthy performances is Battle of the Sexes which charts the story of tennis champion Billie Jean King’s nationally-televised exhibition match opposite self-confessed chauvinist Bobby Riggs in 1973. Reigning Best Actress victor Emma Stone stars as King, not so much transforming her appearance as going a tiny bit further out of her comfort zone. It’s the kind of performance that’ll tickle the appreciation of Academy members and a film that’ll gather awards steam.
Hostiles is the new film from Scott Cooper, who directed Jeff Bridges to a deserved Best Actor win for Crazy Heart in 2009. The female lead is Rosamund Pike in a performance that proves her astonishing turn in Gone Girl was no fluke. Frustratingly, the film is yet to acquire distribution, so it’s looking like Pike will miss out on the race this time around.
Two actresses who found themselves talk of the festival were Saoirse Ronan – for her lead role in Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut Lady Bird (one of the toughest screenings to get into at TIFF), and Edie Falco, who had key roles in not one but two independent films: Lynn Shelton’s bittersweet drama Outside In and I Love You, Daddy, the “secret” film from comedian Louis CK, in which she steals scenes as his protagonist Glenn Topher’s tortured production manager.
These may be roles usually favoured by the Golden Globes, but their placement in the Oscars category would only bolster what is going to be the fiercest Best Actress race in some time. – The Independent
She turns in an astonishing turn playing the mute Elisa Esposito, communicating using sign language