It’s that time of the year again when the Oscar nominations are announced in oh so serious, dulcet tones by Tom Sherak, president of AMPAS and some lovely Oscar-nominated (or winning) lass of seasons past. This morning it was Jennifer Lawrence, last year’s pre-eminent gleaming blonde ingenue.

Because of the theme of this blog, I’m not going to dwell too much on the other nominations that don’t fall into the actress categories. I will say this–YEAH YEAH YEAH to the marvelous and long underappreciated Gary Oldman for finally scoring his first (after how many years?) Best Actor Oscar nomination. He should have nabbed one years ago for his tour de force performance as Sid Vicious in the eponymous Sid and Nancy…but sigh. To quote another critic re: Oldman, “a wrong has finally been righted.” So true.

And a thunderous bravo to my long-time theater favorite Christopher Plummer. I’ve seen this extraordinary actor brighten up the Broadway stage with a motley array of genius work (my favorite is his Iago to the wildly overrated and upstageable James Earl Jones in “Othello,” which I saw as a nubile NYU coed back in the early ’80s and never forgot) and am so happy he’s finally getting his due for his film work. Unless something untoward happens, I think Plummer’s Oscar is in the bag. YEAH YEAH YEAH for this remarkable octogenarian.

Now here are the Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. I haven’t seen all the films yet but I will supply commentary for nominations that merit them on my part:

Best Actress

• Glenn Close
  “Albert Nobbs”
• Roney Mara
  “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (She was great, a revelation as I said in my review of the film but she won’t win).
• Viola Davis
  “The Help” (Her performance was the heart and soul of this well-intentioned but not very good movie. SHE–and Octavia Spencer–are the reasons to see this cinematic exercise in hype).
  
• Meryl Streep
  “The Iron Lady” (Her 17th nomination–if she wins, it’ll be because the AMPAS is unduly embarrassed at not giving our finest actress another Oscar since 1982–yes 1982–for “Sophie’s Choice.”)
• Michelle Williams
  “My Week with Marilyn” (I’m going to write a separate post about this nomination. NEVER EVER in my recent memory has such a woefully miscast performance elicited such a bafflement of raves. I don’t get it. I saw this film last year at an early screening and declared that Williams, a normally gifted and subtle performer, fell drastically short of portraying the legendary celluloid bombshell. I attributed this to not only a one-dimensional script that insisted on delineating Monroe as nothing more than a dim-witted, drugged out cipher when biographers have characterized her as having more shadings than that tired old stereotype but on Williams sorely lacking the traffic-stopping allure needed to convincingly play an iconic screen sex symbol. I like Williams a lot but I don’t get the hoopla surrounding her misfire of a performance. So much of the film she comes off as a little girl playing dress-up. There’s no fire in the loins emanating from her–no tantalizing sexuality. I really do not believe that Michelle’s Marilyn could inspire a multitude of wet dreams. Must be the Harvey Weinstein PR machine..
  

Best Supporting Actress

• Bérénice Bejo
  “The Artist”
• Jessica Chastain
  “The Help” (Chastain is very successful playing a Monroe-inspired Southern bombshell; in fact, she’s so good with this prototype that I have no doubt SHE would have been a better choice than the cute but somewhat unglamorous Williams to play the screen legend in “My Week with Marilyn.” What a shame she was too unknown to essay that role during the casting).
• Melissa McCarthy
  “Bridesmaids” (I loved this riotously funny movie and McCarthy is a scream in it. Kudos for a comedic performance garnering an Oscar nomination.)
• Janet McTeer
  “Albert Nobbs”
• Octavia Spencer
  “The Help” (See Viola Davis above).

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