The Verdict -- Best Supporting Actress 2002

#5. Queen Latifah in Chicago: It's hard to dislike Queen Latifah's saucy performance as Matron Mama Morton because of the amount of pure charisma Queen wields in this (and all of) her roles. At the same time, it's hard to acknowledge this as an Oscar-caliber performance because of the lack of depth (of any kind) in this performance. She's a great singer and tons of fun, but Latifah clearly road the Academy's love of Chicago to a nomination that she didn't really need. In fact, an Oscar nomination only highlights the limitations of this performance more.

#4. Kathy Bates in About Schmidt: On a first viewing, I found Kathy Bates' performance as Robert Hertzel to be simply a case of the actress doing what she does best-- creating high quirk characters with a rough edge that are absolutely hilarious but somewhat light and unnecessary to the overall storyline. Many of those facts are true, but after a second viewing of her scenes I found the contribution she makes to the film invaluable. For starters, she's absolutely the most (and sort of only) hilarious person in the film nailing her line readings and comedic timing. But she also plays her scenes with just a hint of forceful desperation that is potent and invaluable to getting to know her family. A truly great comedic supporting performance.

#3. Julianne Moore in The Hours: In her film, Julianne Moore is nothing short of ethereal in her expression of her character's deep dissatisfaction with her seemingly-idyllic life. She does well in keeping with the melancholy tone of her film, and approaches her character in a unique fashion. By expressing the numbness in Laura Brown's life with an unsettling stillness, Moore makes her character the most memorable and striking in the film. The performance is fairly one-note due to the limitations the script places around Moore's character, but damn if Julianne Moore doesn't nail that note and work it for all it's worth.

#2. Meryl Streep in Adaptation.: It's the sign of a strong year in this category when a performance this strong comes in merely at #2. Meryl Streep pulls you into the sad descent of Susan Orlean, slowly unveiling the inner sadness that exists under Orlean's carefully controlled exterior. Her deliberate and carefully modulated performance reveals the hidden displeasure and lack of passion existing in this woman's life inch by inch, until she makes the terrible mistake to drown out this melancholy with drugs and the wrong guy. It's a devastating transformation, and a true testament to Streep's talent.

#1. Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago: This Oscar win has become a very divisive one, but I'm completely on the love side when it comes to Catherine Zeta-Jones' performance as Velma Kelly. Zeta-Jones delivers a performance that mixes a healthy amount of theatricality  and pure musical talent with a subtext of rage and hidden vulnerability. Her three big numbers are among the best movie musical songs not only because of her wonderful voice but also because of the amount of pure emotion she pours into each and every note. Rarely do we see performances as fun yet moving as this one.

The Year in Review: 2002 was a banner year for this category, with four of the five performers giving truly fantastic yet vastly different performances. Ultimately the pure enjoyability of Zeta-Jones' performance beat out the sad and emotional performances from Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore to become my pick for the year. Kathy Bates (and to a much much lesser extent Queen Latifah) is whole lotta fun as well, single-handedly injecting her film with a whole lot of comedy. My next year will be an oldie, but I probably won't get started on it until at least after this year's Oscars are finished because I have a little bit of catching up to do in the Doc and Foreign categories. Here's a fun clue for my next year: it features 4 winners of this category and 1 single-time nominee.


Every Supporting Actress Nominee Ranked:

1. Patty Duke in "The Miracle Worker" (1962)
2. Dorothy Malone in "Written on the Wind" (1956)
3. Thelma Ritter in "Pickup on South Street" (1953)
4. Catherine Zeta-Jones in "Chicago" (2002)
5. Linda Hunt in "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1983)
6. Anna Paquin in "The Piano" (1993)
7. Meryl Streep in "Adaptation." (2002)
8. Cher in "Silkwood" (1983)
9. Eileen Heckart in "The Bad Seed" (1956)
10. Emma Thompson in "In the Name of the Father" (1993)
11. Julianne Moore in "Boogie Nights" (1997) 
12. Ellen Burstyn in "The Last Picture Show" (1971)
13. Oprah Winfrey in "The Color Purple" (1985)
14. Patty McCormack in "The Bad Seed" (1956)
15. Claire Trevor in "Dead End" (1937)
16. May Whitty in "Night Must Fall" (1937)
17. Margaret Avery in "The Color Purple" (1985)
18. Mildred Dunnock in "Baby Doll" (1956)
19. Julianne Moore in "The Hours" (2002)
20. Kathy Bates in "About Schmidt" (2002)
21. Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)
22. Ethel Waters in "Pinky" (1949)
23. Amy Madigan in "Twice in a Lifetime" (1985)
24. Meg Tilly in "Agnes of God" (1985)
25. Gloria Stuart in "Titanic" (1997)
26. Alfre Woodard in "Cross Creek" (1983)
27. Barbara Harris in "Who is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?" (1971)
28. Geraldine Page in "Hondo" (1953)
29. Anne Shirley in "Stella Dallas" (1937)
30. Amy Irving in "Yentl" (1983)
31. Kim Basinger in "L.A. Confidential" (1997)
32. Shirley Knight in "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962)
33. Cloris Leachman in "The Last Picture Show" (1971)
34. Margaret Leighton in "The Go-Between" (1971)
35. Rosie Perez in "Fearless" (1993)
36. Mercedes McCambridge in "All the King's Men" (1949)
37. Joan Cusack in "In & Out" (1997)
38. Anjelica Huston in "Prizzi's Honor" (1985)
39. Ann-Margret in "Carnal Knowledge" (1971)
40. Donna Reed in "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
41. Glenn Close in "The Big Chill" (1983)
42. Alice Brady in "In Old Chicago" (1937)
43. Mary Badham in "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) 
44. Holly Hunter in "The Firm" (1993)
45. Queen Latifah in "Chicago" (2002)
46. Celeste Holm in "Come to the Stable" (1949)
47. Ethel Barrymore in "Pinky" (1949)
48. Minnie Driver in "Good Will Hunting" (1997)
49. Thelma Ritter in "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) 
50. Winona Ryder in "The Age of Innocence" (1993)
51. Grace Kelly in "Mogambo" (1953)
52. Mercedes McCambridge in "Giant" (1956)
53. Marjorie Rambeau in "Torch Song" (1953) 
54. Elsa Lanchester in "Come to the Stable" (1949)
55. Andrea Leeds in  "Stage Door" (1937)

Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago

Catherine Zeta-Jones won the Oscar on her first nomination for her performance as Velma Kelly in Rob Marshall's Chicago. I think that it is safe to say that musical performances are among the most difficult to judge in terms of Academy Awards recognition. That comes with the fact that some people just outright hate musicals, and refuse to even give them a real try. Obviously film industry people are more likely to be accepting and loving towards musicals, which is why every once in awhile a good one comes around and captures the hearts of voters (Chicago, Moulin Rouge, and Dreamgirls are the most recent examples, though Les Misérables is certainly on the right path). Still, critics of Oscar winning musical performances seem to have one overlapping criticism that I've seen over and over again: "they just won because they had a few great musical numbers". Jennifer Hudson would surely agree with me. That may be true in many ways, but that's because in a musical, songs are the equivalent of crying scenes in dramas--the place where actresses get to show off the emotional core of their characters and just plain show off.

That is especially the case of Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago. There is no doubt that Velma Kelly is the flashiest and most fun character in the film, a grand diva type that relishes the fame afforded to her by murdering her sister and husband and is one of the few that has actual talent to back it up. It doesn't hurt that she gets all the best musical numbers, while poor Renée Zellweger is saddled with flatter tunes like "Roxie" and "Funny Honey". The problem Zeta-Jones faces is in Bill Condon's adaptation of the stage musical to screen. In order to keep the film shorter, most of her meatier scenes have been stripped away to keep the focus on Roxie (which is why Supporting Actress feels like the right category for her) leaving her musical numbers the only spots in which Velma truly gets to shine and feel like an active part of the storyline.

Thus, when Velma is not singing she comes off as a slightly one-note diva type character, with Zeta-Jones using her deep voice and overall forcefulness to full effect. She's got the character's blend of cold ruthlessness and desperate sexuality down pat, and those early scenes where Roxie fawns over the then more famous Velma are an absolute blast. Zeta-Jones adapts well to the sudden lack of attention she receives  and the jealousy she feels towards Roxie is potent yet subtle. Velma always maintains her rough outer exterior throughout the film, and that's due to the carefully modulated changes Zeta-Jones makes. When she's not singing, Velma is larger than life with a flash of humanity and sadness making appearances every once in awhile. However, she never really gets a moment to do anything but preen delightfully.

As solid as she is in her dialogue scenes, the meat of Velma Kelly and Catherine Zeta-Jones' performance becomes rousingly apparent in her musical numbers, and that's where she earns her Oscar 100%. Her three big numbers are the best in the film for a reason. "All That Jazz" is her most playful number, and has become the most iconic representation of the film. It's in that number where we get to know Velma Kelly's ruthlessness and lack of remorse, and Zeta-Jones is just flat out sexy in the face of having just killed her sister and husband. "Cell Block Tango" is technically a group number, but I only think of Zeta-Jones. It's in that number where Zeta-Jones is her most theatrical, but her rage bursts off the screen and thrives under that theatricality. My favorite number in the film has always been "I Can't Do It Alone", a truly desperate performance of emotional frankness in which Zeta-Jones is somehow pathetic, hilarious ("the first part's shit"), and absolutely winning. My reaction is literally the same as Roxie's everytime, as Velma wins me over gradually despite how awful she's been to her. Those three numbers, each deserving of being considered some of the best of all time, reveal the emotional core of the hard-edged Velma Kelly.

It's easy to forget that Catherine Zeta-Jones is also very funny in the film, whether chiding Mama Morton for copying Roxie's hairstyle or devising ways to flash the jury in order to sway votes. It's a purely enjoyable performance that I could watch over and over again and never get tired of. Sure, she can be pretty theatrical at times, but it's a musical and subtlety is not something you find in most musicals because of their inherent absurdity (especially Chicago). Many of her critics say that the performance is all glitz and great singing and dancing, but Zeta-Jones finds Velma's vulnerability buried underneath all the barbs and sequins. In the end, my point is that the most revealing parts of musical performances should be the numbers, and Catherine Zeta-Jones demonstrates that beautifully. 5/5 Thelmas.

Best Supporting Actress 2002

And the nominees were....

• Kathy Bates as Roberta Hertzel in About Schmidt
• Queen Latifah as Matron Mama Morton in Chicago
• Julianne Moore as Laura Brown in The Hours
• Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean in Adaptation.
• Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly in Chicago (winner)

The Field: Of all the Supporting Actress races in the 2000's, this one remains probably the most hotly contested, which makes it an exciting field to (hopefully) get me back into the swing of things. It also helps that I've seen 3 of these films and have warm feelings towards each of them. Kathy Bates' performance is the only one I'll be discovering for the first time, by the way. This also marks the first time that a previous winner of mine (in this case, Julianne Moore) gets a second chance at gold so it'll be interesting to see whether she can pull off another victory (she sure has tougher competition, that's for sure). The ladies of Chicago will be going first, both of whom whose reviews are in the can and will be unveiled at a steady pace. My goal is to make the gaps in reviewing be between years and not in the middle of them, if possible.

Also I'd like to introduce the new face of my grading method, which I decided to change not become I don't love Dianne Wiest but rather that I've felt for awhile now that Thelma Ritter should probably be the face I was using when judging the ladies of the supporting category being the reigning nominations queen at 6 nominations. I've already reviewed 2 of Thelma's performances and fell in love with her in Pickup on South Street (click for my review) and thus my scoring will expressed in:

--Fancy Funerals--