Sunday, April 25, 2010

Best Actress 1988: Jodie Foster in The Accused





Jodie Foster received her second Oscar nomination and won for playing Sarah Tobias in The Accused. Sarah is brutally gang raped on a pinball machine at a bar and she identifies the men and they are arrested. But the prosecutor who takes the case doubts that Sarah would make a credible witness and she makes a deal which puts the defendants away, but under the charge of reckless endangerment. Sarah is furious, and after she gets into a car accident, the prosecutor decides to charge the ones who encouraged the rape with criminial scillitation and Sarah agrees to testify, despite that she is not entirely credible. To me, the best part of Fosters performance is in the beginning. When she is in the hospital being examined, she makes us feel her pain and humilation. Foster is 100% believable as Sarah, who is not very intelligent or shouldn't really be likeable, but Foster makes us understand her and root for her. The scene after she calls her mother is heartbreaking and when she confronts McGillis for making a deal, she nails it. It drops a little in the second half (Probably because McGillis is the main character and we see less of Foster) , but Foster is still real and devastating when she is on the stand. We feel her anger and emotion and it works very well. I fast forwarded through the rape scene, but having seen it before, I can say that Foster played it perfectly. She also deserves credit for having excellent chemistry with McGillis, who is also very good. Both McGilis and Foster elevate the film and make it interesting, and also make it believable, since the script has many unconvincing and predictable parts. So, a great performance that is believable every step of the way which gets

12 comments:

Louis Morgan said...

How would you rate the film alone?

joe burns said...

Probably 7/10. An interesting story, but some unbelievable and predictable parts.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you like her :)

joe burns said...

I was surprised at how much I did like her on repeated viewing. A really strong performance. What did you think of McGillis?

Malcolm said...

FOster was almost perfect here. But, as you said, in the later part, the movie focused on McGillis. But her later scenes are just so real. And the rape scene was just so true that you can feel her pain.

But it's still have some faults. It underwhelmed me a little because in some parts, but not because of her, but because of the movie itself.

Probably 4 or 4.5 for me too.

joe burns said...

I thought that she was always above the material, but I wish that McGillis didn't dominate the second half so much. Who would be your choice for this year?

Anonymous said...

I really didn't like the McGillis storyline either...they should have just focused on Jodie.

joe burns said...

I just thought that they used her too much, and that Foster should have been the main character. Did you like the film as a whole?

Anonymous said...

It was okay.

Fritz said...

The movie is awful (could it be more 80s?), but Jodie and Kelly deliver really strong work, even though Jodie was too over-the-top sometimes.

joe burns said...

I don't think it was awful, just not perfect by any means. You should do this year! I can't wait to see your thoughts!

Malcolm said...

I don't know. I'm down with 4 of the nominees:

Close
Foster
Griffith
Weaver

And I love all of them.

I also love Pfieffer in Married to the Mob.
I haven't seen Streep yet.

My taste changes everytime I evaluate 1988 but as of now, I'm leaning towards.....Griffith. But it changes everytime.