Monday, April 5, 2010

Best Actress 2002: Nicole Kidman in The Hours


Nicole Kidman received her 2nd Best Actress nomination and won for playing famous author Virginia Wolf in The Hours. Virginia and her husband Leonard have just moved out of London and into the country, so Virginia won't be as moody and troubled. But Virginia feels suffocated by the peacefulness of the country and is unable to connect with the people around her. Despite wearing ridiculous makeup and wearing a fake nose, Kidman is still able to deliver a very good performance as Virginia. A big plus is her voice: It's piercing and magnetic and draws us in. Her role is a bit underwritten and I think that it leans more towards supporting, but Kidman is able to make this work in her favor, by making Virginia an enigma that we want to see and know more of. The scenes with her sister are wonderful and the train scene is brilliantly executed by Kidman and we really feel an emotional connection to Virginia. So, a very good performance that is a bit underwhelming, but works overall, which gets

14 comments:

Fritz said...

4 stars from me. Very strong work by a great actress!

Brandon said...

Kidman wasn't as bad as everyone thinks, but she doesn't really emotionally flesh out the character the way Moore does, and the overall performance suffers from it. It's a VERY baity role, and even though Kidman is good, it's just not a leading role. 30 minutes? Julianne had more screentime and got relegated to supporting just because Nicole was a bigger "name".

Fritz said...

I think that Nicole, Julianne and Meryl were all leading. And I don't think that one should blame Nicole for going lead and instead blame Julianne for going supporting since it's obvious that this was only done to secure her two nominations that year. If anyone committed category fraud here, it's Julianne.

Louis Morgan said...

She is just nothing that special. Not quite as horrendous as some say though.

Brandon said...

I agree Louis. The performance feels rather dry and bland, but it could have been alot worse.

Robert said...

I really like this performance, it's so well done, I guess the real fault is how short it is. Yet, as you said, Kidman does really great things even with her limited screen time! And I guess it does make sense for her to be lead since the whole movie revolves around Woolf and her novel.

joe burns said...

Fritz: I thought about giving her a four, but instead I went with a three given that's it's a little underwhelming. And I agree about Julianne. But remember it's not the actress who decides the campaigning, it's the studio, so you can't blame the actress. But I do agree that all can be considered leading.

Twister: Well, the material could be at fault for that, but I agree, not a leading role when it comes down to it. But I did like Julianne here more on repeated viewing!

Louis: Yes, it's not bad at all. I can see why people think it isn't amazing, which it's not.

Robert: I agree! Kidman plays it very well. What did you think of Streep and Moore?

Robert said...

Moore is easily my favorite of the three! Her performance was just haunting and amazing. And Meryl did an amazing job, I think she had probably the hardest character and she did it great (as usual).

joe burns said...

I thought Streep was the best of the three, followed by Moore and then Kidman. Would you have given Moore the win for Best Supporting Actress over Zeta-Jones?

Robert said...

I think so - I need to see Chicago again though to be sure, it's been a while! I feel like Moore was better in "The Hours" than in "Far From Heaven" though. I think those two parts are so similar it's impossible not to compare them!

joe burns said...

Robert: I think Zeta-Jones was deserving, but I did like Moore's performance. You'll know my thoughts on that when I do Moore's profile, but I'm saving her for last.

Andrew K. said...

Well I'm alone in the corner for Nicole, but I wholeheartedly stand by my claim that she was the greatest of the three - even though all three were exceptional.

Unknown said...

If I were to express how much I love this film, and all the ladies in it it would take forever.

so I will just stop at I LOVE HER. I LOVE THIS FILM. I LOVE THIS BOOK. THE AUTHOR. ALL OF THESE THINGS DEFINE MY LIFE.

joe burns said...

Andrew: I would give her a nomination and I don't mind the win, but I think Streep and Moore were better. But all of them did excellent jobs.

Nigel: Is the book better then the movie?