Sunday, May 9, 2010

Best Actress 1974: Valerie Perrine in Lenny



Valerie Perrine received her first Oscar nomination for playing Honey Bruce, the wife of famous comedian Lenny Bruce in Lenny. Honey was a stripper, but she falls in love with Lenny, and they get married. But they start to have marital problems and they divorce when she goes to jail. The film cuts back and forth between his life and people telling it in interviews , including Honey, so you could say she is playing two roles, in a manner of speaking. But Valerie Perrine gives a beautiful performance in this film. She is natural and realistic and both she and Hoffman work wonderfully together. Her facial expressions are always fantastic, conveying her feelings wonderfully. Her best scene is when she is on the phone with Lenny in prison, and we really feel her pain and sadness. During the interview scenes, Perrine is so raw at points and intimate . It's wonderfully played. The only problem is is it Lead or Supporting? To me, I think she's more Supporting. I don't think that she leads the film anywhere, despite that I love her performance. I might even give her my win in Supporting, once I see more of the nominees from 1974. So, I'm a little torn on what to give it, but I've decided to give her

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I too sort of lean towards supporting with her...I guess it's her impact on the story.

Anyway, we agree :)

Who knows...she might have won in supporting.

joe burns said...

I wish she did. She was really brilliant. What did you think of Hoffman in it? I didn't like him at first, but then I warmed up to him. I would probably give him a four.

Anonymous said...

I sort of felt the same way...miscasted, but makes the best out of his performance.

joe burns said...

I didn't think he was miscast, just a little boring in the beginning. But he did get a lot better as the film went on.

Anonymous said...

That's alot of comments :)

I just found it hard to believe him as Lenny Bruce, still good though.

joe burns said...

LOL, the when I clicked "Publish" it was going too slow, so I clicked too much.

Louis Morgan said...

Nice write up. She is very good, and I say she is supporting too, especially in the second half of the film.

joe burns said...

Thanks! What did you think of the film in general?

Louis Morgan said...

I thought it was okay, but nothing that interesting. I felt it got a little repetitive near the end.

Brandon said...

I want to see this. Well actually 1974 in general is a year that I need to see, beacause of how awesome I hear it is.