Saturday, June 12, 2010

Best Actress 1976: Talia Shire in Rocky



Talia Shire received her second Oscar nomination for playing Adrian in Rocky. Adrian is a shy woman who lives with her brother and works in a pet store. She goes on a date with Rocky Balboa (Syllvester Stalone) and she falls in love with him and when he decides to fight in a boxing match that he is sure to lose, she helps and supports him during his training. Rocky is an uninspired, boring film which isn't very special, and the same goes for Talia Shire. First of all, her role is a Supporting one, not a Leading one, since Adrian isn't really that much of an important part and she doesn''t lead Rocky anywhere. Her role is very underwritten, and she's given pretty much nothing to do in this movie, except support Rocky through all of his troubles and to love him no matter what. She has one great , if short, scene when she confronts her brother when he is yelling at her and Rocky, but this isn't anything incredibly impressive. Talia Shire gives a dull, nothing Oscar-worthy performance which gets

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't see the rating, but I'm guessing 2 ;)

joe burns said...

Yes, it's two stars, although I might change it to a lower rating.

Louis Morgan said...

Pretty poor performance although I like the film more than most people.

joe burns said...

Can you Best Actor 1976 soon?

Unknown said...

It's interesting that Shire was never nominated for a really great performance...
Hey, thanks for the link for "Room at the top"! Much appreciated!

Anonymous said...

I've never really respected her as an actress...if anyone has had a film career thanks to their family, she's proof.

Fritz said...

I liked her in The Godfather movies but her performance here is nothing special. She probably would have won in Supporting, though...

And the whole 'career thanks to a family' might surely be true but one could also say this about Marsha Mason and her husband.

Louis Morgan said...

I'll do 1976 after I do 1946 Joe.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but there's a huge difference: Mason could act.

And she had already been in movies and even Oscar nominated before she hooked up with Neil Simon.

Fritz said...

lol, I wouldn't say that Talia couldn't act...but she surely wasn't the greatest talent...

You're right that Mason had talent but one can't deny that her husband surely helped her a lot considering he wrote her best parts and her career immediately declined after they divorced. Oh, and she married Simon before she got her first nomination but I would never believe that the marriage itself really helped her here. It was surely her talent that got her Oscar nominated the first time - and also the later times but a lot of actresses are talented but not every actress has a husband who writes the best parts for her.

So, she Marsha surely had (has) talent but I doubt that her career would have been the same without Neil Simon.

joe burns said...

Celso: I haven't seen much of her, but she surely wasn't good here. And you're welcome!

Sage: What else has she been in?

Louis Morgan: Good!

Fritz: I suppose that's true about Mason, although I should see The Goodbye Girl again. Is 77 possible for you?

Fritz said...

Unfortunately not, I haven't The Turning Point.