The runners-up:
- Andy Griffith, Waitress
- Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
- Elijah Kelley, Hairspray
- Rolf Lassgard, After the Wedding
- Alan Tudyk, Death at a Funeral
The finalists:
- Philip Bosco, The Savages -- I am still haunted by the image of Bosco sitting in the front seat of the car, turning down his hearing aid to shut out the racket of his children, arguing over where he should be dumped until he dies. It's a lovely, sad performance.
- Jeff Daniels, The Lookout -- Daniels gives us none of the usual cliches we get from actors playing blind. His breakfast-table interrogation of Luvlee is his high point (and Isla Fisher is also fine in that scene) -- two smart people trying to outsmart one another, when neither is quite so stupid as the other thinks.
- Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood -- Any actor who can hold his own against Daniel Day-Lewis at his largest is doing something right, but it's the baptism scene that most sticks with me. It's both scary and funny, and Dano walks the emotional tightrope with impeccable precision
- Ben Foster, 3:10 to Yuma -- Surely the loopiest performance of the year. Foster manages (just barely at times) to stay inside the reality of an otherwise fairly traditional western, with a performance that combines effeminate mincing and psychopathic violence. It's a nervy piece of work, and I adored every bit of it.
And the winner:
- Vlad Ivanov, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days -- Compare what Ivanov does here to, say, Javier Bardem's work in No Country for Old Men (for my money, a vastly overrated performance). Ivanov gives us Evil, but his Bebe is never just evil, no mere abstract symbol. Bebe is an evil person, and he's recognizable as a person, which makes him far scarier. His negotiation scene with two young women in a cheap hotel is creepier and more chilling than any silly coin toss could ever be.
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