As The Dressmaker makes its premiere at TIFF here's Murtada on its leading lady's controversial Oscar win.
Kate Winslet is back! That seems to be one of the many “comeback” stories this fall season. Reviews for her supporting part in Steve Jobs have been stellar. And The Dressmaker is playing TIFF tonight! Has she ever been away though? Since her much maligned Oscar win for 2008’s The Reader, she starred in a much admired mini series (Mildred Pierce) for which she received multiple awards, worked with Steven Soderbergh (Contagion), Roman Polanski (Carnage) Jason Reitman (Labor Day) and her old Sense & Sensibility friend Alan Rickman (A Little Chaos). Some of these have been better received than others but none, with the possible exception of Pierce, have ignited the passion of even her most ardent fans.
Winslet’s a great actress who deservedly won the highest acting accolade in her profession. Yet there is a cloud above that win amongst Oscar obsessives. It is a somewhat unpopular win that still inflames a lot of passionate discourse even years later. Let’s examine why after the jump.
The Field
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Meryl Streep (Doubt), a performance that is now considered lesser Streep. However it’s fun and big, full of juicy repeatable lines "I have such doubts". It’s the kind of performance that aged well and is on its way to becoming a campy classic.
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Melissa Leo (Frozen River) was 2008’s indie breakout. This is the performance that led to her current thriving career and an Oscar win two years later.
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Angelina Jolie (The Changeling) was a makeup nomination for missing the year before for A Mighty Heart. No one remembers Changeling today.
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Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) showed the range everyone suspected she had by going dark and raw and coming up victorious.
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Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky) won the critics trifecta NYFCC, LAFCA and National Society plus the Golden Globe for comedy and TFE’s own Film Bitch Award and endeared herself to many new and old fans.
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Kristin Scott Thomas (I’ve Loved You So Long) rocked TIFF and had quite a comeback narrative that ultimately fizzled. But she got new fans and drew attention to her thriving career in French cinema.
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Winslet (Revolutionary Road) won the Golden Globe for drama. The rare year when winners of both Golden Globe categories failed to get an Oscar nomination
Jolie aside, any of these performances could’ve been a worthy winner.
The Campaign
What was the exact moment when everyone turned sour on Winslet? Probably when she said “‘gather” while getting flustered accepting her second Golden Globe of the night for Road. By that time she had done numerous interviews, magazine covers and been everywhere clearly stating that she wanted to win an Oscar. And here she was with two awards in one night, and how dare she call Jolie “‘the other one”.
It is now expected that actors campaign aggressively for Oscar. How many events did Lupita Nyong'o attend on her long march to the Oscar podium? How many red carpets have Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones walked last year? Just look at the abundance of celebrities that attend the Governors Awards every year in November, all trying to get their films noticed. Someone like Cate Blanchett (for Blue Jasmine) can do one week of press and then stay in Australia for most of awards season, only attend the big events and major publications (NY Times and Vogue) and still win best actress. That's because she had the reviews and jump start on the competition. 2008 was very different year and Kate had lost 5 times before. And she had the audacity to actually say that she wanted it and that turned most people off.
There's also the category confusion factor. For most the season she campaigned supporting not to compete with herself in Road which rubbed people the wrong way. That was studio jockeying though. The Weinstein Company rushed The Reader into theaters when it was initially scheduled for 2009 and to appease their star, who was promoting the movie she made with her husband and best friend, they ran a supporting campaign. Once the critics and Academy shrugged off Road she was in the correct category but only for BAFTA and Oscar.
The Dark Knight Effect
Remember how mad everyone was that The Reader got what they saw as The Dark Knight’s spot. Even the Academy believed that and expanded the best picture field the year after. Of course Kate was The Reader’s face and the person who kept winning awards for it, a constant reminder that a better received and popular movie was overlooked. “I haven’t seen The Reader”.
Stephen Daldry gets no respect partly because his movies have been so well received by AMPAS. He has a theater director’s knack for translating episodic novels into engrossing movies, reminiscent of the late Anthony Minghella (a producer on The Reader). Daldry’s movies are about words and emotional distress, not exactly visually striking which often gets them characterized as “dull”. Far from it. Have you not been moved by Billy Elliot’s need to dance? Or Laura Brown’s deep despair despite the perfect life she has?
The Performance
No less an expert than Sandra Bullock, whose mother was German, said Winslet realistically portrayed German women of a certain generation. The accent is perfection, with impeccable clipped German intonations. But what sticks in mind is what a very confident physical performance it is. Sexually frank with that earthy sexuality that Winslet embodies so well, coupled with weariness throughout showing the heavy burden this woman carries. Winslet conveys how guarded and secretive Hanna Schmitz was yet her face is so expressive that even the heavy makeup as she ages onscreen doesn't obscure the well of transparent emotions. No matter what was thought of the film it can’t be denied that Winslet opened up her well of nerve and emotion and was fiercely committed and ultimately very moving. While Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is seen by many as her career capper so far, Hanna Schmitz in no less a fantastic creation. The Oscar is justified and deserved for a career of excellent performnces and also for the very fine performance that she won for. Let’s relive that triumphant moment.
Do you think Winslet deserved her Oscar that year? Have your thoughts on The Reader changed since its release? Who gets your vote?