Of all the nominees for Best Supporting Actress, only one got cheers and whoops when her name was called before the winner was announced:
Whoopi Goldberg's win was not quite a surprise - those cheers alone are proof of the momentum. She had received the best notices for her performance in the biggest hit of the year, even critics who panned the movie praised her portrayal. The only threat to her win, it would appear, was Lorraine Bracco, who had been awarded by the LA critics and hat-tipped by the New York critics and the Golden Globes. Mary McDonnell, Golden Globe-nominated and the leading lady in the Best Picture frontrunner, would probably be next. And after that, your guess is as good as mine: Diane Ladd was a Golden Globe nominee and had been here before but had an atypical part in an atypical film, while Annette Bening had managed to push out early favorite Shirley MacLaine (Postcards from the Edge) for a spot in the final five.
In the past, I have given ratings from one star (*) to five (*****). I'm ending that today because, honestly, sometimes I just don't know how to rate something. I do know how to rank my affection for a set of performances, however. So, as with Best Picture, here are the Supporting Actress nominees from my #5 to my #1:
5. Diane Ladd as Marietta Fortune
Wild at Heart
second of three nominations; Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress
She is going all out as the Southern nightmare momma, a Grand Guignol creation and performance straight out of Bette Davis's hag horror period. There really aren't a lot of places for her to go once she paints herself red with lipstick, but she's chewing all the scenery available to her - perfectly so, I might add, she's well in tune with the movie around her. No surprises, but a job well done.
4. Mary McDonnell as Stands With A Fist
Dances with Wolves
first of two nominations; Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress
McDonnell is terrific as the white woman taken and raised by the Lakota, forcing herself to remember English to make a connection between her tribe and Lt. Dunbar. They don't have to explain anything when we first see her, bloody and sobbing in the middle of the prairie: she gives us the whole story with her face. She plays her part role, sensitively.
3. Annette Bening as Myra Langtry
The Grifters
first of five nominations; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress [1991]
Myra uses sex as part of her grift but, woe to he who underestimates her brains just because she's a blonde with a bod. Bening plays Mona with appetite, her eyes constantly sizing up everyone in the room, even the ones ostensibly on her side, looking for the angle - the one they're playing, and the one she needs to play. I think it's tough, to play a clever girl who can play dumb but is also a master manipulator but also doesn't know when she's in over her head, but Bening doesn't really play a false note. And you sit up when she's on screen.
2. Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill
GoodFellas
only nomination; LAFCA Awards winner for Best Supporting Actress; Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actress, NYFCC Awards second runner-up for Best Supporting Actress
She's an unexpected hoot. There are two Karens: the one who's willing to fight when it comes to love and romance and the one who'll look the other way if it means she benefits. That the same woman who rode into Henry's neighborhood and read him for filth among his friends can be the same woman who feigns naivete when it comes to perfectly reasonable questions like, oh, why Henry can afford improvised front row seats at the Copacabana: Bracco makes sense of this woman, a gal from the 'burbs who's nonetheless streetwise, knowing when to ask question and when to accept the good life. You know she's doing coke with Henry. You know she's in it up to her ears. It's not just the script: Bracco gives it to you. And did I say she's an unexpected hoot?
1. Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown
Ghost
second and final nomination; BAFTA Award winner for Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globe winner for Best Supporting Actress
Goldberg's greatest gift as a comedic actress is to land a line without losing the truth of her character. As Oda Mae, she's gifted this unique character, a fake medium grifting people until she is suddenly visited by real spirits, and not only lands all the humor inherent in this - humor in the tradition of, say, Topper, featuring another reluctant earthbound messenger for the Beyond - but plays Oda Mae's own arc from unwilling participant to believer to healer. Her scene where she invites Sam to enter her body so that he may "touch" Molly one more time hits because Goldberg has sold us on Oda Mae the person: the discomfort, the buried goodness, the new selflessness. That she is a commanding presence while being a gracious scene partner to Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore speaks to Goldberg's instincts: get the laughs but don't hijack the movie. She is utterly brilliant.
Tomorrow, the nominees for Best Supporting Actor: Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion), Andy Garcia (The Godfather Part III), Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves), Al Pacino (Dick Tracy), and Joe Pesci (GoodFellas).
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