Leon: The Professional is a film by Luc Besson made in the early 90's and stars Jean Reno as a socially challenged hitman who drinks a lot of milk and kills with startling precision and efficiency. It also stars Natalie Portman in her film debut at age 11. And man is she awesome!! Her performance is faultless, brilliant and touching. There is also Gary Oldman who plays a corrupt, volatile police officer who is hooked to either opioids or amphetamines. And boy is he scary. I had my jaw wide open in the first couple of scenes where he was featured. What surprised me all the more is that this is the same man who plays Jim Gordon in Nolan's Batman Universe!! What a startling contrast and a testament to how good, nay, brilliant a performer this guy is. PS: He plays Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies as well!! Portman and Oldman should have won Oscars for this, in my opinion.
Acting is one profession that I have always been interested in and I also like to mimic sometimes. I would not be lying to you when I say that I mimic fairly well too. While we see the glamour of the acting world and the money and the limos, little do we realize how difficult it actually is to play another character apart from yourself. And to do it for a sustained period of time, take after take after take, is hard. Of course cutting through a man's insides and removing his appendix is tough too, but the point is that these guys have put in their dues in training and deserve at least a part of the money coming their way. They do get paid outrageously high amounts though, I must admit.
Couple of other notable performances that haven't won Oscars; let me know what you think too:
Sharlto Copley: District 9
George Clooney: O brother where art thou?
Aaron Eckhart: Thank you for smoking/The Dark Knight
Christian Bale: American Psycho
Gary Oldman: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Meryl Streep: The Hours
Julianne Moore: Boogie Nights/The Hours/ Far from Heaven
Ralph Fiennes: Schindler's List/The end of the affair
Robin Williams: Insomnia
Mark Walhberg: Boogie Nights
Josh Brolin: No Country for Old Men
Heath Ledger: Brokeback Mountain
Alan Rickman: Die Hard
Denzel Washington: Philadelphia
John Cusack: High Fidelity
The list in only a few people whom I felt were not given their due share during the award season.
Indian Performances:
Sharman Joshi: Life in a Metro
Boman Irani in anything!
Kay Kay Menon in anything!
Konkona Sen Sharma in Omkara
Farhan Akhtar in Rock on/Calling Karthik
Abhay Deol in Dev D
Agree? Let me know what you guys think.
1 comment:
Agree with some of your choices but not all.
To start with:
Aaron Eckhart: The Dark Knight...will his performance was notable, nobody apart from Heath Ledger deserved an Oscar for their character portrayal.
I agree with you on Abhey Deol for DEV D...loved the movie and his character. Same goes for Konkona Sen in Omkara.
I would like to elaborate on each of your selections but will leave it for another day.
One notable miss for me was either Tim Robbins or Morgan Freeman for The Shawshank Redemption.
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