The Muriels: Best Lead Performance (Male)
The 2007 Muriels
Nyoinks, I’m going to take a lot of crap for this one.
Until this moment I completely forgot I didn’t vote for Mickey Rourke…but we’ll get to that in a moment.
First, please enjoy another edition of the Muriel Also-Rans including my argument for Penelope Cruz.
And now, the Best Male Lead Performance. Like Supporting Male Performance, if I had this one to do all over again, I might do it a bit differently. Having said that, I think Ben Kingsley was highly underrated in Elegy. Perhaps because no one liked the movie or perhaps because he was an unsympathetic sod, there is little love to go around for his performance. However, devoid of a put-on accent or other affectation, this felt like Kingsley unplugged and I found it to be his most vulnerable and honest performance in years.
As for Brolin, I didn’t like the movie but he was fantastic in W.
Looking back, when I think of the deli scene from The Wrestler which was one of my favorite scenes in any movie this year, I could probably find room for Rourke if I voted today.
Anyway, with that said, here are my picks:
- Sean Penn – Milk
- Benicio Del Toro – Che
- Josh Brolin – W.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman – Synecdoche, New York
- Ben Kingsley – Elegy
And here is the Muriel winner.
The link for “Also-rans” goes to the Best Actor post not the Also-ran post. Just wanted to let you know.
Elegy was a real slow-moving downer. All of the performances were terrific though. Kingsley, Cruz and Patricia Clarkson stood out in particular.
For once, I agree with the winner.
I’m sad Benicio didn’t even pick up steam.
I’m still pulling for Sean Penn to win tomorrow, although I will be happy if Mickey Rourke wins. The more I think about Penn’s performance, the more I love it, and I am far from being Penn’s #1 fan. He deserves to win tomorrow night.
Just want to chime in and pat Craig on the back and say, “Huzzah!” for his perfect piece on Penelope Cruz. Easily makes up for the Rourke omission! :-)
Since nobody’s asking, I’ll give mine:
1. Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road
2. Sean Penn, Milk
3. Benicio del Toro, Che
4. Colin Farrell, In Bruges
5. Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
6. Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
Yeah, I did six.
FYI, there will be Muriels-related goodness on my blog all day today leading up to the final announcement of this year’s Best Picture winner. So stop by early and often- you never know what surprises might be in store.
Part of me hoped that at least one Murielphile would’ve voted for Jean-Claude Van Damme — if for no other reason than old times’ sake.
“If that’s not enough for you, well, she’s also smoking hot.”
Nice write-up, Craig, and I loved the last line.