Oscars 2011: Best Actor

The coveted award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role sees a stuttering king, an embattled outdoorsman, the socially inept founder of a phenomenon that links millions, a dying Spaniard, and an ageing lawman battling it out for glory. With each nuanced performance reflecting the dedication each actor has for his craft, the following have, rightfully, garnered much acclaim. Unfortunately, there is only one award to go around.

 

Colin Firth for The King’s Speech
Our rank: 1

 

Firth plays a monarch who is debilitated in his delivery of words. The actor’s success lies in his ability to make apparent the psychological ramifications which make the monarch naked in his own eyes.

 

Less-than-perfect oratory skills aside, Firth effortlessly takes on regal qualities, such as short-fused pigheadedness, as the dutiful duke of York prince Albert, who is to assume the mantle of kingship in an age when the sun was yet to set on the British empire. Driven to the end of his tether by his inadequacy and the unconventional methods employed by plebeian speech therapist Lionel Logue, Firth is every inch a king in this delightful little film.

 

James Franco for 127 Hours 

Our rank: 2

 

What happens when an outdoorsman overestimates his mastery over circumstances, finds himself in a seemingly hopeless situation, and is left to mull over his daftness while staving off the resultant trauma to his body and mind? 127 Hours, essentially a fable of self-preservation, is framed around Franco’s capabilities. The actor rises to the challenge the film, by its nature, presents and his constant presence, in whatever state of consciousness, exudes a certain dynamism even in the grip of despair.

 

Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network

Our rank: 3

 

Eisenberg’s portrayal of hailed/reviled Facebook founder CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose towering megalomania rests upon apparent bedrock of insecurities and, ironically enough, social awkwardness, is steeped in delicious impertinence. Eisenberg plays out his character’s mannerisms in the light of his moral ambiguity well, especially in his treatment of the Winklevoss twins and steadfast friend Eduardo Saverin (played by the woefully overlooked Andrew Garfield) alike.

 

Javier Bardem for Biutiful 

Our rank: 4

 

Biutiful sees Bardem trade bowl-cut for pony-tail as Uxbal, a dying man whose good intentions and tender disposition towards his son and daughter grey him out considerably, keeping in mind his active hand in myriad shady dealings involving drugs and illegal immigration. It is Bardem’s earthy and resonating performance as the duty-bound family man bogged down by a bipolar wife and bad dealings (also a seer of spirits) with an enigmatic and tragic past that makes him worthy of the numerous commendations that have been heaped upon him.

 

Bardem, who is touching but seems unlikely to win his second Oscar for the Spanish-language film, shines in the general bleakness and despondency that cloaks its narrative.

 

Jeff Bridges for True Grit 

Our rank: 5

 

By playing the crusty yet tough-as-nails lawman Reuben ‘Rooster’ Cogburn, the dude steps into the duke’s boots. Beneath his hard-drinking, churlish exterior, Bridges displays a rough-around-the edges charm and a glaring soft spot for his pint-sized employer Mattie Ross, who accompanies him and Texas Ranger LeBeouf on a mission to gun down Tom Chaney, the varmint who killed her father.

 

While Bridges does a great job portraying the humorous, kind and deadly yet ageing law-enforcer, it is Hailee Steinfeld who steals the show with her grasp of the nuances that are a trademark of the Coen brothers’ clockwork-like writing. It doesn’t seem likely that Bridges will bag an Oscar for the role that won John Wayne his only Academy award in 1970.