by
Louis Virtel
I had a ball with a
10 Greatest Best Actress Victories
list, and now it's time to reveal my dark side: Here are my five least
favorite wins for Best Actress, and you'll notice they're all pretty
fabulous actresses doing subpar work in subpar fare. Maybe I'm just mad
at them for getting rewarded for the wrong work. Maybe I'm contrarian.
T'any rate, here are the five
offenders:
5. Jodie Foster, The Accused
This is not my way of damning Jodie for that cryptic, near-Dada
speech she gave at the Golden Globes. This is my way of acknowledging
that The Accused is unimportant Oscar bait full of teary monologues that
just don't work. Jodie Foster is a commanding actress, and I consider
her work in
The Silence of the Lambs one of the most justified wins of the '90s. (Love the '91 Oscars so, so much. Thelma, Louise,
Rambling Rose,
Mercedes Ruehl, etc.) But even in the broadest description,
The Accused is Lifetime material at best: A squawky client with
Desperately Seeking Susan style is sexually assaulted at a bar in front of cheering patrons, and she and her tough-as-nails lawyer eventually
win
in court over the trio of rapists. Jodie is a ball of forced
characterizations here, a nonstop medley of quirks and squawks. It
doesn't help that '88 was also the year of
Glenn Close's best performance (and film)
Dangerous Liaisons and
Meryl Streep's now-underrated work in the very damning
A Cry in The Dark. Both would've been better and more unusual choices than Jodie in
The Accused.
