Third place:
Shailene Woodley, The Descendents [89 points/14 votes]
Second place:
Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia [96/16]
And the winner...
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids [105/16]
"When we hear people (critics, mostly) talk about “fearless” or “ego-free” performances, that’s frequently code for the kind of “Look, Ma, no hands!” acting in which the beautiful star abuses their body (Robert De Niro’s weight gain, Christian Bale’s weight loss, et al.) or otherwise disguises said beauty in favor of one form of ugliness or another (Charlize Theron’s ghastly approximation of Aileen Wuornos, Nicole Kidman’s Woolf-ish nose, et al.), all in the name of bravery and in the pursuit of Oscar glory. In other words, even though it may be described as selfless, it’s often the precise opposite of acting grounded in a lack of narcissism or self-aggrandizement. It’s a much more rare experience to encounter an actor who embodies true fearlessness (in a role that allows for such a commitment), the kind in which she/he doesn’t recoil from being perceived as unattractive or, worse, taking the chance that their character’s boorish, gross qualities might be mistaken for their own. I’d wager, not being a devotee of Gilmore Girls, that I wasn’t the only one for whom Bridesmaids provided first exposure to the talents of Melissa McCarthy. In a Hollywood populated by lithe, natural beauties and actresses tipping over into the perilous excesses of plastic surgery and anorexia, McCarthy doesn’t fit into the physical mold. I remember thinking, during her hilarious introduction to Kristen Wiig during the bride’s engagement party (“I’m glad that he’s single, ‘cause I‘m gonna climb that like a tree!”) that I felt like I already knew this person, largely because she looked more like people I grew up with than the idealized mannequins usually on display in movies. I found her overeager confidence in describing recent injuries and an apparently telepathic encounter with a dolphin, as well as her willingness to be so up front and aggressive about her sexual desires, refreshing and endearing, especially coming from someone who couldn’t expect to fall back on a more typical physical attractiveness once the calm waters of social acceptance got too choppy. (She probably wouldn’t even if she could.)
But what’s exhilarating about her turn as Megan, the groom’s unrefined and devastatingly honest sister, is how McCarthy doesn’t make a grandstanding show out of how she and the character don’t fit in so much as express, with hilarious physical and interpersonal precision and abandon, an innocent disregard for what any of her relatively slender, blowsy fellow bridesmaids or anyone else within shouting distance might think of her. Happily, Megan isn’t a relentless joke machine tossing off laugh lines about her body type in a lame bid for gross-out cred and eventual audience sympathy. Nor does Megan’s uncensored forthrightness seem calculated — it doesn’t originate out of anger or from a defensive position but instead from a very personal sense of joie de vivre, and she remains positively unaware of just how unprepared those around her are for it. McCarthy gradually disarms all kinds of preconceived notions of how we might think we know a woman like Megan, revealing layers of perceptivity and, yes, even sensitivity for which her colorful id is not a cover but instead a kind of psychic fuel.
The highest compliment I can think of with which to praise McCarthy’s work in Bridesmaids, other than describing the degree to which she kept me in glorious pain from laughter and delicious anticipation whenever she was on screen, is that it didn’t take long to sense that there was more to Megan than any cultural stereotype or broadly scatological set piece could satisfy. The process of getting to know this character, and the soaring comic courage of Melissa McCarthy which brought her to life, was easily one of the most joyous and satisfying movie-going experiences I had this past year, a rich, unexpected treat for audiences who have learned, to their continuing dismay, to settle for so much less from modern American comedies and the actors who romp through them." - Dennis Cozzalio
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MEH
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