“Quick confession: a big part of why I want Richard E. Grant to win the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award is as a long-delayed lifetime achievement award for his exuberantly wasted performance in the classic Withnail and I. But the fact that Grant's debut performance and his first Oscar nomination both involve similar boozehounds doesn't reduce his achievement in Can You Ever Forgive Me? There, he plays Jack Hock, a rando in a Manhattan gay bar who quickly becomes Lee Israel's best, and only, friend. It's a juicy, hammy role, perfectly suited to about half of all British actors of a certain age, but Grant knows exactly when to go over the top and when to play it close to the vest, which points to allow Jack's neuroses and insecurities to poke through the carefully crafted demeanor of a man who is already playing an outsize version of himself.
“Grant is also savvy enough to know his function, not just within a scene, but within the film itself, highlighting the dissolute life that Lee Israel finds herself in, seemingly washed up and middle-aged, with few options in life beyond liquor and crime. Grant and Melissa McCarthy have the terrific chemistry that often comes from actors who are usually comedians given the freedom to stretch their legs; Grant has the scummier role, but finds the right balance between sympathetic and obnoxious, funny and sad, even in scenes that lean toward the mawkish (looking at you, last-minute-reminder-of-''90s-AIDS-horrors segment). Grant is a lovely actor and I couldn't be happier that he's finally seeing some of the recognition that he's long deserved.” ~ Jeff McMahon
No comments:
Post a Comment