Was Jessica Chastain really that spectacular?
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ferrisb1-1 — 13 years ago(January 27, 2013 05:53 PM)
JC is a good actress, but this was a very dull and badly written role, IMO.
A lot of people say she is the driving force in the movie and while that is technically correct, she's not really acting compared to other performances this year. Maya is either pissed off, angry, distant, barking at her superiors, or trying to come off tough and failing miserably. That sounds like a lot of stuff to emote, but it really isn't. It's classic "one note" because all of those things are just variations on one, or two negative emotions.
In contrast, Dan (Jason Clarke) was an actual three dimensional character who did reprehenislble things, but
knew
he had to quit, or he was going to end up like the very people he was fighting against. Also, he has a real character arc because toward the end of the film even he questions whether or not the things he did (torture) actually led to reliable intel when he does NOT back Maya 100% in the meeting with the CIA Director.
I also agree this was a bad year for any real standout female performances Although, for raw emotional power, I would give it to Naomi Watts for "The Impossible" because she has to play a number of different people at different times in the movie, and portraying being injured is a lot harder than people believe. -
Eumenides_0 — 13 years ago(January 28, 2013 04:20 PM)
You need to watch
Amour
if you think there weren't stand-out female performances in 2012. Emmanuelle Riva, past her eighties, give a lesson in acting to all the young Lawrences and Chastains of this world.
I'm also anxious to watch
The Impossible,
the trailer nearly brings me to tears every time I watch it.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel. -
Squeegee-Beckenheim — 13 years ago(January 28, 2013 04:50 PM)
Amour
was simply fantastic. Riva's performance is just extraordinary. I wish she received the attention she so rightly deserves.
The Impossible
All I have to say is that the real impossible is not crying
during
The Impossible. Watts gives a stellar performance though. At times it's very hard to watch. -
ibrarules — 12 years ago(May 26, 2013 02:32 AM)
best performance of her career so far (altough I loved her in Doubt too) and best English speaking perf of 2012 IMHO. Partly BECAUSE she was annyoing/onetrack/distant/bratty etc. The person her character was mainly based upon was supposedly was quite a bit like that too
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Chief_Macho — 12 years ago(August 22, 2013 09:48 AM)
laughed at some of the ways she delivered the lines. i can't believe anybody cared about that performance. it was woeful. ruined the movie for me. not a ounce of depth to the role though. what a crap movie.
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wunderdunder — 12 years ago(August 02, 2013 06:44 AM)
No, all she did was yell at everybody and recite redundant and boring dialogue. Sure she cried a couple of times, but that doesn't make it a great performance. If she was trying to portray an annoying person who thought she was smarter than everybody, she did well, but there's still nothing Oscar worthy about that, at least to me.
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ibrarules — 12 years ago(August 02, 2013 11:23 PM)
Sure she cried a couple of times, but that doesn't make it a great performance
I agree. Her strength was not the "breaking down" moments.
If she was trying to portray an annoying person who thought she was smarter than everybody, she did well
Exactly. That is what she was trying to do. Add in borderline fanatical dogmatism and perseverence. And imho she did it beyond well. So well that she was my win for the year!
but there's still nothing Oscar worthy about that, at least to me
Fair enough. We all have different opinions, that's what I like about messagre boards
Personally I thought her nom for The Help was a bit of a joke. Some of my friends loved that one and, like you, disliked her in ZD30 -
nutsberryfarm — 12 years ago(September 09, 2013 10:52 AM)
her yelling seemed to cover for the fact she didn't really know what she was talking about, what,
exactly
, to put emphasis on. she'd yell an entire paragraph! this didn't make her character seem 'intense'. it made her seem like a loon.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. -
RyanCShowers — 12 years ago(August 08, 2013 09:23 PM)
http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/jessica-chastain-in-zero- dark-thirty/
Feel the Films: A Blog by R.C.S.
->
http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/ -
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IrishEyes1989 — 12 years ago(September 01, 2013 09:03 PM)
I agree with the OP on this one. Jessica Chastain is a good actress but her role in ZDT wasn't mind blowing. In fact, nothing about the film was particularly spectacular, though that's a whole other thread..Anyway, personally I think that most of the hype surrounding Chastain's performance in this film came from the fact that she's one of Hollywood's "It" girls at the moment.
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06986 — 12 years ago(February 19, 2014 05:58 PM)
I could not stand her, worse part of the movie. Felt like a very fake and forced portrayal and just going for a "girl power" theme. She is just like those overly "serious" "no nonsense" cliched female characters in CSI shows, Bones, Castle, etc. Corny, in reality the woman she is portraying to not play anywhere near as big of a role of finding Bin Laden nor did she act anything like that.