We’ve taken concentrated looks at the lead actress and supporting actress categories in recent weeks. Now let’s turn our attention over to the fellas.
Behind the Best Picture race, of course, the lead actor competition is perhaps the most hotly anticipated award of a given Oscar telecast. Movie stars are born, Hollywood staples are rewarded and careers leap to the next level. It makes for an intriguing annual state of the union as it pertains the the film industry’s talent roster.
This year, one of Hollywood’s brightest stars finds himself right at the front of the conversation. George Clooney is likely to end up with his third acting Oscar nomination, for Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” and he’ll owe much of that to Reitman’s powerful work on the page.
Clooney doesn’t give his best performance to date in the film. But the material is so cleverly built around his persona that one can’t blame the actor for saddling up to a role that fits like a glove. And there is something to be said for the bravery of taking one’s image on like that.
Colin Firth, meanwhile, has caused a critical stir with his leading performance in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man.” He has already won the Venice Film Festival’s acting honor and has been tapped for another at February’s Santa Barbara Film Festival. He is pitch-perfect in the film, giving a refined performance of nuance and gesture.