One of the highlights of Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” which I was quick to point out when discussing the film last month, was Stanley Tucci’s refreshing, heart-warming portrayal of Paul Child Julia Child’s loving husband. The film is just opening in the UK and a piece in The Guardian has me turning over Tucci’s Oscar prospects more and more. But not for Ephron’s film, of course. For Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones.”
It isn’t the most original idea in the world right now, of course, to consider Tucci a formidable contender as the villain of Jackson’s film. We’ve had him on the bubble on our charts for a number of months now. But when I read things like “effortless scene-stealer,” I begin to wonder whether the buzz is collecting at just the right moment.
David Thomson calls Tucci’s work in “Julie & Julia” opposite Meryl Streep “the great performance in [the film],” and goes on to note the chemistry the two actors have displayed once already in “The Devil Wears Prada.” He also compares Tucci to James Mason and even proposes a film about the making of “Eyes Wide Shut” with Tucci as Kubrick (I’d line up for it). While that might be a bit fanciful, the crux of his piece is that Tucci is an actor condemned to supporting roles who knocks them out of the park each and every time.