2010 saw quite a few excellent ensemble performances which meant the pools for Supporting contenders were vast. Inception and The Social Network were rich with quality turns from their smaller roles, notably Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy from the former and Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake (yes, that Justin Timberlake) from the latter. While we weren’t as fond of the Ozark crime-drama Winter’s Bone as much as the rest of the film community, we were impressed, like everyone else, with John Hawkes’ performance as Teardrop. His character has to be chilling, terrifying and mired in hate, but then transform into the film’s unlikely hero, all of which he achieves with aplomb. In last years surprise success Kick-Ass, Nicholas Cage presented his best role for years, returning to the trademark insanity that we’ve grown to love and then forget with films like Ghost Rider and Season of the Witch. There’s none of that here though; he’s just entertaining, hilarious and emotive in parts. But the only real contender in this category is Geoffrey Rush, who was actually down as our winner until the last moment. His performance in The King’s Speech as the speech therapist Lionel Logue is exemplary. Described (rather intolerably) as a classical bro-mance, the film relies on a humorous, entertaining and ultimately heart-warming and inspiring relationship between Logue and King George VI. Rush plays an invaluable part in the realisation of this.
So the beneficiary of our reconsideration is Christian Bale and his performance in The Fighter. The film follows boxer Mickey Ward as he attempts to make it in the big time and rise out of the shadow of his half-brother Dickey. Played by Bale, Dicky was once a successful boxer but his life has crumbled, now riddled with crack-cocaine addiction and crime. In spite of this, he’s still the pride of the working-class town Lowell, Massachusetts, living off his brief success in a fight with Sugar Ray Leonard. Bale’s performance is at first glance a physically shocking one. As with his role in The Machinist (2004), he’s physically transformed himself, losing a large amount of weight to portray the impact of crack addiction. The look is striking, as are his mannerisms which range from his wobbly leg boxing style to the casual twitches of his face that make it clear that this character is not entirely stable. But the performance is more than skin deep. He does an amazing job portraying someone who is confident and popular with everyone around him, and yet internally struggling with the promising career that he threw away with his poor decisions. Self-centred, self-important and hopelessly deluded, Bale gives us a multi-faceted and tragic performance.
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