Adrien Brody's performance

Rating: Null/10 (9 March 2003)

What an incredibly performance! I can't believe Daniel Day Lewis is beating Jack Nicholson and Adrien Brody in the race for the oscar. He is great, but it's a flashy part compared to their achievements. After the first 45 minutes or so of this movie, Adrien Brody hardly speaks. He acts through facial expressions, the way he walks, the way he moves. Even when he does speak, it takes him long moments to do so, as a person who had not spoken for a while would speak. He is never less than totally engrossing. Both he and Nicholson play their parts understatedly, not relying on the showy grandeur of Daniel Day Lewis' part, but on their realism. This relies far more on the intelligence of the audience. Then again, given the Academy's prediliction for giving awards to people playing psycopaths or disabled people this isn't surprising.