I feel like there's been a lot of internet backlash lately against Vera Farmiga's performance against Up in the Air. (Mostly by Laurent fanboys) Apparently the main argument of the opposition is that it isn't a "difficult role", and that she's "riding off the popularity of the film/basking in the glow of Clooney's charisma".
So here's my defense for the lovely Vera.
1. Difficult role? Psh. Yes, it's not a typical Oscar-baity role with a crying jag scene, or even any exceptionally emotional scenes. On page, she's just a sexy woman who has a fling with Clooney's Ryan Bingham. Which makes it harder for her to make the role stand out. And she did.****
2. Basking in his glow? Psh. They have tantalizing chemistry, but Clooney never dominated any of their scenes. Were your eyes, in any of Farmiga's scenes, distracted from her face to stare at the much more famous movie star next to her? Clooney met his match in this one. Farmiga out-charmed him, out-sexied him. She was so confident and daring, that you felt like she was setting up the trap for him, the Lady outsmarting the Ladies' man. And if Clooney deserves accolades for being himself, Farmiga deserves it for being more than his equal as a female counterpart.
3. Her performance ultimately made the movie work. If the movie's message is that "life is better with company", then it hardly would have been effective if it weren't for Farmiga's interaction with Clooney. I'm thinking about the wedding scene, where her playful intimacy made the couple so endearing, so magical-yet-grounded, that everyone thought, "hell, why wouldn't you get married if your partner's Vera Farmiga/Alex?" It was clear to the audience in that moment that she was more or less Ryan Bingham's soulmate, which gives the character twist all the more devastating an impact. Put any lesser, replaceable-pretty actress in the part, and you just have a schmaltzy movie that ends up with you thinking, "can't Clooney just hook up with someone else?" instead of embarking a quest to find your own Alex (minus the married cheat part).
Bottom line: She's pitch-perfect in every scene, she brings the character to full, sexy life without relying on either scene-chewing or "stare lifelessly and be mistaken as enigmatically beautiful and thoughtful" trick that is often mistaken for good acting. She's low-key, commanding, effortless and just totally, 100% Oscar-worthy. ***2
She's looking at him, but are you? Probably not.
**** One way I like to evaluate performances is by thinking, "what if someone else had played the role? Would it still be more or less the same? I picked Julia Roberts, who surely had the second-best chemistry with Clooney in the Ocean franchise. And UGH. I just winced a little at the idea. I don't see any of the same coy, slyly-stealing-scene mysteriousness coming across. So there you go.
***2: Thinking again about how most actresses either need some overly dramatic, hysterical scene, or soulful (but for me, yawn-inducing) staring that allows the viewer to think "damn, she's so beautiful" a la Melanie Laurent long enough to forget that she isn't doing anything special, in order to gain attention. Jennifer Connelly is often a victim of this method. So many actresses need something out-of-the-world. That just makes me so mad, and makes me love Vera's ordinary-extraordinary performance all the more.
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