And the character actors shall lead

As 2005 ended and the possible Oscar candidates were pored over and dissected in entertainment publications everywhere, one oddity leapt out: The usually crowded best supporting actor category felt sparse, while best actor, which is often sparse, felt crowded.

It didn’t take long to figure out why. Most of the actors considered best actor candidates (Jeff Daniels, Cillian Murphy) as well as the eventual nominees (Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Strathairn, Joaquin Phoenix, Terrence Howard and Heath Ledger) usually play supporting roles. They’re supporting actors. They got lead roles this past year because, with the exception of “Walk the Line,” their films were made outside the studio system and were less subject to studio idiocy of this sort: “Hey, see if we can’t get Cruise to play Murrow. Is Will Smith available for ‘Hustle & Flow’? How about Will Ferrell as Capote? Yeah, we’ll make the thing a comedy!”

I know. Fish in a barrel.

All of the eventual nominees are also first-time best actor nominees. This hasn’t happened since 1970 when previous supporting actors nominees George C. Scott, Melvyn Douglas and Jack Nicholson joined first-time nominees James Earl Jones and Ryan O’Neal in the lead actor category. It may be a coincidence but 1970 was also the dawn of the best decade of Hollywood movies, when movies strove for something beyond mere entertainment, and dull, handsome leading men were replaced by livelier, homelier versions: Dustin Hoffman and Elliott Gould and Gene Hackman. People like us, as David Byrne once sang.

One assumes that this year is simply a blip rather than a dawn, and talents like P.S. Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix and maybe even Heath Ledger will go back to being the most interesting 10 minutes in otherwise tepid studio products. But one can hope otherwise.

Now let’s take a closer look at the nominees.

The lock
How good was Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote”? This is a crowded field of talented actors in interesting roles and yet Hoffman has been picked by almost every major awards group: Golden Globes, Broadcast Film Critics, L.A. Film Critics, National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics and Screen Actors Guild. Heath Ledger was picked by the New York Film Critics Circle. So six of the seven major awards in the lead-up to the Oscars went to Hoffman.

Does this mean anything? Well, in the last 10 years, only one other lead actor has been honored by six of the seven groups: Nicholas Cage in “Leaving Las Vegas.” He went on to win the Oscar. Two actors were honored by five of the seven groups: Geoffrey Rush for “Shine” and Jamie Foxx for “Ray.” Both went on to win the Oscar. So it feels like Hoffman has history on his side.

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Of course with the Academy you never know. Russell Crowe won four of the seven for playing tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand in “The Insider” (which, if you haven’t seen yet, you should see right now) but lost the Oscar to “American Beauty’s” Kevin Spacey. The following year, despite winning only one of the seven for “Gladiator,” Crowe got the Oscar. And they say there are no make-ups.

The Academy has a lot to make up to Hoffman since despite a decade of great supporting roles — “Boogie Nights,” “Magnolia,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley” — he’s never even been nominated. In each of these films, another actor, usually a good-looking lead actor, got the supporting nod: Burt Reynolds, Tom Cruise, Jude Law. But Hoffman has always been the guy for film fans.

I remember being stunned when his spoiled Freddie Miles steps off his convertible with all of the insouciance of his class in “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” and even moreso when he began sniffing after the disappearance of his friend Dickie Greenleaf with such fierce intelligence. Many of Hoffman’s characters could be clichés — the spoiled rich kid, the lovestruck hanger-on — and Hoffman often makes the daring move towards the cliché rather than away from it. Freddie Miles is more spoiled than any spoiled kid we’ve seen in the movies — and yet he’s more real. “Boogie Nights” Scotty J. is more pathetic than any pathetic hanger-on we’ve seen — and yet he’s more human.

I don’t know how Hoffman does this but it was good practice for “Capote,” where Hoffman again plays a much-caricatured character without ever getting stuck in the rut of the caricature. He flattens nothing. He brings life to everything. He gives us all levels of a man who seduces and betrays everyone for the sake of his art, and possibly undoes himself with the final act of seduction-and-betrayal: himself. I’ll resort to the kind of cliché that Hoffman avoids in his work: His performance is seamless. He’s so good he brings tears to my eyes.

The outside chance

Focus Features / Reuters

In 2000 I was going out with a woman with two young daughters and one night they all forced me to watch something called “10 Things I Hate About You.” I did offer one compliment. “You know, this guy’s not bad,” I said, gesturing to one actor. “Heath?” the elder daughter asked. “Is that his name?” I asked. “The guy playing Pat? He’s good.” She was thrilled. He was her big crush and it’s nice when others like your crush, too.

Now a lot of people like her crush. Ledger has done well at maneuvering from teen idol to good supporting roles (“The Patriot”; “Monster’s Ball”) to his heartbreakingly minimalist performance as Ennis. Pat, we hardly knew ye.

If Ledger has advantages over Hoffman it’s the following: 1) The steamroller effect, if there is one, for “Brokeback”; and 2) The heart factor. We like Ennis. More of us can identify with Ennis’ problem (allowing society to cripple who you are) than we can with Capote’s dilemma (art vs. love). Ledger’s film is kinder to Ennis, too, than Hoffman’s film is to Truman.

But — returning to that cliché — Ledger’s performance isn’t seamless. In the scene where Ennis brings his daughters into the grocery store there’s a moment where Ennis sounds less like his usual taciturn and tobacco-savoring self and a little like Skip, the surf-and-skateboard guru Ledger played in “Lords of Dogtown.” It’s just a moment, just one unraveled seam, but it’s there.

None of which takes away from the power of the film or Ledger’s performance. Any other year he’d win hands down.

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