Friday For Your Consideration: Hal Holbrook

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Friday For Your Consideration. As every year nears to a close, there are a number of actors nominated for Golden Globes, Oscars, and countless other awards. There are so many spots and there are so many deserving contenders, yet some inevitably get left out. Each week, I’ll be spotlighting one performance from this year which deserves a second look but might not get it. This doesn’t mean I don’t want Carey Mulligan and Christoph Waltz to get their first nominations. They don’t need my help. As luck would have it, these actors do. I’ll be running this feature until Oscar nominations are announced at the beginning of February, so leave your choices in the comments and I might feature them over the next couple of weeks! I’ve written at greater length about these performances in the reviews of the films, so make sure to read those for a more detailed look at why these actors deserve an Oscar nomination.

Hal Holbrook, “That Evening Sun”
Where you’ve seen him before: He’s been acting on television and in movies for fifty years. Most recently, he earned an Oscar nomination in 2007 for his supporting role in “Into the Wild.”

Why he deserves it: The 84-year-old Holbrook is nearly three times the age of some of his costars, and he delivers one of the sharpest and most moving performances in recent years. He instills Abner Meecham with an extraordinary sense of self, one that can’t be muted by debilitating faculties or the strong wits of others. He’s determined to live the rest of his life on his own terms, and he’s not going to let anyone else tell him what to do. It’s simply magnificent to watch this actor with over 100 performances in his belt deliver such an astonishing performance.

Standout scene: You can catch a piece of it starting at the 1:47 mark of the theatrical trailer. Holbrook starts singing the song from which the title is derived. He’s quiet, off-key, and couldn’t care less. He’s at home, and he’s going to do what he damn well pleases.

Why he won’t get it: The Best Actor race is pretty much set, with four actors locked for a nomination (Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, and Morgan Freeman) and one other looking very good (Jeremy Renner). I thought for a while that Holbrook could take his spot (though Renner was excellent also), but his failure to earn a Best Independent Spirit Award nomination when two other actors in his film did wasn’t a good sign. No one has seen the film, and it seems those who have aren’t recognizing his incredible performance.

Read the review here, and come back next Friday for a look at an actress who deserves a shot at Oscar.