Friday For Your Consideration: Kerry Condon

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.

Kerry Condon, “The Last Station”
Where you’ve seen her before: The 26-year-old Irish actress starred on HBO’s two-season historical drama “Rome” and in the film “Ned Kelly,” but this is the first time I’ve seen in anything.

Why she deserves it: From her first appearance on screen, Condon owns the performance. As a Tolstoyan devotee with a few objections to the way she’s supposed to live her life, she immediately stands out to James McAvoy’s Valentin as a woman worth knowing. It’s not as if he has much choice in the matter, however, since she pursues him aggressively, leaving him wimpering and sneezing at every turn. Condon holds her own against a fearsome cast, and in my opinion she’s the best one of them all. Out-acting Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giammati, and James McAvoy isn’t a feeble accomplishment.

Standout scene: (Minor spoilers) Condon’s Masha tries to teach Valentin the ropes of working on the Tolstoyan community. He isn’t terribly handy, but his masculinity is especially undermined by the fact that she is. Her ability to chop a piece of wood in half is especially impressive, and Condon milks it perfectly. It’s only slightly more incredible than the scene where she convinces Valentin that it’s time to lose his virginity, even if it’s not something totally in line with Tolstoyan theology.

Why she won’t get it: This film is opening late enough as it is, with only a week-long qualifying run at the beginning of December to even make it eligible for the Oscars this year. I have a feeling that both Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer may even have some trouble getting nominated at the Oscars, so Condon doesn’t have a shot in hell. The fact that there are so many fine actors in the film works against her because either Giammati or McAvoy might still be recognized over her. Until today, it’s unlikely that many reviews were even published and even more unlikely that Condon was mentioned in any of them. If she was, it was likely a quick note that was grouped with the other impressive performances in the ensemble. That, coupled with the film’s late opening, will leave her out in the cold completely. There’s a reason that the incredible “Children of Men” didn’t get nominated for Best Picture a few years ago, and a big part of it was that it opened so late and buzz didn’t have a chance to start early enough.

My review of the film is forthcoming, and come back next Friday for a look at another performer who deserves a shot at Oscar.