Among the most famous Oscar "upsets" of the past twenty years some have caught more of a sense of some kind of "infamy" I guess you could say. While Oscar has certainly has a solid track record for picking the sweet bird of youth (which has extended for some time now), it seemed absolutely no one expected so big of a shock on Oscar night in 1997. It's an odd case of the actual winner not receiving the backlash, but the favored losing nominee actually getting the "Haha" when she did not win. Whether or not that's fair game, the world was stunned that Oscar didn't choose the heavily predicted nomination of...
Lauren Bacall plays Hannah Morgan, the old wisecracking Jewish mama of Rose (Babs, basically playing out her vain life story) with whom she lives with in a cozy, well furnished New York apartment.
Hannah's life has been still and vacant for some time now, after the death of a husband and the prospect of raising two daughters who each share a different place with their narcissistic, over-bearing mother.
Because Hannah was a once gorgeous beauty in her youth, she feels as if she's beginning to fade away from the spotlight -- a spotlight she tries her hardest to reclaim, like attempting to upstage her daughter at her own wedding by appearing in bright purple glitter gown. Though she may be "stuck" living with her, Rose's many neuroses seem to be no match for Hannah's self-absorbed, pain in the ass, wicked, antagonizing ego, as this Monster Mother's job has been reduced to criticizing Rose and having a ball playing Devil's Advocate.
As Rose begins to experience life and love in a whole new way, Hannah (as usual) attacks such notions with daggers and doesn't trust that this could be any good for her ugly duckling daughter.
This includes interrogating Rose's new lover and being shocked to discover that his non-lusty intentions are not at all what she expected and that the guy just might be suited for her daughter -- though never actually letting such thoughts exposed at the expense of her nail tough persona.
Bacall is used mainly as device within the narrative to pop in every now and then as a breath of air. Her wit, comedic timing, and charisma are deployed by Bacall herself and by Streisand to have Hannah stand as a kind of moral compass for the film, while also serving as some pretty funny comic relief to spice everything up. Now, although these elements might combine to craft a pretty solid performance the actress, the outcome is sadly more rickety than anything.
With Babs at the helm of the movie, Bacall's performance seems to crumble at the lack of her bland, directorial talent. Instead of allowing the actress to play a character who breathes in some sort of independent reality, Streisand only sees the opportunity to use Bacall's signature hard-edged charisma and personality. It's too bad that, in playing Hannah, Bacall channels her charisma over her characterization (flattening it) instead of through it.
But I do fault Bacall again for staying on her one single note of stiff deviance, instead of developing the character to discover some kind of depth or emotional integrity beyond her thin, ballsy persona. She almost totally neglects the human behind the mask and her would-be complex interiority; by doing so Bacall simply doesn't isn't capable of conveying Hannah's desperation of being abandoned and left in the dark forever.
Though despite all of that there is one moment which changes my view on Bacall's Hannah, and gives us a hint of something deeper beneath the surface. When a down-on-her-luck Rose goes to her mother looking for some answers to her messy situation, she asks, "How did it feel being beautiful?". Hannah takes a moment to take it all in, until she let's down her guard and quietly responds, "It was wonderful". It's a tender scene where Bacall lets us see a resonant glimmer of the human soul under the broad, showy persona, and makes her nomination a worthy one.
Her other scene in he kitchen where she talks with Rose about the past and the present further surprisingly supports the nomination, as Bacall again successfully expels the humanity of the character in service to the story.
But then for her brief closing scenes, where Hannah has to grow as a character, Bacall (as well as the movie) oddly jump back to the persona facet and never gives her characterization a rounded, contoured arc. The loose ends dangle for the character and it's frustrating for her to just hang on the edge with no sense of closure. Although the performance, I think, is worthy of the nomination, it's somewhat shockingly inconsistent; with Bacall oscillating between persona and person with little fluidity or reasoning. It's a nice, pleasant career capper for one of Hollywood's most beloved icons.
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