of the Spotless Mind" -- already leading the pack as my favorite film of 2004 thus
far -- Kate Winslet gives what can be best described as the most vibrant,
emotionally resonant, and unrestrained performance of the year...and her career.
Enhancing and morphing the typical "free spririt" characters she's played before
in films like "Titanic," "Heavenly Creatures," and "Iris," Winslet makes the
unpredictable Clementine a wholly real, frustratingly complex, and yet
completely identifiable presence.
An average actress would've made the character a scatterbrained, harried lark.
A great actress -- as Winslet continues to prove she is with each startling role --
turns Clementine into a woman filled with deep passion for the uncertainties of
life and the vagaries of human connection. She's an unbridled romantic with a
desire to experience life at its most impulsive tangents.
It would be a shame if this heartbreaking performance went unnoticed come
nominations time. Blending humor with sadness, love with regret, fear with
compassion, and ambuiguity with truth, Winslet engages her character -- and the
audience -- with a wrenching exploration of love.
Now imagine if Lacuna, Inc. invented some sort of memory-jogging machine that
would allow voters to remember worthy films that came out in the spring...
Best Actress
KATE WINSLET
"Eternal Sunshine"
