Best Supporting Actor 2009: Results

5. Christopher Plummer in The Last Station- Plummer although certainly competent never manages to make anything special out of Tolstoy.

4. Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones- Tucci mostly just tries to be creepy which he does do well enough. His performance though lacks the visceral power a performance like this should have.

3. Matt Damon in Invictus- This might seem like a surprise position but out of the bottom three Damon does succeed the most in his particular role. He brings the passion and spirit that the story needs.

2. Woody Harrelson in The Messenger- Harrlson gives an intense and powerful emotional performance when he is in uniform, but when out of it he relies  a little bit too much on his usual style.

1. Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds- Waltz simply gives a great memorable villainous performance that manages to be both humorous and chilling, and succeeds with every single challenge found in the role.

Deserving Performances:
Michael Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds

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Best Supporting Actor 2009: Matt Damon in Invictus

Matt Damon received his second acting Oscar nomination for portraying Francois Pienaar in Invictus.

Matt Damon portrays the captain of the South African Rugby team who President Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) wants to win the World Cup in an attempt to unite the country together. Damon role here is actually a fairly limited one not in terms of screentime but in terms of what Pienaar does throughout the course of the film. Pienaar has no internal conflict and is devoted to his team winning from the very beginning, and than proceeds to agree with Mandela's ideas almost instantly. Pienaar has no personal conflict or struggle other than just to win the game.

I do not want to be too negative though as there is not anything wrong with Damon's performance either. He uses a South African accent and actually handles it quite well by not ever overdoing it or bringing too much attention to it. He keeps it simple but as it should be. Damon most certainly does have the determination required for his performance, and keeps a certain degree of passion in his performance that is always completely fitting of his character.

Damon though never really has any sort scenes that really allow him to much of anything but really small reactions. His reactions even are not given that much importance considering he can just be part of a crowd during a scene. There is nothing wrong with these reactions either, and are always certainly fitting to his character. In the end there are just only a few challenges in the role the accent, and showing the right passion Damon completely fulfills these challenges but the film never asks anything more from him.

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Best Supporting Actor 2009

And the Nominees Were:

Woody Harrelson in The Messenger 

Matt Damon in Invictus

Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds

Christopher Plummer in The Last Station

Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones

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