Gold Standard: Oscars 2015: Lead actress field thin? Think again

Tracking actors’ awards-season prospects is too often an exercise in negotiating the allure of the new, with some pundits flailing their arms each time an unseen movie debuts, shouting from the social media rooftops that hallelujah, they have seen the face of God and that their faith in film has been restored.

Except it’s usually not that subtle.

So when awards pundits saw Julianne Moore’s turn as a Columbia professor struggling with early onset Alzheimer’s in the unheralded “Still Alice” last week at the Toronto International Film Festival, many were eager to present her the lead actress Oscar right then, right now, especially after the estimable Sony Pictures Classics bought the movie two days later.

Reese Witherspoon as a troubled woman venturing on a journey of self-discovery in “Wild”? So yesterday. Felicity Jones playing Stephen Hawking’s suffering, supportive wife in “The Theory of Everything”? Old news. Moore arrived last and, better still, she came without any hype. Never underestimate the thrill of discovery when it comes to awards season breathlessness.

Moore’s advent coincided with the narrative that 2014 hasn’t been a particularly deep year for lead actress contenders. That might be true if you haven’t seen many movies this year or what constitutes an awards-worthy performance, by default, always excludes this in favor of this.

But for the rest of us, 2014 has been a pretty great year for leading women. Here’s a quartet worthy of consideration.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “Belle”

Playing the illegitimate mixed daughter of an admiral in this period tale set in late-18th-century England, Mbatha-Raw gives the kind of exquisite performance that the academy’s Jane Austen-adoring members would love (if they saw it), full of dignity and grace and fierce expressiveness. If the movie (which, like a lot of other Oscar contenders this year, has its faults) arrived in September instead of May, Mbatha-Raw would be the belle of the ball right now.

Marion Cotillard, “The Immigrant”

Oscar winner Cotillard arrived in Toronto with “Two Days, One Night,” playing a wife and mother who takes action after losing her factory job. It’s a fine performance, but where she really shined was in James Gray’s period film about two Polish sisters coming to America in 1921 looking for the American dream. They don’t quite find it and their nightmarish journey is brought home by Cotillard’s brave, vulnerable, intense turn. It might be her best work and it’d be nice if the Weinstein Co. decides to give it a push.

Lindsay Duncan, “Le Week-End”

Duncan and Jim Broadbent play prickly British baby boomers celebrating their anniversary with a weekend in Paris. The change of scenery leads to a release of a well of unspoken hurt and anger, testing their bond. Think of it as “August: Osage County” without the overacting. Duncan, a British treasure as much as Judi Dench or Maggie Smith, more than deserves a breakthrough in the States for her complex, vivacious performance.

Jenny Slate, “Obvious Child”

Comic actors always have a difficult time with the academy, so it’s going to be especially tough sledding for Slate, seeing as how she’s starring in a romantic comedy centered around an abortion. But Slate is so funny and emotionally open as a self-involved New Yorker in this survivor’s tale that it’s hard to imagine anyone forgetting her once they’ve seen the film. Of course, it premiered so long ago, all the way back at Sundance, so it’s new only in the sense of Slate’s startlingly good work ... which should be all that matters, right? Right?

Twitter: @glennwhipp