Best Supporting Actress 2011

5. Octavia Spencer - The Help
She is very talented and I would like to see her in a dramatic role. But here she does something, I call "comedy overacting". That´s exactly what Adam Sandler (or Eddie Murphy) does in his comedies and that´s the reason, nobody finds these comedies funny. And so Octavia Spencer does this and destroys her character with this...

4. Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Berenice Bejo is really charming playing the likable character of Peppy Miller, but I found her performance a little bit lackluster, especially next to the entertaining Jean DuJardin´s performance. She should be much more overacting in a silent performance like this...

3. Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Very good performance by Janet McTeer. She certainly knows, what she´s doing, but it´s clear to everyone, that she is not a man. How can the other characters in Albert Nobbs be so blind and not to see in. McTeer´s behavior is too womanfully to be really convincing...

2. Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
McCarthy completely understood what is funny. It´s not about overacting. It´s all about being "real" and the audience is going to roll on the floor laughing. I think all of the comedians (or many of them - Sandler, Murphy and so on) should learn from McCarthy´s performance...

1. Jessica Chastain - The Help
Chastain gave a depth into this (not very well written) character and I simply loved every moment, she was on the screen. While I was watching her scenes, I was screaming (just like she was in one of her scenes): "This is so much fun!"

My Nominees:

1. Jessica Chastain - The Help
2. Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
3. Mia Wasikowska - Albert Nobbs
4. Sandra Bullock - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
5. Demi Moore - Margin Call

Best Supporting Actress 2011: Berenice Bejo - The Artist

To make a silent black-white picture in 2011 may seem like a real madness. But it´s not. The Artist is an extraordinary wonderful film, that is beloved by many people, just like the Academy.

This idea would never go well, if the performances in the film were bad. The actors must overact much more, than in a "normal" film to show the emotions and feelings of their characters. Berenice Bejo is really very good in her performance. She is funny and very likable as Peppy Miller, she dances very well, but I have one little problem with this performance.
If you look at Jean DuJardin´s performance he´s wonderfully charming and he is overacting as much, as it´s needed. His face-play is over the top, but it´s just how the old silent movies are played. Berenice Bejo unfortunately doesn´t do this. Her mimicry is never as bold, as it should be. We understand Peppy´s feelings, but Bejo becomes a little bit lackluster.
And if I should say her best scene, I couldn´t name any. It´s not because she´s not good in any, but she´s the same in every. None of her scenes is better, than the rest of her parts.
I´m not saying, Bejo was bad in The Artist, or she did the bad job. But next to DuJardin´s charming performance she is getting a little bit lost. Sorry Berenice...

Best Supporting Actress 2011: Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs is not actually this year´s award season´s very beloved film. Some people say, the main character of Glenn Close is not likable and that they didn´t care about him/her, but I disagree. I liked the film very much, but it was mostly because of the performances, because the script is really bad.
McTeer´s character is maybe the best of the film. It actually has got some depth and McTeer makes this character very likable. For me, it was not so, at all.
I would never believe, that McTeer is a man, but the characters in the film do. McTeer never gives up her femaleness and that makes her character unrealistic. For example the scene, she shows us the proof, that she is a woman (the scene the photo up is from) should be a shock for us, but it isn´t. From the first moment, we know, that Hubert is a woman.
It´s not only McTeer´s fault, even makeup designers should make her look more like a man. But it seemed, that Janet is not even trying to make Hubert look like a man. And there is a contradiction. Because she´s about to play a woman that wants everyone to think, that she´s a man, but she personally doesn´t want it.
But her performance is not bad, at all. As the film is ending, her performance is better and better and at the end it is really a honest and wonderful performance. But some scenes from the beginning should be a little bit better, because they are making her character unrealistic...

Best Supporting Actress 2011:Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids is a huge precious of Guild´s Awards, but at the Academy Awards there are only two nominees. Best original screenplay and best supporting actress - both deserving. For me it really is a very funny comedy, we don´t see very often. Last time I saw something similar was in The Hangover, or Borat and it was very long time ago.
Melissa McCarthy is wonderful in her character. Her role could so easily be extremely overacted, but McCarthy isn´t. She completely understood, what is funny and what should she do to be funny. Her poker-faced line reading is one of the most funniest performances I´ve ever seen. You can see, how McCarthy enjoys playing in Bridesmaids and so you do.
There definitely are moments in Bridesmaids, that I found embarrassing, for example the huge puke scene. But Melissa does everything she can do to make these scenes be something more than just a complete disaster.
What else to say? This is really how I imagine a Oscar-nominated comic performance...