It had to be Christopher Walken, it had to be. "Seven Psychopaths" is a brilliant film, and the heart of it lies in the performance of Christopher Walken. As Hans, the partner of Billy (Sam Rockwell) who's cockeyed plan of stealing people's dogs and returning them for the reward money gets them into trouble with a local mob man (Woody Harrelson), Walken brings his usual quirky sense of humour to the role, but also a certain melancholy. Also like my pick for best supporting actress Sarah Silverman, Walken's character gets the final word on what the movie is all about. In one of the most poignant scenes I've seen all year, you don't have to look further than Hans' speech into Marty's (Colin Farrell) tape recorder. That's all I'm going to say because I don't want to spoil it, but it was that moment where to me the film went from good to great.
"Seven Psychopaths" has been somewhat written off as some meta-joke about a screenwriter (Farrell) suffering from writer's block when he's writing a movie entitled "Seven Psychopaths". Yet the film goes much further than the meta-joke trappings it sets itself up for.
I believe the movie has much to say about violence both in movies and in life in general and how we are affected by it. "Seven Psychopaths" is looking for a silver lining about violence and it comes from Hans. We learn about Hans' past and it is as tragic as one can get, but he does get his moment of grace, which is the moment of grace for the film. The film is darkly comic, yet I came out of it with a life affirming attitude and it's because of Walken's performance.
The very, very, very close runner up would be Walken's co-star Sam Rockwell who gave probably the funniest performance of the year, and who wouldn't give anything to see him finally get a nomination for something. In fact I will say it is a shame neither Walken or Rockwell were nominated for this film.
But let's move on, there were a lot of great supporting performances this year, I would say all of the best supporting actor nominees are worthy of their nominations even if they couldn't make room for Walken and Rockwell. Christoph Waltz completely stole the show in "Django Unchained", and most of my favorite scenes in "Lincoln" usually included Tommy Lee Jones. Robert De Niro was brilliantly understated in "Silver Linings Playbook" and reminds us why he is such a great actor. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the second half of the greatest acting scene of the year in "The Master", and even though I don't think Alan Arkin has much to do in "Argo" other than give the movie it's few humorous moments, he's the perfect man for the job.
Other supporting actors that gave memorable performances this year would be Bruce Willis both in "Moonrise Kingdom", and "Looper" showing that he's one of the few action heroes who have depth, Also from "Moonrise Kingdom", I would add Edward Norton's loyal scout leader, and Bill Murray's concerned parent. Plus I would add Matthew McConaughey's prosecuting attorney in "Bernie" was a pleasant surprise, and it's just a delight to see John Goodman show up in both "Argo" and "Flight" doing his thing, rock on John, rock on.
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