Paul Giamatti is a treasure. Let us remember that he wasn’t even Oscar nominated, and should have won, for 2004’s “Sideways.” He is back in the race, this time nominated, for his wonderful performance as the curmudgeon, insult-slinging professor in “The Holdovers.”
What a unique talent Giamatti is and what a pleasure to see him cast as the lead in a film, something that hasn’t really been the case for quite a while. The raves he’s earned for this performance will hopefully fix that problem — he deserves more lead roles.
No one plays a sympathetic alcoholic sad sack quite as well as Giamatti, and in “The Holdovers” he absolutely kills it. His Paul Hunham is so defiant to the idea of being "nice," and clearly on a plane of intelligence above those around him, that his arc somehow turns into that of a tragic character.
Does Giamatti actually stand a chance to win the Oscar? Right now, he is the consensus #2 in the Best Actor race, but, much like the NYT’s Kyle Buchanan, I believe that the Oscar could be “Giamatti’s for the taking”, which would turn out to be quite the wonderful moment during the live telecast.
Then there’s the Gold Derby odds, which has over 3000 participants this year, and Giamatti is leading the pack there. When it comes to the “experts” consensus, he’s still at #2, behind Murphy. With that said, there’s no question that this year’s Best Actor race is now a two-man race — sorry, Bradley Cooper.
Giamatti, 56, has been around for over three decades in Hollywood, and in his best work (“Sideways,” “The Holdovers,” “American Splendor,” “Private Parts”) has managed to cement himself as one of those rare performers capable of excelling in both leading and supporting roles.
With that said, it’ll be hard for him beat Cillian Murphy. It’s such a towering performance and he’s practically in every scene of the 3-hour “Oppenheimer.” His Robert J. Oppenheimer also turned into an unlikely meme generator this past summer with the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon. I don’t know many people who disliked this performance.
And yet, I keep going back to Giamatti — his work as the grinch-like professor who learns a lesson in empathy is note perfect. There’s an immense precision to his work here that it might be very hard for Oscar voters to resist come crunch time. I just have this gut feeling that he’s going to pull off the upset.