Sunday 22 August 2010

Best Supporting Actor 1948: Oskar Homolka in I Remeber Mama

Oskar Homolka recieved his only Oscar nomination for portraying Uncle Chris Halverson in I Remember Mama.

I Remember Mama is a okay film at times about Norwegian immigrants but a little too long, and never that good really.

Oskar Homolka plays Uncle Chris the somewhat wacky Uncle who is related to the main Hanson family of the film. Homolka initially comes into the film as wacky and over the top as possible. He yells all the time, gives over the top expressions and gestures, he is the only cast member from the original play, and it shows. He is almost always too theatrical in his performance, making wide eyed looks, and it never really works all that well. His character is suppose to be loud and a little over the top anyways but Homolka went a little too far with the way he handled a lot of his scenes. He was not particularly believable, and his whole demeanor really does not work. He is not terrible his wackiness works a little bit at times but on a whole it seems false. His last scene though feels a bit a different from the rest of his performance though. He tones down his wackiness and his over the topness for his one last scene. He actually does a good job in giving a heartfelt scene at the very end. He gives a very tender moment where he gives a very honest performance, that works well. The one scene, although is well handled does not really make up for his over the topness of the rest of his performance.

3 comments:

dinasztie said...

He was horrible if you ask me. 1 out of 5 from me and I preferred even Ferrer. The whole movie sucked IMO except for maybe Irene Dunne, but my memory is not that kind to her either.

joe burns said...

He'll be fourth, probably. What did you think of Dunne?

Louis Morgan said...

Dinatzie: I can easily see how someone could like him even less.

Joe: She was okay but nothing that special.