There is very little that impresses me about Hilary Swank at all, let alone either of her two Oscar-winning roles.
I think that she won in 2000 because of the role. Yes, playing someone like Teena/Brandon had to be difficult, but if you look at her acting in Boys Don't Cry, just the acting, it's really nothing special. That award was given to Teena/Brandon, not to Hilary Swank. To people who criticize Bening of overacting in American Beauty, they clearly don't understand Carolyn Burnham: she is overbearing, overly critical, overly career- and success-obsessed, and Bening NAILED it. Whereas as both Swank's and Bening's roles drew a lot of attention that year, only Bening's performance lived up to the character.
As for Million Dollar Baby, Swank delivers a very wooden performance. Perhaps the Academy was distracted by her physical transformation (as they were with Charlize Theron. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic performance and she completely deserved her Oscar in my opinion, but I wish that most people weren't as interested in how different Theron looked, and instead focused more on her great acting) and the tragic character she played. Again, the Academy went with a poor, trashy woman in a gender-confused role with an unfortunate life and death. While Bening was certainly the better of the two that year, my vote would have gone to Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; it is, in my opinion, her best acting to date, and with a resume and reputation like Winslet, that's really saying something.
As for Hilary Swank being the new Jodie Foster, this is just the talk of Swank's agent and clueless writers who want to spark some interest. Other than the fact that they have both won two leading actress Oscars at a relatively young age, there is little that the two have in common. Swank doesn't have half the talent, class, skill, or range that Jodie Foster has.
This turned out to be more of a rant about Hilary Swank, but oh well. It needed to be said somewhere.
"And like that, poof. He's gone..."
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