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Annette Benning's best performance: Julia Lambert or Carolyn Burnham?

posted 17 years ago by k_atti
4 replies | jump to latest

I agree, she did a very good acting in Being Julia. But as Carolyn Burnham (American Beauty), she was just fantastic!
What do you think?

[–] NSquarticsurface 17 years ago

I had this same thought. As I was watching, I was thinking to myself, "I've only seen acting this good in one other place. Hmm...where was that. Oh, American Beauty! Oh, wait, that is the same actress! Wow."

I really can't tell. I think this role was more demanding. It required so many different subtleties that AB didn't demand. Both are great performances, but this is a great performance of a harder role. This one wins in my opinion.

[–] netshopper-2 16 years ago

Have to go with Carolyn Burnham. I really liked Being Julia and benning in it but at times her performance seemed a tiny bit shakey.

[–] xylonian-1 16 years ago

Yes, but at times she was supposed to be "a tiny bit" shakey Both were great, I'd call it a toss-up, but you may be right.

I love both these movies, with Being Julia being my all time #2, and American Beauty in the top 10 or 20 somewhere.... Have loved all Annette Benning's performances but believe that is limited to only 3

"Wait. Where are you going? I was going to make Espresso."

[–] jshdorst 16 years ago

I think that she was good in Being Julia, but her performance in American Beauty felt out of step with the rest of the movie. I actually prefer her as Myra in Grifters or Sydney in American President.