Overlooked Actor: Paul Giamatti

Back in 2004 when the Oscar announced the nominees, I wrote the piece below complaining about how Paul Giamatti was overlooked for his portrayal of Harvey Pekar in American Splendor. With his new movie (Lady in the Water), coming out, I think back to the first time I saw him in “Duets” and his other roles after it. I would say that his performance as Harvey Pekar still stands as his best.

Here is my first official complaint about this year Oscar, Paul Giamatti wasn’t nominated for the Best Actor category.

Of all the five nominees, I’ve seen Sean Penn, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp. Pending the other two films with Ben Kingsley and Bill Murray, I’d nominate Giamatti over Law and Depp despite how much I liked Cold Mountain and thoroughly enjoyed Depp’s invention of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.

In “American Splendor”, one of the most important things (if not the most) is to find an actor who could play Harvey Pekar. Giamatti did just that and more. Pekar, a comic book writer, has had people illustrated his face and his characteristics in so many forms that his wife wrote to him prior to their first meeting that she wasn’t sure if she would be seeing the “young Brando” or just a total slob.

When I see Giamatti’s face expression, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was trying to imitate Pekar or just totally reinvented a different character. Most likely, Giamatti was reinventing a different Pekar. That is because Giamatti did what the other illustrators had done in presenting Pekar in the way that they understand him. Pekar said it himself that Giamatti looks nothing like him but the important thing here isn't finding and actor who looks like Pekar but one that can understand what kind of person Pekar is and portray it accurately.

Hope Davis did an equally admirable job as Pekar’s wife, Joyce. Davis, who is beautiful in real life, played Joyce not by putting on a wig, glasses, and not wearing makeup but by morphing herself psychologically into how a woman like Joyce would talk, think, and express.

The technique of switching between comic and real life, and between real Pekar and Giamatti are smooth and well done. I thought this was a risk worth taking as it paid off really well since it could easily become a distraction if not well create.

A real treat for me is when Robert Crumb was revealed as a friend and illustrator of Pekar. I’ve seen Crumb years ago and had no idea the two are friends. I liked “Crumb” the same way I liked “American Splendor”. The difference between the two films is that “Crumb” is more like a documentary with everybody playing themselves.

It’s a pity that “American Splendor” only got nominated for one award (Best Writing/Screenplay) and it will probably come home empty-handed. “American Splendor”, in my opinion, is clearly a better film than “Seabiscuit” and “Master and Commander”.