The following is an entry of Stinky Lulu's 3rd Annual Supporting Actress Blogathon. For a great variety of other entries, please visit stinkylulu.com
Before this post begins, I feel that I must defend my choice this year by saying that, while I am a pop culture/cinema aficionado, I can literally count on one hand the five 2008 releases I saw this year. Stop Loss was riveting, and not just because of my imaginary engagement to Channing Tatum; Sex and the City was a fitting 140-minute episode of the show; Pineapple Express was an enjoyable comedy/action hybrid; and The Dark Knight was a surprisingly cynical epic that I hope doesn't get overlooked in the Best Picture Race. However, not one of these films featured a Supporting Actress performance that caused me leaving to leave the theater with it still brewing in my mind, and the one that did was the very surprising and unlikely:
MARY STEENBURGEN in STEPBROTHERS
Like nearly all of Will Ferrell's films, Stepbrothers is a one-joke premise stretched thinly over 90 minutes. In this particular film, the simple plot features Ferrell's Brennan Huff competing with fellow 40-year-old homebody Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) when their parents quickly fall in love and get married (it is to the film's credit that the plot point of the marriage plays over literally the first few minutes). The entire film's running gag: Dale and Brennan are adults but act like 12-year-old boys. Dale's father, Robert, is a gruff medical doctor, while Brennan's mother is the vivacious and sweet-hearted Nancy Huff, who is so breathtaking that when Robert first sees her, in the audience while conducting a seminar, he commits a vulgar Freudian slip.
During her first scenes, it is Steenburgen's beauty that draws us to her character. A beautiful woman who has allowed herself to age gracefully (she looks preserved but not Botoxed to hell), it's not difficult for the audience to see why a wealthy older man would fall in love with her in a crowded room. However, the implausibility that the 55-year-old Steenburgen is playing a mother to a 39-year-old will just have to be overlooked.
But as the story unfolds, and Brennan and Dale find themselves united against Brennan's successful and snide younger brother Derek (Adam Scott in a memorable performance), Steenburgen's Nancy becomes the conscience of the film. During the scene later in the film when Nancy and Robert inform "the boys" that the house is being sold, Steenburgen's Nancy remains firm in her "bad cop" role, yet avoids eye contact and at one point even shuts her eyes for a prolonged period. Steenburgen aptly plays up the conflict of Nancy in this scene; she doesn't love her son more than she loves her husband, but she understands that the apron strings can't be tied forever.
And during the scenes where Nancy is surrounded by both her son, Steenburgen does a masterful job of never letting us think she loves one more than the other. She gives her sons both looks of admiration, even though one is financially ten times worth the other. The movie is full of scenes of frenetic chaos, but other than a brief expletive when hosing down the boys as they fight in the front yard, Nancy always remains glued together, even when her and Robert finally announce their divorce at Christmas (and since it's a Will Ferrell comedy, it involves loud sobbing and vomit).
Steenburgen also provides one of the film's biggest laughs, during an early scene when Nancy explains to Robert the animosity between her sons. While printed words won't do justice to the flashback she narrates, it ends with Robert telling her that "Ice, Ice, Baby" really is a great song. "It is," Nancy emphatically agrees as the film quickly smash cuts to another scene. Steenburgen's character is the back drop for most of the movie, but the scene is an example of how she makes the most of her dialogue.
Stepbrothers is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination; at face value, it's a fast-paced and wacky comedy. And while Ferrell and co-writer and director Adam McKay are, as they did in Anchorman, wise to divvy up hilarious supporting roles (Scott and Jenkins are especially good, and Kathryn Hahn, as Derek's wife with a nymphomaniacal crush on Dale, is gleefully over-the-top), Steenburgen's restrained and believable performance is the real gem here. She's a sexy, older woman -- but not one played up as a "cougar" or sexpot -- with a conflicted love for both her sons, one an egomaniacal alpha male and the other a childish screw-up. And by making her character's love for her son so evident (a knowing grin here, a frustrated stare there), Steenburgen leads the audience to love the immaturity of Brennan -- truly an amazing feat.
