Jennifer Tilly received her only Oscar nomination to date for her performance as Olive Neal in Bullets over Broadway.
Olive Neal is the girlfriend of gangster Nicki Valenti, who agrees to produce David's play at one condition - that Olive will play a part in it. The problem is that Olive as an actress is cringe-worthy and past that she is annoying and demanding. It's actually a much harder role than it seems at first glance: how can an actor portray a bad actor without seeming excessively hammy? How can someone portray a character who is grating and annoying without actually giving a grating performance? Thankfully, Jennifer Tilly seems to be born for this role and perfectly pulls it off.
With her odd, unique voice that is both raspy and high-pitched, Tilly makes Olive an unforgettable creation that stands as one of the strongest performances in the movie. She perfectly portrays Olive's bratty qualities that make her insufferable at the eyes of the other characters - her Olive is childish, temperamental and selfish, but at the same time she manages to portray these qualities in an extremely entertaining fashion: you never once doubt that the other characters wouldn't be able to stand her but nonetheless there is not a single moment in her performance that isn't an absolute joy for the viewer. How can you just not love her in that scene at her house when she greets David and Julius attempting to look refined and classy while being so obviously not ("Charmed, charmed, charmed")? And she's an absolute hoot in the rehearsal scenes because she makes every single line count ("I'm usually very professional") and I particularly love the moment in which she expresses her questions about her character and her lines ("What is she, retarded?"): it's clear that Olive does not belong in the theatre and Jennifer Tilly's performance and character is so purposefully out of tune with the rest of the scenes that it's just hilarious to watch. And she is excellent at portraying Olive's bad acting: as I mentioned before, it's one of the trickiest parts of her performance but she delivers it extremely well - she makes Olive a properly awkward performer without ever becoming too much. I've read that Jennifer Tilly was the only actor on set to be allowed to improvise - this works perfectly for her performance as it makes Olive an even more unpredictable and explosive character: some of Tilly's best moments are in the small instances in which she talks over the other actors or say something quickly under her breath. I love her chemistry with Chazz Palminteri (who plays her bodyguard, Cheech) - they don't even share that many scenes together but they make their bickering so much fun to witness, particularly when Cheech is helping Olive to memorize her lines (the scene in which they argue because she adds a completely random and out of the place "Ah!" to the script is just priceless and one the movie's highlights, as well as the scene later on in which she practices her "superior laugh").
What I admire the most about Tilly's performance is that she manages to be top notch even in parts of the movie I don't even like all that much. For example, I really don't care for the few scenes devoted to Olive's affair with another actor, Warner Purcell (Jim Broadbent), as I don't think they were really necessary but Tilly still shines in those moments, especially in the scene in which she tries to prevent Nick from finding Warner who is hinding in the role - she again is absolutely hilarious and she - and Broadbent to a lesser extent - prevents those scenes from being a waste of time. Also I have several problems with her character's closure: first off, it feels a bit too rushed and secondly it's just way too brutal and the fact that it seems to be supposed to be funny makes it all the more awkward, throwing the movie's tone off balance. Tilly's performance though remains unharmed by this and her performance keeps being terrific until the very end.
Tilly's performance must have been a surprise back then - she hadn't been nominated to any other award, not even small critics' ones, and I guess many people were expecting Robin Wright or Sally Field from Forrest Gump to be nominated instead of her, or even Jamie Lee Curtis from True Lies or Kirsten Dunst from Interview with the Vampire (who was indeed amazing). Nonetheless I'm extremely happy that the Academy chose to nominate her work was it is a truly hilarious performance from start to finish. She just nails her character and gives a consistently entertaining portrayal - the more I think about her, the more I love her and I would say that there is a possibility I might upgrade her rating in the future.
4.5/5
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