Quite simply the best supporting performance of the year, male or female, and you can see Mr. Affleck's skin crawling as he ponders and plans for his big moment as Robert Ford.  The film is commanded by him, so much so that it could actually be a lead role, but subtlety is the most magnificent player in his performance.  Write this down: Affleck is a guarantee to win, ten years after older brother Ben (who directs him in "Gone Baby Gone") did for the screenplay of "Good Will Hunting".  The Academy may as well go ahead and open the envelope before they even nominate him in January.  Casey Affleck had his de rigeur appearance in "Ocean's Thirteen", but in "Assassination" he not only holds his own against Brad Pitt, he dominates, even as he is the quieter, more sublimate character.  The suspense isn't in what his Mr. Ford will do, it's in what he's thinking -- heck, it's in watching him galvanize a film that was still one of the most painful and tedious exercises of 2007.

 

Albert Finney is quiet and calculating in his role as the father of two very different sons in Sidney Lumet's brilliant film.  He is wounded throughout, harried by the failures of his offspring, and in his twilight years is ruing the effect of their unwitting action to burgle and bungle the robbery that results in a death that hits close to home.  Finney weaves a marvelous performance, with Greek tragedy and Macbeth written all over it.  One understands the boiling cauldron that arises within him, but what he does in Mr. Lumet's film is a result of years of tension and failure, not of one singular act, albeit one act that broke the last straw on the camel's back.
 

Mr. Holbrook effects a tender, touching performance as a man inspired by Emile Hirsch's Christopher McCandless in "Into The Wild", Sean Penn's effective drama based on the true story of Mr. McCandless.  Holbrook plays a lonely man who is reaching for hope, but is waiting out the last days of his life.  His radiation of a human connection is astounding as he intuits deep feeling, emotion and gratitude in the simplest gesture.  Holbrook's character has been waiting for a lifetime for a meaningful connection following the departure of his wife, who apparently never had a child with him.  His longing is aching, and this year his ache was felt more deeply in ten minutes of screen time than in any other performer who had more screen time all year.

 

 

 

Often the best performances stand out in films that aren't good (see Mr. Affleck's above), and Terrence Howard's is no exception, playing a New York City police detective who is much smarter than the character on the page in Neil Jordan's film.  He matches wits with Jodie Foster's Erica Bain, even as he is very aware of the score with her character, and even as he is increasingly falling for her.  Mr. Howard is subtle, charming and displays a confidence that simmers as he is in control of an investigation into a rash of random killings in the Big Apple, yet out of control of his own emotions toward a woman that he secretly admires.

 

 

Mr. Mueller-Stahl displays an avuncular menace as the father of an unruly Russian crime associate played by Vincent Cassel.  His performance is the real winner in David Cronenberg's film and while you are busy admiring Viggo Mortensen's fine work, you are rooted to your seat in admiration and fear due to the volatility of Mr. Mueller-Stahl's character.  Knowing the dispassionate way in which he treats Mr. Cassel's character in this film, and contrasting that with the way he approaches and addresses Naomi Watts' character, makes his performance that much more astounding.  He adds a weight to his role that even the flashes of gruesome violence in the film cannot obliterate.  "Eastern Promises" was one of the better films of the year, and the acting from Mr. Mueller-Stahl stood out and spoke volumes.  His charisma is also his cunning, and his chilling, to boot in his performance.