1. Gene Hackman & Gwyneth Paltrow, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Sometimes in a movie there's one great performance snubbed by the Academy, but it's even sadder when a film has two performances as Oscar-calibur as those given by Gene Hackman and Gwyneth Paltrow in The Royal Tenenbaums. Let's start with Hackman.
The Role: Gene Hackman is Royal Tenenbaum, former lawyer and disgraced father of the Tenenbaum family. In a desperate attempt to spend time with his family, he claims that he's dying in an attempt to reconnect with his three children.
Why It's Oscar Worthy: Hackman has one of the most celebrated careers in the history of cinema, and many consider his performance in The Royal Tenenbaums to be his best. He plays a man who's selfish decisions we may not agree with, but he's charming, charismatic, and likable enough for us to forgive him and even agree with him. It's a tender performance full of emotion and passion, and only an actor of Hackman's magnitude could have pulled it off.
Let's then move on to Gwyneth Paltrow.
The Role: Paltrow plays Margot Tenenbaum, the adopted middle-child of the Tenenbaum household. Margot is an artist who has received acclaimed for her playwriting skills, but has since stopped producing plays. Margot also has a certain aspect about her that causes men to fall in love with her, as three of the main characters describe themselves as being in love with her (including her brother).
Why It's Oscar Worthy: Whether she's in the bathtub smoking, sexually experimenting, or having family conversation, Paltrow *is* Margot Tenenbaum. She plays the role with an aloofness and sincerity that makes Margot a character unlike any other. Even when maintaining her monotone voice, she's still able to convey the emotion and ideas behind the character, and isn't that what good acting is--being able to not only maintain a character on the surface, but also underneath in the most basic, fundamental, and flawed aspects of our psyche.