Oscars 2004: If We Picked the Winners (Best Actor)

5. Johnny Depp - Finding Neverland This has been on my mind for quite some time now, and like the guilt felt over a nefarious deed, it just won't go away, continually getting louder in my head over time. Johnny Depp is not that good an actor. Phew, it feels so much better now that I have said it. Let me clarify though. At one time, Johnny Depp deserved all the praise in the world. His iconic performance as Edward Scissorhands is a unique turn that no other actor may have been able to pull off and the performance is probably the best "silent" performance since Charlie Chaplin's last rendition of the Tramp in Modern Times. His performance as history's worst director in Tim Burton's other Ed movie, Ed Wood, is another spectacular performance that is still under-appreciated to this day. Then there are his late 90's performances in smaller, artistically adventurous films, such as Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco, and Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that range from solid to terrific. Even after this, promise for Depp's career was still present, but then a Disney film by the name of Pirates of the Caribbean came along and changed everything. The ironic part is his performance in the film is legitimately good, but the amount of money and fame that came along with the role had Depp seeing green, which put him into two different roles. One role was to bank off of his quirky shtick characters in Burton's films and as well as others of their ilk. The other role was to continue to do "serious" roles, but his quirkiness still seemed to seep into these roles as well. Case and point: Finding Neverland. Playing James Matthew Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, the film explored Barrie's life before Peter Pan, in particular his friendship with a woman and her children which helped inspire him to write Peter Pan. Much like the film though, Depp's performance is forgettable and low-key to a fault. Without any discernible emotions outside a vague curiosity with the children's imagination, Depp's Barrie is hard to relate to. Why does a grown man take such interest in children? Even if it is not sexual, it has to be something more interesting than "the magic of a child's mind" that the film and Depp's performance seem to suggest. This schmaltzy answer just falls flat, which in turn leads Depp's performance to do the same. The performance had potential, but just as Depp's career in the last decade, ultimately, it goes nowhere.