Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1969: Goldie Hawn in Cactus Flower

Goldie Hawn won the Oscar from her first nomination for her performance as Toni Simmons in Cactus Flower.

Cactus Flower is an enjoyable comedy about a dentist who pretends to be married to avoid commitment but falls in love with his girlfriend and proposes to her: she, not wanting to be a homewrecker, tells him she wants to meet his wife first, so he asks his lonely nurse to pose as such. It's not necessarily an amazing movie and I actually have a few problems with it, but it's entertaining to watch from start to finish and that's more than enough. Walter Matthau delivers a funny performance as the lead although the standout of the movie was, in my opinion, Ingrid Bergman with her hilarious and poignant turn.

Goldie Hawn plays Toni, the young girlfriend of Julian (Matthau). In the opening minutes of the movie, we see Toni attempting suicide in her apartment because she can't handle her affair with Julian any longer and then being saved by her neighbor Igor (Rick Lenz). I would say those first scenes of her performance are extremely problematic due to the screenplay: it treats Toni's attempted suicide as if it were no big deal and both the writing and Hawn's performance portray it in a light-hearted fashion that just doesn't feel right. Hawn's performance is extremely shaky in these first few scenes for several reasons - she never digs deep into her character's pain and seems to be more interested in making her as quirky and offbeat as possible. She doesn't quite succeed fully at that either - she does have some natural charm that makes her mildly enjoyable but at the same time she over-accentuates many of her line-deliveries and comes off as forced more often than not. 

Thankfully after this rather unconvincing start her performance improves considerably: she still have a couple of odd line-deliveries and her inexperience does shine through occasionally, but most of the time she gives a much more assured and remarkable performance than in the beginning. She gradually becomes more and more comfortable in her role and she soon manages to accomplish what she failed to do in the beginning: she manages to be cute without ever being cloying and she makes her character's quirks an integral part of the character instead of a bunch of over-cooked mannerisms. She possesses a truly unique screen-presence that causes her to naturally stand-out, and that charm is probably the biggest strength of her performance: for most of the time Toni is not much more than a plot device that serves as the reason behind the many misunderstandings between the characters and it would have been easy for Hawn to feel quite repetitive in the role itself - she mostly has to react to each of Julian's lies which makes her character rather thankless in all honesty. Nonetheless, Hawn manages to leave a strong impression within the character's confines being a consistently entertaining presence and it's quite impressive that she manages to hold her own against Matthau and Bergman in their scenes together. What I appreciate the most about her turn here is the fact that she never makes Toni dumb - she is certainly naive but her naivety does not come from stupidity but rather from goodness and willingness to trust people. 

My favorite moment of her performance is by far her first meeting with Ingrid Bermang's character pretending to be Julian's wife: it's an excellent scene for both actresses and Hawn is quite moving at portraying her character's genuine concern for Julian's "wife" and the moment when she tearfully watches Stephanie walking away with her two nephews (which Toni mistakes as Stephanie's and Julian's sons) is surprisingly heartbreaking. I found the ending to be a bit of a letdown though - there is a great build-up to Toni's eventual discovery of Julian's lies but when the moment finally occurs it is a bit disappointing, particularly due to the writing. During the whole running time the movie constantly reminds us that Toni is so in love with Julian and then as soon as she finds out about the truth she forgets about him and embarks on a relationship with her neighbor? It does not feel convincing (especially because in their previous scenes together I never that much of a chemistry between Lenz and Hawn, even if they're sweet enough) and even if Hawn is very good at portraying Toni's initial shock and disbelief, she can't make the contrived ending of her character any more believable. 

Overall I think that this is a pretty good performance from Goldie Hawn, even if her performances is not without its flaws: to her defense, she is to blame for only a few of them and most of the time it's the screenplay that hinders her work. Still, it's a charming, enjoyable debut from a very capable actress and even if I don't think her Oscar win is particularly deserved, I don't really mind it either. 

3.5/5