Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1969: Dyan Cannon in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Dyan Cannon received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Alice Henderson in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice is an interesting movie about a married couple's decision to embrace complete openness and how this affects the relationship between their two best friends, married to each other. I would say that the movie is a bit dated today but I still found it a very enjoyable experience: the screenplay is actually excellent and even if the ending is indeed rather puzzling I still think it works well within the movie (unlike most people I never felt it was a cop out). I have to say though that the scenes focusing on Ted and Alice are by far the strongest of the movie, as I think they are far more interesting than Bob and Carol who are a bit one-note: Robert Culp still delivers a fine enough performance showing some variations within his character's limitations but I felt Natalie Wood went way too far with her performance, killing any sort of credibility or humanity to her character whatsoever. 

In 1969 Dyan Cannon received quite a few nominations to critics' awards (she actually won the New York Film Critic Circle Award) in the supporting category, and she ended up being nominated at the Oscars in the same category. The Golden Globes, though, nominated her in the lead category and in my opinion that's where she belongs: not only she gets a lot of screen-time, but she is also an absolutely essential character without whom the movie would have failed. In fact, Alice Henderson is the character with whom the viewer can relate most and she immediately becomes the movie's emotional and moral crux. It's a much more demanding role than it first seems, and Cannon is perfectly up to the task. First off, she works incredibly well with the rest of the ensemble and proves herself to be a very generous performer - she knows when it's her time to shine and in the remaining moments she manages to quietly leave a big impression without ever trying to upstage any of the other cast members. The ensemble is terrific as the four leads truly seem like longtime friends and there's a natural, spontaneous feeling in their moments together - Alice is the character who speaks the least when they are in company but she makes her silence heard and makes the most out of her small, reactionary moments: there is not a single look or gesture that ever seems wasted. Her first big moment is when Carol tells Alice and Ted that Bob cheated on her and that she is completely fine with it: Cannon is excellent at showing how Alice is deeply upset by it and she's actually quite moving at portraying her inability to understand neither Bob's act nor Carol's acceptance of it. Her long following discussion with her husband Ted is beautifully acted on both ends I found myself completely captivated by it throughout the entirety of it: Cannon and Elliot Gould share a wonderful chemistry and they nail both the comic and dramatic sides of the scene - their bickering is extremely entertaining but they also show remarkably how Alice and Ted are shocked by the news in their own ways. 

In the rest of the movie Dyan Cannon does a fantastic job at showing how Alice tries to deal with the new situation but never quite seems to truly accept or understand their friends' lifestyle. She is very moving as she shows that Alice really tries to adapt to this new reality but simply can't which leads to the brilliant scene when Alice visits a psychiatrist. It's an absolutely marvelous moment thanks to Cannon's acting who reveals so much about Alice and her personality - the nuances she conveys in this scene are just incredible: everything feels so natural, honest and poignant and she adds so much complexity to the character through some small details that are never overcooked yet are immediately visible - the way she moves her eyes and body indicating her nervousness, her awkward laugh when she says Bob's name instead of her husband's, both the happiness and the uncomfortableness as she talks about her life at home... it's just a phenomenal scene that does not consist of loud or showy acting but it's unforgettable because of how poignantly and sincerely Cannon plays it as she just exposes every single aspect of the character giving the viewer a full understanding of her thoughts and feelings. 

Cannon's truly big moment comes at the end of the movie when the four friends travel together to Las Vegas and Alice drinks a little too much: Cannon portrays her character's state convincingly and she never overdoes it but it's particularly impressive about the scene is that even if she is seemingly okay now with Carol's and Bob's situation she still suggests an underlying unease. And when her husband finally confesses he too had an affair, Cannon is just terrific at portraying Alice's reaction: it's a painful moment because Cannon is just heartbreaking at portraying her character's devastation over her husband's cheating. Her drunken breakdown when she suggests the four of them should have an orgy is played to perfection by Cannon as she completely earns it and she delivers it with the right exasperation and painful playfulness. She also adds a lot to the final scenes of the movie as each of her silent reactions tell something about her feelings and emotions even as she doesn't speak. 

Overall, this is a wonderful performance that in my opinion carried the movie on its shoulders and gave it complexity and depth. Cannon is both funny and moving in a tricky, challenging role and her achievement stands out as by far the strongest performance in the movie. It's an intelligent portrayal from an actress I'm now much more interested about.

4.5/5