Best Actress in a Supporting Actress 2016: Naomie Harris in Moonlight

Naomie Harris received her first Oscar nomination for her performance as Paula in Moonlight.

Naomie Harris is an actress I enjoy watching on screen very much. I think she has a graceful, elegant screen-presence that often leaves a rather remarkable impression on the viewer's mind: I sincerely hope that, after this Oscar nomination, she'll start getting more good roles instead of being wasted in thankless parts (Our Kind of Traitor). Her performance in Moonlight is an interesting phenomenon: she received raves from the critics and even won a few awards for her performance, but a fair share of people also found her performance to be often too overdone to be truly effective, even citing her as the weakest element in the movie. As a huge fan of the movie, I will admit that Harris is not among its more remarkable elements and her performance is indeed a little flawed: I believe that, if she had more than 3 days to shoot her scenes, she could have given a truly amazing performance, since she is certainly not lacking in talent, but as it is I can't quite embrace her performance completely. At the same time though, I can't deny that her performance certainly leaves an impact: in fact, there are certain things in her performance that she nails and others that she doesn't quite. She does an excellent job at completely denying her usual grace and charm, embodying convincingly the role of the crack-addicted, abusive Paula, as well as her British accent: regarding these aspects, she actually disappears into the role extremely well and it's clear that she has a deep understanding of her character. My problem with her performance is that, despite the actress having the right instinct, the execution sometimes leaves a bit to be desired and she sometimes overdoes it in her portrayal of her character's addiction.

The thing is that she is never entirely bad, but she alternates very effective moments with more overdone ones. Take for example her confrontation in the first act of the movie with Mahershala Ali, in which Juan accuses Paula of being an unfit mother to Chiron and she tells him that he is just as reponsible as she is as he is the one who (indirectly) keeps selling the drugs: Harris can switch from good to bad in the span of a sentence, portraying realistically and effectively her character's messed up state in a moment, and being sort of unconvincing and over-mannered in the next, often repeating the same sort of gestures all over the scene. Or take the "Give me the money" scene, in which Paula physically attacks Chiron to get money from him in order to buy some crack: again, Harris mixes inspired, pitch-perfect acting choices with others that feel a little too calculated. Even in her weakest moments, Harris is never entirely ineffective as she still projects the right sort of scary unpredictability that the role requires (and the way she is shot in certain moments also help to create a certain dread around her character), but her few missteps make the impact she leaves somewhat muted. She is never terrible and she never detracts from the movie in any way - but looking closely at her work I found it a little too broad to be truly amazing. In the first two acts of her performance, I actually think she fares better in the subtler moments than in the louder moments - I'm talking in the few moments in which Paula actually tries to reach out to Chiron and appears shameful regarding her behavior: Harris is terrific in those moments as she nicely pulls back and reveals Paula's remorse between her actions, effectively showing how Paula actually loves her son in spite of everything but also how her addiction that keeps getting worse prevents her from being a good mother to him. 

So I believe that the two first acts of her performance are a bit of a mixed bag with both excellent and underwhelming moments; the reason why I'm more on a positive side regarding her performance is her last scene in the movie's third act, in which she is nothing short of amazing. In this scene, where Chiron visits an aged Paula recovering from her addiction, Harris is not only completely believable but actually trully outstanding at portraying her character's remorse and shame over her past actions. Harris still uses some mannerisms in the scene but this time they feel wholly natural and cohesive, and a genuine part of her character instead of a put on: she works beautifully opposite Trevante Rhodes (playing the adult Chiron) as the two actors perfectly convey the troubled history between the two actors but also the love that keeps them together. It's one of the movie's most poignant scenes and Harris is heartbreaking at portraying Paula's desire to reconnect with her son. Their eventual reconciliation at the end of the scene is a truly heartwarming moment and the two actors bring the right emotional impact to it.

In Moonlight, Naomie Harris delivers a performance that is imperfect but still very effective. She falters at portraying her character's addiction at certain times, but everything else she does makes up for it, particularly her incredible final scene. As I mentioned before, I think that if she had more time to shoot her scenes I think she might have given a stronger performance; as it stands, it's a performance that is not always convincing but that still is a memorable part of a true masterpiece.

3.5/5