Oscar Profile #274: Tom McCarthy

Born Thomas Joseph (Tom) McCarthy in New Providence, New Jersey on January 30, 1966, the actor-writer-director was the third of five children of Carol and Eugene McCarthy, a salesman and later president of an NYC textile company. A graduate of New Providence High School, Boston College and Yale School of Drama, he made his screen debut in the 1989 short film, Roast Suckling.

McCarthy’s first feature film was 1992’s Crossing the Bridge. After a series of minor roles in films he made a strong impression in the 1998 TV movie In My Sister’s Shadow and an even stronger impression in the same year’s Saint Maybe. Much on TV through 2008, he had recurring roles in Boston Public, Law and Order and The Wire. He made his Broadway debut in the 2001 revival of Noises Off.

On screen, McCarthy has appeared mainly in supporting roles in such films as Meet the Parents, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Flags of Our Fathers, Michael Clayton, The Lovely Bones, Little Fockers and Pixels.

As fine an actor as he may be, McCarthy’s real forte is as a writer and director as he proved with his first film in both disciplines, 2003’s The Station Agent for which he won numerous awards including an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay. He also won numerous awards for his second film as writer and director, 2008’s The Visitor including Independent Spirit Awards for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

McCarthy received his first Oscar nomination for co-writing the screenplay for Up with co-directors Pete Docter and Bob Peterson. He later received an on-screen thank-you in the credits for Docter’s 2015 Oscar nominee, Inside Out.

In 2010 McCarthy directed the unaired pilot for TV’s Game of Thrones. Neither his well-received 2011 film Win Win nor either of his 2014 films, The Cobbler and Million Dollar Arm (screenplay only), received major awards recognition. He more than made up for that with 2015’s Spotlight which he spent three years researching before completing the screenplay with co-writer Josh Singer.

The real-life reporters and editors of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team acknowledge McCarthy’s meticulous research in retracing their steps for his screenplay was more intense than their own investigation into the Catholic Church scandal that was the subject of the film.

Nominated for just about every extant award for writing and directing Spotlight, McCarthy is an Oscar nominee for both Best Direction and Best Screenplay.

Tom McCarthy is just reaching his peak at 50.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

Saint Maybe (1998), directed by Michael Pressman

This Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation based on Anne Tyler’s 1991 novel was a showcase for 32-year-old McCarthy who plays a teenager for most of the film, albeit a teenager with big responsibilities. Suspicious of his brother’s wife’s fidelity, he relays his suspicions to his brother (Jeffrey Nordling) who promptly dies in a car crash. The wife (Mary Louise Parker) dies shortly thereafter and conscious-stricken McCarthy is left to raise their three children with some help from his parents (Blythe Danner and Edward Herrmann). Despite strong reviews and viewership, the film did not result in overnight stardom for the actor.

The Station Agent (2003), directed by Tom McCarthy

McCarthy’s first film as both writer and director was an actor’s showcase for the film’s three stars, Peter Dinklage as a dwarf who inherits an old, inactive train station expecting to live a life of solitude and the two people who invade his loneliness, a garrulous Cuban hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale) and a grief-stricken woman still coping with the accidental death of her young son two years earlier. All three are absolutely brilliant, securing numerous nominations and awards. Dinklage and Clarkson were nominated for SAG awards and the entire cast was nominated for SAG’s ensemble award. McCarthy won a BAFTA for his screenplay.

The Visitor (2008), directed by Tom McCarthy

McCarthy once again proved to be an actor’s director par excellence as well as a gifted writer with his second film as both writer and director. Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins is a widowed college professor who discovers two illegal immigrants, a Senegalese woman (Danai Gurira) and a Syrian man (Haaz Slieman) living in his NYC apartment. Rather than throw them out, he allows them to stay and forms a lasting relationship with them, eventually forming a bond with the young man’s mother (Hiam Abbass) as well. The film should be required viewing for supporters of Donald Trump and his keep the Muslims out campaign.

Win Win (2011), directed by Tom McCarthy

This morality tale filmed in McCarthy’s hometown of New Providence, New Jersey is another actor’s showcase, this time for Paul Giamatti as a scheming small time lawyer who has the court appoint him guardian of a dementia patient (Burt Young) so he can collect a monthly stipend of $1,500. Out of nowhere the man’s troubled grandson (Alex Shaffer) comes to town wanting to stay with his grandfather whom Giamatti has now moved to a care facility. Giamatti has a second job as a wrestling coach and forms a bond with the kid who is a gifted wrestler, setting up a dilemma of conscience. Any Ryan co-stars as Giamatti’s long-suffering wife.

Spotlight (2015), directed by Tom McCarthy

Nominated for six Oscars, including two for McCarthy as both writer and director, this meticulously crafted investigative reporting drama took McCarthy three years to research as none of the real-life reporters who exposed the widespread scandal and cover-up of child molestation within the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston wrote a book about their work. Once again McCarthy proves to be a masterful writer and director of actors (Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams among them) but the film’s lack of visual flair keeps him from being an obvious front-runner for the win over his showier competitors.