
Sam Emerson/Sony Picture Classics
The movie awards season is topped off with the Academy Awards presentation Sunday night. It’s been a strange year in film, a quiet year. Sure, there were some really good movies, but nothing with the importance of, say, Titanic.
It looks as if the most honors overall will go to The Social Network and The King’s Speech and the acting honors to Natalie Portman (The Black Swan), Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) and both Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for The Fighter. I wouldn’t be upset if Hailee Steinfeld upset Melissa Leo in the Supporting Actress category. Her performance in True Grit was as good as possible and she, unlike so many kid actors, seems destined for a solid career. I’d love to see her win.
Best film and best director seems to be a toss-up between David Fincher for The Social Network and Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech.
Now, I don’t know about you but, unlike most years, I am not pulling for any movies as, say, I did last year when, to no avail, I wanted Inglourious Basterds to take the top prize. The Social Network and The King’s Speech are both outstanding movies, but I also really liked 127 Hours and James Franco’s performance in it was terrific.
While on the topic, I found the acting categories are kind of confusing. For example, Geoffrey Rush and Christian Bale are both nominated as Supporting Actors, yet they were huge presences in The King’s Speech and The Fighter, respectively. So, why “supporting?” In an interview, Geoffrey Rush opined that the movie should be called The King’s Speech Therapist. He may not be wrong.
The greatest omission in the entire acting category is Robert Duvall for Get Low. He gave a towering performance that was very, very worthy of, at least, a nomination.
Should Javier Bardem win for Biutiful, it would be a first for a performance in a foreign language film, just as his nomination was a first for the same reason. Just seeing him nominated was terrific. His performance is ineffably moving.
I was so pleased to see that Winter’s Bone snagged nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence) and Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes). If you haven’t seen it, check it out on DVD. It played very briefly in Las Vegas and, then, only at the Suncoast. Pity. It will probably be the toast of the Independent Spirit Awards, shown Saturday night on IFC. And it should be.
An awards ceremony with upsets would add fun to the event. Since everything has been predicted over and over with the same winners being forecast, it might be fun to see something unexpected. For example, in the Best Actor category.
The awards are being hosted by Anne Hathaway and James Franco. What if Franco were to win? This guy is so talented — actor, writer, doctoral candidate…..he is amazing and his turn as trapped hiker Aron Ralston was, too.
But, speculation gets us nowhere. Tune in Sunday and see what happens.
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