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Ron looks forward to the 80th annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Feb. 24, and picks the winners and those that really deserve those awards... FORECASTING THE OSCARS
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It was a great movie year,
so let's not screw it up!
By RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
Now that the writers' strike is settled and the 80th Annual Academy Awards show can go on as scheduled, let's hope the Academy voters didn't mess everything up for us by picking ALL the wrong films and artists just to be different from the Golden Globes and all those other earlier award shows.
I'm not the only one who thinks 2007 was a great year for movies. No, it's not in the class of the all-time greatest year--1939--but most people I know think it was a grand, grand year for good big pictures, good little pictures and even some really, really good obscure pictures.
In that category I would put "Evening,"
a small, independent chick flick with a cast of female stars
to die for: Meryl Streep and real-life daughter Mamie Gummer;
Vanessa Redgrave and real-life daughter Natasha Richardson; Glenn
Close, Toni Collette, Eileen Atkins and, in the leading role,
Claire Danes. Tsk, tsk. It didn't get nominated.
Another great little obscurity: "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," in which Philip Seymour Hoffman, a coke-addicted
middle-aged man cons his brother into robbing their mother and
father, which ends in a tragic shooting. The film begins with
Hoffman shagging beautiful Oscar-winner Marisa Tomei in an unconventional
manner. This is most definitely a crime against nature and, for
a moment, I thought I'd wandered into a horror movie. Even thinking
about it gets me to laughing.
But then I can't complain too much about the five films that WERE nominated for Best Picture: "Atonement," the stunningly beautiful and romantic English film about a child's vicious act that has repercussions for the rest of her life; "Juno," the spirited little comedy about a teenage girl trying to find a home for her baby about to be born out of wedlock; "Michael Clayton," a dark legal thriller with a complex and moving performance by George Clooney; "No Country For Old Men," a stylish suspense film about greed and its consequences, and "There Will Be Blood," a cynical parable about evil and its role in the American corporate character.
My favorites are "Michael Clayton," which I consider a profound and riveting drama, and "No Country For Old Men," which had me at the edge of my seat until the greatly disappointing finale. I admire "Atonement," but I was only really transfixed during those incredibly erotic moments when Keira Knightley came up out of a fountain with her thin garments clinging to her magnificent body. I recognize the ingenuity and cleverness of "Juno," but could never really get what was so funny about the poor girl's predictament. Finally, I actually kind of disliked "There Will Be Blood," which has no redeeming characters, seems almost show-off stylish, but has a dazzling performance by Daniel Day-Lewis at its core.
My personal pick: "Michael Clayton." My forecast: "No Country For Old Men."
In the Best Actress contest, I feel there's really no contest. I have never seen a performance the likes of Marion Cotillard's stunning portrayal of Edith Piaf in the French film "La Vie En Rose." Though Cotillard really doesn't resemble the tiny French chanteuse, she literally becomes her in this unforgettable movie. Yes, she had lots of help from the makeup artists to play Piaf as she deteriorated in her final days, barely able to walk, let alone perform. But when she does that final heartbreaker of a song, "I Regret Nothing," filling herself with life force for one last public performance, it is just as though; the ghost of Piaf had slipped into her body and transformed her.
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young Edith Piaf with Gerard Depardieu in 'La Vie En Rose' |
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I consider this the greatest single performance I've ever seen on the screen, but because Cotillard is unknown and in a French film probably seen by few Academy voters, I think it's unlikely she'll win. Her only challenger for my money is the long overdue Laura Linney in "The Savages," giving another of her flawless performances, this time as the daughter of a confounding, dying old man who has left a legacy of bitterness for her and her brother.
I'm guessing the Oscar will go to still lovely Julie Christie for her Alzheimer-suffering rest home patient in "Away From Her," a woman who's somehow finding happiness in an unlikely place to the surprise of her children. Academy voters love a comeback and this is a great one for Christie, who last won an Oscar in 1965's "Darling" when she was then the epitome of swinging 1960s London. This will echo the Golden Globe award won by Christie. I found this a very good, solid piece of work, but nothing even remotely as satisfying as the work of Cotillard and Linney.
Ellen Page is also very likeable as the title character in "Juno," but I don't see this as an Oscar level performance. Not to worry. The movie is a big hit and it has made Page a star overnight. She will be back, if she really has the goods. The least likely winner is Cate Blanchett, who's nominated for "Elizabeth--The Golden Age," a film generally disliked by the critics and not a box office performer. I found her performance quite good--she almost never lets me down--and the movie much better than the reviews indicated. But I felt it was just an extension of her Oscar-nominated performance as Elizabeth I in 1998's "Elizabeth" and not a big step up for her.
In the Best Actor category, the five nominated
performances are all especially good. George Clooney's low-key
work as "Michael Clayton," a man of real character
in an ethically-challenged world, is his most nuanced to date.
Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely convincing as the ruthless hero of
"There Will Be Blood," but I hate the man he plays
and the cruel philosophy he embraces in that most off-putting
of films; I feel the same way about Johnny Depp's character in
"Sweeney Todd," a 19th century London barber who slits
the throats of clients he doesn't like. As much as I admire Depp
and feel he's way overdue for an Oscar, this isn't the one I
want him to get.
That brings us to Tommy
Lee Jones as a former military officer
trying desperately to learn why his son was murdered after returning
from the Iraq war in "In the Valley of Elah." It's
a very good performance, but it's dwarfed by the others in this
category. Then there's Viggo
Mortensen whose portrayal of an undercover
cop who becomes an assassin for the Russian underworld in London
is a truly dazzling piece of work. This harsh, offbeat role gave
us a big preview of what this fine young actor is capable of
doing and I think he'll be back as a contender once more.,
I like George
Clooney for this award and think his personal
popularity in Holywood may cinch it for him, but I also think
Daniel Day-Lewis may get it just because the buzz on his performance
came later and was louder.
Among the supporting actress nominees, the only one I haven't
seen is Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in her segment of "I'm Not There,"
in which several different actors, male and female, white and
black, play the famous folksinger/composer. I think it would
be amusing if Blanchett won this one. That would make her the
only actress to ever win two Oscars, both for playing real-life
actors. (Her first Oscar was for playing Katharine Hepburn in
2004's "The Aviator.")
My favorite among the others is 83-year-old Ruby Dee who has that one great
scene in "American Gangster" in which she tells off
son Denzel Washington and slaps his face. Dee has been doing
exceptional work ever since I first saw her in "The Jackie
Robinson Story" 57 years ago as Robinson's wife. What a
joy it would be to see this fine and decent woman with an Oscar
in her hand after all these years.
But she has some strong competition in Saoirse Ronan, the 13-year-old girl who starts all the turmoil in "Atonement," Amy Ryan, who plays the mother from hell in "Gone Baby Gone" and Tilda Swinton as the corrupt Karen Crowder in "Michael Clayton." Of the rest, I think Swinton is the best, but I'm pulling for Ruby Dee.
In the Best Supporting Actor category, we have the five most evenly-matched contenders: Casey Affleck as the treacherous Bob Ford in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem as the sinister assassin in "No Country For Old Men"; Philip Seymour Hoffman as a carousing wastrel in "Charlie Wilson's War"; Hal Holbrook as the old-timer who befriends and nearly adopts the journey-bound hero of "Into the Wild"; and Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens, who has a mental breakdown in "Michael Clayton."
These are all outstanding players at their peak, but my favorite is Javier Bardem, who's the most blood-curdling guy I've seen on screen in a long, long time. I also think he will win the Oscar. Affleck's work in the Jesse James movie is very good, but the guy's high-pitched, atonal voice drives me up the wall and I kept wishing he'd shut up for awhile in that long, long western. Hoffman is sensational in "Charlie Wilson's War," but I felt he was even better in leading roles in two films for which he wasn't nominated--"The Savages" and the aforementioned "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." He certainly had a great year and my heart won't shatter if he gets his second Oscar (his first was for the title role in "Capote.")
I felt Tom Wilkinson's part wasn't big enough to show him give a really impressive performance beyond the one note he was playing. I'm a big fan of Hal Holbrook, but felt his very well-played cameo role wasn't full enough to merit an Oscar. But the man has been so good for so long that I won't do any crying if he goes home with Oscar Sunday night.
Finally, the Best Director wraps up the
major awards. The only nominee whose picture I haven't seen is
Julian Schnabel, who did "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly"
(which comes to my area next week, a bit late for this column.)
Newcomers are the trend in this category. Others in contention
are Jason Reitman for "Juno," Tony Gilroy for "Michael
Clayton," Joel and
Ethan Coen for "No Country For Old
Men" and Paul Thomas
Anderson for "There Will Be Blood."
All four films were stylish and innovative, but I'd love to see
the Coen brothers win just because they've been so iconoclastic,
so innovative and so versatile for so long that they really need
to be celebrated by the Hollywood they've sort of ignored for
years. Besides, that would be an Oscar first--brothers sharing
the directing award.
I could grumble about all the excellent performers who didn't get nominated this year, not to mention the marvelous films like Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," and go on as usual about the stupidity of the Best Song category and the absurdity of the rules governing Best Foreign Film. But I don't feel like it, I suppose, because I'm so glad the strike is over and we'll actually see some semblance of the usual Oscar blather instead of some stuffy Academy official reading a list of the winners without glam or glitter.
You'll hear from me again Monday morning as I do my usual post mortem analysis of the Oscar show and the actual winners. Until then, may the plastic deities of Godless Hollywood smile down on the proceedings and all watching them.
©2008 by Ron Miller. This column first posted Feb. 18, 1976.
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