Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
By Hap Erstein
Going into today’s release of Academy Awards nominations, it looked like a two-horse race between The Social Network and The King’s Speech – both superior pictures – and nothing about the announcements from Hollywood changes that.
Both movies, of course, made it into the field of 10 for Best Picture and they will also be competing head-on for Best Director (David Fincher vs. Tom Hooper) and Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg vs. Colin Firth). Both films are nominated for their screenplays, but Social Network is an adaptation, while King’s Speech is not based on another source.
This 83rd annual Oscars race marks the second year in recent times that there are 10 Best Picture nominees and, while I have problems with Black Swan, the surprise is that there are actually 10 movies worth calling the year’s best.
In addition to the three already mentioned, the category also includes The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, Toy Story 3, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, True Grit and Inception. The most obvious beneficiary of the expanded category is surely the low-budget independent Winter’s Bone, which also pulled in a much-deserved nod for the terrific young Jennifer Lawrence as the backwoods girl in search of her drug-dealer dad.
It is hard to quibble with the 10 Best Picture nominations – ok, OK, Black Swan still strikes me as overwrought and out of control in its second half – but it is unfortunate that Ben Affleck’s The Town was snubbed here, gaining only a mention for Jeremy Renner in the Supporting Actor category. Affleck’s script and direction were impressive, and a later release date might have made the difference.
Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman in Barney’s Version.The other egregiously overlooked movie, and a far longer shot at a Best Picture nod, was Barney’s Version, which opens this weekend in South Florida. Also low-budget, it opened at year’s end in Los Angeles for eligibility’s sake, had little or no nomination campaign and was roundly ignored. I will say more about the movie at the end of the week, but believe me, it was robbed, as was its star, Paul Giamatti, doing his best work yet on screen. (He won the Golden Globe for best male comedy performance, but Barney’s Version is no comedy.)
With 10 Best Picture nominations, but only five Best Director slots, the category is like a game of musical chairs. For sheer directorial virtuosity, it is hard to beat Christopher Nolan (Inception) or Danny Boyle (127 Hours), but the Academy didn’t see it that way. Yes, I would have taken them over Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) and those perennial Oscar favorites, the Coen Brothers (True Grit).
Colin Firth and Helena Bonham-Carter in The King’s Speech.The surprise, but a worthy one, for Best Actor is Javier Bardem in the bleak Mexican film Biutiful. He is up against Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), James Franco (127 Hours), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and Jeff Bridges (True Grit). Not making the cut was Ryan Gosling, superb in Blue Valentine, whom I would take over Bridges or even Eisenberg. The point is moot, because Firth has a lock on the win.
Gosling’s co-star Michelle Williams was nominated for Best Actress, the difference being that there are so few strong female roles this year. More dubious is the glum performance by Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole, made worse by her botoxed-immobile face. It looks to be a two-way race between Natalie Portman, who suffered through Black Swan and emerged victorious, and Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), who may have the edge because of past Oscar losses. (Her co-star Julianne Moore jockeyed between Best Actress and Supporting, a strategic campaign that saw her lose out both ways.)
Also likely to sail to an easy victory is Christian Bale as the irresponsible, drugged-our brother in The Fighter, a can’t-miss performance for Best Supporting Actor. The rest of this field is quite deserving, though – Renner (The Town), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) and Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech).
Jeff Bridges and Hallie Steinfeld in True Grit.That great actress’s actress, Melissa Leo, who plays Bale’s determined mom in The Fighter, should also have an easy win for Supporting Actress, but the nomination of Amy Adams from the same movie does not help her. As expected, Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech) and newcomer Hallie Steinfeld (True Grit) will be in the running, along with surprise nominee Jackie Weaver, another tough mom in the Down Under crime family flick, Animal Kingdom. Perhaps an indication of the weak support for Black Swan – am I just hoping this is the case? – is the no-show here for either Mila Kunis or Barbara Hershey.
Anyway, that is how the Oscars shape up from my perspective on the day the nominations were announced. But there is a long time between now and Sunday, Feb. 27, when the awards are given out. Let the disinformation and negative campaigning begin.