2011 Academy Awards Go Mostly as Expected

In past years I haven't always gotten a chance to see a lot of Academy Award contenders before the Academy has their big night and hands out statue to deserving film makers. As eveeryone always says, it is an honor to be nominated, and as far as I saw the nominees deserved the recognition they received.

To simplify things, I'll look at what happened on Oscar night in four areas that are a bit broader that the categories the Academy awards it's recipients. I'll call these lead acting, supportive acting, film backdrop, and the movie as a whole.

Lead Acting

Lead Acting is the most self explanitory of these self created categories, and includes Best Actor in a Lead Role, and Best Actress in a Lead Role. The winners were Colin Firth, for The King's Speech and Natalie Portman in Black Swan.

Firth was a hands down favorite in the Best Actor. The Academy seems to like the British Royalty and with the upcoming nuptuals of Prince William and Kate Middleton there was extra pressure for The King's Speech, and Firth to have a good show at the Oscars. But all that aside, I'm happy that Firth won. His competition included Jeff Bridges in True Grit, which I didn't see, James Franco in 127 Hours, Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network, and Javier Bardem for Biutiful.

Franco and Eisenberg are both relatively young which put them at a bit of a disanvantage, not that younger actors can't win, but it's harder when they are competing against a king. Westerns don't seem to do especially well at the Oscar's, which rules out Bridges and non-English speaking films, such as Bardem's Biutiful also pose a challenge.

While Portman gave a wonderful performance as the troubled dancer in Black Swan, she was also the safest of the nominees in terms of potential controversy. Annette Bening played a lesbian mother, in The Kids Are All Right, which could've stirred the pot a little more than the Academy wanted to. Still, she is a seasoned actress and played her role well. Nicole Kidman has had her turn, and was in a film not widely released. The same is true for Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone and Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine.

Supportive Acting

The winners in the supporting actor and actress roles came from the same movie, The Fighter. Christian Bale took home the prize as Best Supporting Actor for his role as fallen boxer Dicky Eklund, and Melissa Leo won for Best Supporting Actress. Amy Adams, who played the girlfriend of Eklund's brother and up and coming boxer Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) also received a supporting actress nomination.

While there were some great performances in supporting roles, particularly by Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech and John Hawkes in Winter's Bone, Bale's performance stood out because he underwent a tremendous amount of preparation for his role.

For Supporting Actress I had personally guessed the trophy would go to either Helena Bonham Carter or Amy Adams, but Melissa Leo's win did not surprise me. She was, after all the matriarch of the Eklund/Ward crew. While Adam's character was more likeable, Leo portrayed a complexity of a woman struggling to find the right balance of support and concern for her family. As for the other nominees, Hailee Steinfeld had two strikes against her due to her young age, and appearing in a western, however True Grit has definitely put this girl on the map and we are likely to see more great performances from her.

Film Backdrop

In this "category" I put the visual and sound elements of the films, things like art direction, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, cinemetography, original score, and costume design.

Alice in Wonderland took home awards for both Art direction and Costume Design. The Social Network received a nod for Original Score, but Inception made the ultimate impression in sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, and cinematography. The acting, direction, and the overall film was also good, but the sound and visuals were definitely instrumental in keeping this movie moving along.

Movie as a Whole

For these I look at awards that encompass the film as a whole, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, and of course Best Picture.

The KIng's Speech won the crown for original screenplay, best director and best picture. The Best Adapted Screenplay went to The Social Network. I am not surprised by the dominance of The King's Speech, missing only in Adapted Screenplay, because of course a film cannot have an original screenplay and an adaptation for the same movie.

As for The Social Network's good show, this is yet more proof of the power of social networking in our daily lives. Everyone loves a real life success story, and if that story brings with it a little dirt, so be it,

While many of the people who were do excited about the 2011 Oscars may have a hard time remembering the nominees or the winners, many will remember just fine.

http://oscar.go.com/nominations