Well, the Oscars have come and gone for another year, and in a timely manner, clocking in at just over 3 hours. And, much to my relief, it was an interesting show this year, with many of my favorites taking home the gold, some funny moments, some emotional ones, gorgeous set pieces, and an off-kilter moment or two. Let's go over some highlights...
I'll get the big one out of the way first. Melissa Leo won a much deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Fighter and in her excitement dropped, if I'm not mistaken, the first F-Bomb on the Oscar stage, right on live television. I'm sure a lot of people are going to make a big deal out of it over the next few days, but I found it quite charming, and it was a rare truly unscripted moment during an award show. Winning an Oscar is often a once in a lifetime thing; you can't fault someone for reacting to it strongly.
As I said, many of my favorites walked away with statues, which hasn't happened for a while in award shows I've watched recently (the last Emmys being an example). There were many times during the night I cheered. Some of those favorites include Toy Story 3 for best Animated Picture, Christian Bale for Best Supporting Actor, Natalie Portman for Best Actress and Colin Firth for Best Actor, all of them well deserving and having done exceptional work in The Fighter, Black Swan and The Kings Speech respectively (plus all of them gave wonderful speeches, especially a choked up Firth). Alice in Wonderland managed to grab a couple of awards as well. But in the biggest race of all, it looked like it would be a tight race between The Social Network and The Kings Speech. But, much to my relief, The Kings Speech pulled out ahead, taking the Best Picture statue and my heart.
The Oscar broadcast ran smoothly and promptly this year. I didn't notice any major fashion disasters, though I'm sure the fashion critics will disagree with me. We had some wonderful off-the-cuff moments from the unbeatable Kirk Douglas and other presenters and winners (loved Robert Downey Jr. and Jude law presenting together; can't wait for the next Sherlock Holmes movie). Auto-tune made a surprise appearance. The set and visual effects for the show were just gorgeous, conjuring up the first televised Oscar broadcast (with a hologram of Bob Hope at the hosts podium on stage) and Mann's Chinese Theatre.
And then there were the two hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco. I have to admit in that regard, I thought Hathaway did the better job. She was charming, beautiful in her many outfit changes, had some great ad-libbed lines and seemed to be loving every minute of being on stage. Plus she was genuinely funny, especially in her musical dis of Hugh Jackman. Franco, on the other hand, I found a bit flat through most of the broadcast, leaving me to wonder a few times if he was on something while doing this. Perhaps he was a little distracted, being the first host who was also up for an award, but what the hell? The only signs of life from him was during the opening Inception spoof, when he was in a Munroe dress and right at the end. Bah.
Overall, I was very happy. It truly was a great year for movies, and watching them get their proper due is always satisfying and only fuels my love of motion pictures in general. And makes me hope that, one day, I may be on that stage myself, maybe for writing, possibly for directing. One can dream, can't they?
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