Byline: WILLIAM ARNOLD P-I film critic
Ever since this year's Oscar season got under way in January, the Hollywood writers strike has loomed fatefully above it: first threatening to cancel Oscar night entirely, then stoking much expectation that the last-minute settlement would result in an evening either grander or duller than usual.
But, though host Jon Stewart kept making jokes about it, Hollywood's most contentious labor confrontation of the modern era had little effect on its annual showcase of self-congratulatory glamour. The 80th Academy Awards seemed a bit more spare than usual but no worse, better or appreciably different from the template.
Oscar night '08 was long, frequently awkward, sometimes slick, often tedious, occasionally inspiring.
There were flubs but not many. There were upsets but nothing earthshaking. All the acting winners were foreigners. Jack Nicholson was in the front row in his sunglasses. It was well, it was the Oscars.
More specifically, here is how the evening struck me:
THE HOST: As an entertainment event, Oscar night is invariably judged by the performance of its master of ceremonies. He must be self-deprecating, subtly irreverent, quick on his feet and willing to do whatever it takes to keep things moving smoothly. In his first outing two years ago, Stewart did the best job of it since Billy Crystal in his prime. In his second outing Sunday night, he was just about as good. His monologue was sharp and enjoyably political. His ad-libs were many and occasionally brilliant. He seemed honored to be there but not trying too hard to impress anybody. All told, he was pretty darn funny.
THE AWARDS: The frequent charge made against the Oscars is that predicting their outcome each year has become something of an exact science - the big night has lost all its suspense. The fact is that, if you followed the various statistical guidelines or advice of the major handicappers over the past five years, you probably won your office pool. Last night, that certainly proved true. The closest thing to an upset was Marion Cotillard's win over the favorite, Julie Christie, in the best actress race, but even that was not a surprise to the Vegas oddsmakers who evened the two actresses' chances over the past week.
Otherwise, allthose favored to win ended up with a statue. In this sense, it was a predictable, ho-hum affair.
THE ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES: In this new era of instant (and endless) Internet and TV replay, big-name Oscar winners have become increasingly cautious in the spotlight. Nobody wants to look like a fool, and it's been awhile since we've seen the kind of exuberance that Roberto Benigni, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Sally Field showed in their historic big moments. The only overwhelming emotion showed Sunday night was by Cotillard, who clearly didn't expect the prize. Javier Bardem's tribute to his mother (in Spanish) was cute and touching. Diablo Cody's teary thanks to her family "for loving me for the way I am" put a little choke in my throat. Daniel Day-Lewis was wonderfully gracious and elegant. Tilda Swinton did an unexpected little stand-up routine. Otherwise, the speeches seemed somehow more boring than usual to me.
THE PRESENTERS: The trick of a good Oscar presentation or introductory speech is to be jaunty but relaxed, while giving absolutely no indication that your heavily rehearsed words have been placed in your mouth by a professional writer. In presenting the supporting acting statues, Jennifer Hudson and Alan Arkin, respectively, could hardly have been more wooden - nor could Owen Wilson in his first public appearance since his suicide attempt. Cameron Diaz had trouble pronouncing the word "cinematography" in presenting that award but made an ingratiating joke about it. Nicholson has presented so many times that he does it by rote, and, though he stumbles, somehow it always comes off. But, in presenting the best actor award, Helen Mirren - a class act all the way - showed us how it's really done.
THE NOSTALGIA: As the 80th-anniversary Oscar show, the expectation was that the evening would be packed with teary montages to the golden movie past, and this expectation was not disappointed. I counted more than 10 of these things, including three that were actually jokes kidding the excessive number of montages. There were also (somewhat intrusive) mini-interviews with Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg and others about their past Oscar moments, and the honorary Oscar to the career of Robert Boyle, the 98-year-old production designer and four-time Oscar nominee who gave a distinctive look to more than a 100 movies, including Hitchcock's "Saboteur, "North By Northwest" and "The Birds." But, for me, the evening's great moment of nostalgia was seeing, my God, Mickey Rooney on the red carpet. It was exactly 70 years ago that this persistent star received his first honorary Oscar - seven decades later and he's still walking into the building with a date on his arm. Now that's a survivor. Why did no one acknowledge this feat?
THE MUSIC: With no big musical in the best picture race, and three of the five nominated songs from the same movie ("Enchanted"), the musical component of the show seemed somehow more underwhelming than usual. One of the montages had a flash of Isaac Hayes in his S&M chain outfit performing the theme from "Shaft" in 1971, and I thought: When was the last time we saw anything as lively and outrageous as that at the Oscars? But the evening was saved, musically, by the win of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their "Once" duet song, "Falling Slowly." They were the Cinderella couple from the year's Cinderella movie; and Irglova (cut off from speaking by the timers but called back to the podium after the commercial by the gentlemanly Stewart) gave one of the evening's more heartfelt and inspiring "your-dream-can-come-true" acceptance speeches.
THE VISUALS: Most of the Oscar nights of the past decade have been a showcase both for the industry's CGI wizardry and the ongoing art of set design. But Sunday night, perhaps because there was so much uncertainty that the event would actually happen, the effects were much more utilitarian. The only special effect was the opening sequence - a virtual-reality race to the Kodak Theatre by car through streets crowded with CGI-generated famous movie characters - and the Oscar set was vaguely futuristic but not very noticeable and not at all memorable. Similarly, the designer TV commercials, which in recent years have been more innovative and clever (and, of course, expensive) than the nominees of the three short-film categories, were all low-key, and only one Diet Coke spot had a movie theme.
P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.
ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS
Winners at the 80th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night in Los Angeles:
Picture: "No Country for Old Men"
Director(s): Ethan and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Actress: Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Animated Feature Film: "Ratatouille"
Foreign Language Film: "The Counterfeiters," Austria
Documentary: "Taxi to the Dark Side"
Documentary short subject: "Freeheld"
Adapted Screenplay: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno"
Art Direction: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Cinematography: "There Will Be Blood"
Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum"
Original Score: "Atonement," Dario Marianelli
Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Costume: "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Makeup: "La Vie en Rose"
Visual Effects: "The Golden Compass"
Animated Short Film: "Peter & the Wolf"
Live Action Short Film: "Le Mozart des Pickpockets ('The Mozart of Pickpockets')"
Honorary Academy Award (Oscar statuette): Robert Boyle; David A. Grafton; Eastman Kodak Co.
-The Associated Press
