Oscar cometh!

Very soon now, that night is coming. I am always excited , then frustrated and ultimately disappointed mainly because the actors I want to win usually don't. Things will not be different this year. I have given it over to Jeff Bridges winning and I am ok with that. I really think the best acting was done by Colin Firth in A Single Man but Bridges is right behind him and he has history on his side. Hopefully, Firth will be back.

It is the supporting actor category that is difficult. The dark horse here is Plummer and many people are coming late to the table with The Last Station which is too bad. It is a gem of a movie made so by brilliant acting across the board. Only Paul Giamatti could not completely leave his own skin behind. James McAvoy continues to impress me. He can deliver the emotionally love starved, sexually repressed lover so well. (remember Atonement?) I really like him---best of all the young actors out there. But this movie belongs to Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. They are exquisite. I have watched Christopher Plummer for over 30 years first as a stage performer out of Stratford, Canada and then in television and movies. He is always good and sometimes great....this is his best movie work. He disappears into Tolstoy and delivers the human being behind the historical legend. Mirren, as his wife, chews up the scenery and makes it her character's own.

I still think Meryl gave the best performance of the year but Mirren is right behind her. So when Sandra Bullock takes the Oscar, expect a universal shrug from all of us who know better.

Best Picture is just a crap-shoot. Not one of the nominated films really deserves the title of the Best and I cannot tell you who should be there either. I think films right now are at a cross-roads. 3-D, digital, and the Internet are transforming the film-making process changing everything. Do you really think Avatar will play well on your IPhone? This latest technology must be similar to when talking pictures and color came into the mix. Who knows what will be used to make a movie 10 years from now. While we are impressed by technology, nothing replaces a good story and for that, we need good writers. Unfortunately it is the toughest profession and the least appreciated. So put the nominated movies into a hat and draw one. Who cares?

And the Best Director winner will be Kathryn Bigelow who probably deserves it and because she will be the first woman to win an Oscar in this category, I will be pleased. I just wish she had a better understanding of the women whose shoulders she stands on when she accepts her Oscar. All the unknown, unrecognized amazing women who not only worked in the film industry but led the way only to be tossed aside and ignored once it was recognized as a money maker. Anyone ever heard of Frances Marian? No, of course not.

Have fun Sunday.....