A Disjointed Oscars

The fate of the Oscars depended on the resolution of the writer’s strike, which had threatened to do to Oscar what it did to the Golden Globes, turn it into a glorified press conference. The strike was resolved just a week ago, and John Stewart was called in to try and helm an awards show that usually took months to prepare. Without the time to organize all the usual comedy bits and performances, this year’s Oscars were puffed up with unnecessary montages and interviews of past winners.

Last night ended up looking like a glorified clips show instead of the glamorous Oscars of better years. Stewart joked that if the strike hadn’t of been resolved there would have been even more gratuitous montages, like one on binoculars and periscopes in film. The joke was too close to the truth when thirty minutes later Jack Nicholson presented yet another painful slide show of all 79 past Best Picture winners. On top of this every segment of the show was ended with interviews of past winners. These weren’t all bad and it was cool to hear from Sydney Poitier, and Steven Spielberg, but was an interview of Elton John really necessary?

No Country for Old Men won the biggest awards of the night and the filmmaking duo behind it, the Coen brothers, took home Oscars for Best Picture, Directing, and Adapted Screenplay. The other best picture nominees all won at least one statue: Cinematography and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Original Screenplay for Juno, Best Supporting Actress for Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, and Best Original Score for Atonement.

The male acting awards went to the heavy favorites of Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem, but the women’s categories were surprises. Tilda Swinton and Marion Cotillard beat out the expected winners, Cate Blanchett and Julie Christie. Cotillard’s acceptance speech for Best Actress was the most moving of the night. Overwhelmed with gratitude and near tears she told the Academy, “You’ve rocked my life” and said there are still, “some angels in this city.” Cotillard won both the British and French versions of the Oscars for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose.

The musical performances of the nominees for Best Original Song were mediocre and looked slapped together. The only good performance of the night came from the eventual winners, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, for their work on Falling Slowly from Once. The song was beautifully enhanced with an orchestra, and Irglova was given a historic second chance to deliver her acceptance speech after having been played off by the orchestra.

The comedy bits (what few there were) with Stewart and other Hollywood stars were excellent this year considering the time constraints, and if the montages had been cut out, we would have been left with a shorter but better quality Oscars. Instead this year’s show was lumbering and disjointed.