The Oscars: The Day After

Another year, another Oscars broadcast, another mix of the expected, unexpected, exciting, and devastating.  As a movie fan, Oscar night is my favorite night of the year.  There's such an air of prestige, history being made, and even if it's not always (or ever) the history I want to be made, it's important, it's self-congratulatory, and it's fun.  True, today was a little gloomier than I expected, not because of the cloudy winter weather, but because I now live in a world where The King's Speech was named Best Picture over The Social Network, but life goes on.  This time next year, I'll be roaring about how The Tree of Life was robbed of its rightful trophies, and suggesting that David Fincher only won Best Director for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to make up for being overlooked for Tom Hooper this year.  It's the circle of life, but without kneeling giraffes and soaring musical accompaniment.

I predicted that The Social Network would go home with a big haul, even though I couldn't whole-heartedly believe it.  I reasoned my way to "solid" "evidence" for my predictions, but of course, I was grasping at straws.  I didn't want to believe that we were facing a year where the Globes got it right and the Academy got it wrong (always a sad state of affairs), but we do face those years from time to time.  As the night started off with The King's Speech taking a dive in every technical category, I was heartened.  It wasn't a sweep, so maybe the Academy wasn't so swept off its feet, after all.

Then came the Best Director announcement.  Most film fans and Oscar pundits were putting their money on David Fincher winning regardless of what went on to win Best Picture.  So Tom Hooper's name being called was all but the final nail in the coffin: The King's Speech was the winner.  Much bickering on Twitter and in the larger blogosphere ensued.  I contemplated crying myself to sleep and put in my Social Network DVD to ease my pains as I went about my business for the rest of the night.

Not all the outcomes were so disappointing.  In fact, nearly all the winners were worthy of their hardware, and some were quite pleasant surprises, such as Inception cinematographer Wally Pfister taking home the prize for his fantastic work (and here we all though Roger Deakins would finally win an Oscar).  Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Christian Bale, and Toy Story 3 were all easily predicted and worthy of their accolades.  Slightly less worthy was Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo, who is fiercely good in The Fighter, but should've lost to True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld.  Leo's speech was all kinds of awkward, culminating in her snatching the hilarious Kirk Douglas's cane as they left the stage.

Of course, much of the buzz surrounding the broadcast focused on the show's hosts, young hot things Anne Hathaway and James Franco.  Hathaway proved her worthiness when she famously joined Hugh Jackman during his hosting gig a couple years ago, and she didn't disappoint.  Her initial excited jitters gave way to very comfortable, classy bits, such as her solo musical number (which unfairly teased us with the possibility of Jackman repaying her the favor, but to no avail).  Also, she looked fabulous, especially in her red gown.

Franco didn't fare nearly as well.  He does just about everything, and generally quite well, but Oscar hosting is not an ideal gig for the actor/writer/artist/student/etc.  As usual, Franco appeared high and weird, his eyes adorably squinty and his smile trademarkedly crooked.  Franco certainly had a few stand-out moments ("Congratulations, nerds" after an overview of the technical awards given out at a separate ceremony), but overall, he seemed out of place and uncomfortable, especially when paired with Hathaway's bubbly giddiness.

The night was capped off with a terribly misplaced children's choir taking on "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," the culmination of the ceremony's celebration of the greatest (or at least winningest) Oscar movies of all time, and it was painfully saccharine.  Little boys wearing t-shirts reading "SOPRANO" and wielding weirdly passionate expressions are not, and should never be, part of the Oscar broadcast.  The only good aspect was when the night's winners all appeared onstage.  It was pretty cool to see them all collected like that, even in the midst of a musical misfire.  (Speaking of musical misfires, how awkwardly serious were Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi when they sang "I See the Light"?)

As always, I found myself only partially satisfied by the night's end.  The outcomes will never be what I want, the hosts will rarely meet our lofty expectations, but I love movies, I love the Oscars, and every year for the rest of my life, I will be glued to the TV, cheering my favorite movie on to victory (or not).  (That is, until I'm in attendance.  As a nominee.  Just you wait.)

With the Oscars over, 2010 is finally behind us.  Happy New Year, everyone!