The Oscars were so boring I simply forgot to write about them. Not being a huge fan of THE RETURN OF THE KING, I wasn't expecting to be elated by this year's Academy Awards, but the undeniable dullness of the whole event sure didn't help matters. Not a single upset. There were maybe one or two spontaneous moments the whole evening, and even those moments were hardly memorable. I don't think I've ever seen so many laundry-list thank-you speeches in my life.

Even though I was pulling for a MYSTIC RIVER upset for either Best Picture or Best Director, it wasn't the fact that Peter Jackson and RETURN OF THE KING won for both categories that I found annoying. I may not be a LORD OF THE RINGS fan, but there are certainly more than a few out there and I guess one of the three films taking home the top prize isn't such a bad thing. But what really bothered me was the clean-sweep, particularly in some categories where KING had no business winning.

I'm hard-pressed to believe that even the most loyal fans of the trilogy feel that it should have won for Best Film Editing. For crying out loud, the movie was three and a half hours long and especially towards the end demonstrated a sheer lack of editorial choices. Frankly, this was the most surprising win of the night for me, because I didn't think the Academy as a collective group would be so limited in their scope. I was also very disappointed by the Adapted Screenplay category, as every other nominee was far more deserving. Like the RINGS trilogy or hate it, I think we can all admit the final chapter was more about the direction than the words on the page. At least when TITANIC won eleven Oscars back in 1998, the Academy still had the good sense to award L.A. CONFIDENTIAL for its screenplay and not merely give it to the big dog by default.

As much as I would have liked to see both Johnny Depp and Bill Murray finally win that evasive Oscar, I'm glad it went to Sean Penn. I felt Penn gave the best performance with the widest range, and he's also been nominated four times now. Bill Murray was obviously upset to the point that Billy Crystal thought he might actually duck out early. Mark my words, if the upcoming THE LIFE AQUATIC (by RUSHMORE team Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson) is any good, expect Murray to not only be nominated, he'll probably win unless someone else is so good that voters simply can't ignore the performance. On the other hand, every year it seems like the acting awards are starting to be more and more about paying dues than delivering individual performances (see Zellweger, Renee), which I suppose isn't such a bad thing.

Posted March 10, 2004 | link