Sunday's telecast of the 80th annual Academy Awards is the Norma Desmond version. To paraphrase the faded Hollywood star in "Sunset Boulevard," the actors may still be big, but it's the pictures that got smaller.
There are some big-name nominees (George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett and Daniel Day-Lewis), including many who have been previously nominated for and/or awarded an Oscar. In addition, there have also been some nominations for stirring performances by lesser known up-and-coming actors, such as Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page and Javier Bardem.
Despite so many notable performances, only two movies -- "Juno" and "No Country for Old Men" -- stand out as best picture material. Both have stellar ensemble casts and high-quality writing. Of those, only "Juno," which has much of the same come-from-behind, low-budget appeal of last year's hit "Little Miss Sunshine," has generated much box office appeal.
It's been a lackluster year for Hollywood, with even the Oscar ceremony itself in limbo up to the last minute due to the writers' strike.
Also notable this year is the number of excellent actors and movies completely overlooked by the Academy. Angelina Jolie was perfection in "A Mighty Heart," likewise Josh Brolin in both "No Country for Old Men" and "American Gangster." There was also Chris Cooper in "Breach," Molly Shannon in "The Year of the Dog," and Emile Hirsch, one of my favorite young actors, in "Into the Wild." Then there's the popular remake of "3:10 to Yuma" that featured outstanding performances by Christian Bale, Russell Crowe and, best of all, Ben Foster in a tour de force as an effeminate sociopath; and the entire cast of "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." All were shut out.
With several of the nominated actors appearing in poorly received and reviewed movies, I had to play a bit of catch-up, thanks to DVDs and pay-per-view. In the end, I have seen all of the films in the key categories, except for one, "I'm Not There."
Once again, although film critic is definitely not in my job description, I'm providing a little guide for the more traditional moviegoers -- those whose only available fare are the bigger-budget, lower-brow blockbusters shown in the mall multiplexes.
I'm skipping the more technical categories, like makeup, sound editing and mixing, and, of course, the ones I haven't seen -- shorts, documentaries and foreign language (meaning those actually nominated in the foreign language category). Instead, I'll focus on the key categories: best picture and director, best actor and actress, and best supporting actor and actress.
BEST PICTURE/DIRECTOR
* "Juno," directed by Jason Reitman, is a delight and, thanks to word-of-mouth promotion, one of the few nominated movies that folks have actually gone to the theater to see. If nothing else, "Juno" has reintroduced the word "shenanigans" into the popular vernacular. Despite its unlikely topic, the story of a pregnant teenager and her search for a couple to adopt the baby features near-perfect performances all around, clever, rapid-fire dialogue and a very sweet spirit.
* Despite its widely derided abrupt ending -- think "Dallas" and "The Bob Newhart Show" -- "No Country for Old Men," directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a riveting movie that's faithful to the book by Cormac McCarthy. It's a three-prong account of a violent search for missing loot from a drug deal gone bad by a rather unusual psychopathic killer, the down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran who finds the money and the lawman bent on justice.
* A tale of legal shenanigans among high-priced law firms, "Michael Clayton," directed by Tony Gilroy, is a character study of a marginal attorney stuck on the lower rungs of the legal ladder who's called upon to clean up any messes that involve his more successful colleagues. Case in point, what to do when the lead lawyer in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit goes bonkers? It's the acting here that lifts an otherwise so-so movie into an Oscar-nominated one.
* I liked the Ian McEwan book a lot better, but the film version of "Atonement" doesn't disappoint either. The story of a preteen's tragic misunderstanding of events at an English country estate between the world wars follows her efforts to atone for the mistake that ruined the lives of three people, herself included. The acting, costumes and scenery are first-rate all around, and James McAvoy, so good in last year's "The Last King of Scotland," was touted as a heavy Oscar pick for his role as the doomed lover. Like McAvoy, director Joe Wright was also overlooked by the Academy.
* An overly long, tedious look at a one-dimensional oil tycoon in turn-of-the-century California, "There Will Be Blood," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, had me checking my watch and counting the number of seats in my row, compared with the row in front of me. I saw nothing noteworthy here.
* "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," directed by Julian Schnabel, is the remarkable true story of a French fashion editor who, after a debilitating stroke, is left totally paralyzed, a prisoner of "locked-in syndrome." Moving only his left eyelid, Jean-Dominique Bauby, with the help of persistent caregivers, laboriously blinks "yes" or "no," letter by letter, word by word, to create a life-affirming book about his ordeal. As inspiring as Bauby's story is, a compelling "60 Minutes" segment or an hour with Oprah could have relayed his unique triumph of the human spirit story just as well.
BEST ACTOR
* My favorite actor today, Tommy Lee Jones has honed craggy and sarcastic down to an art form. And, in "In the Valley of Elah," as well as a similar turn in this year's "No Country for Old Men," he's at his leathery, suffering-no-fools best. The winner of a supporting-actor Oscar for his role in "The Fugitive," Jones plays a middle-American everyman searching for his son, who is missing after a return from Iraq. The movie itself is mediocre, but I'm hoping Jones' performance will gain him the top award.
* Also reprising the world-weary persona that earned him an Oscar as best supporting actor in 2005's "Syriana," George Clooney does an admirable job as the lawyer taking care of business in "Michael Clayton." But it's no "Syriana."
* With the primary hype centering around an "au naturel" knife fight in a sauna locker room, Viggo Mortensen delivers his usual solid performance as a Russian organized crime figure in "Eastern Promises," a so-so movie. I cringe when words like "bravery" are used in regards to creative pursuits, but when a no-holds-barred naked knife fight is part of the equation, I have to concede that takes some nerve.
* Although eccentric English-Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis has done some outstanding work, including his best-actor Oscar win for "My Left Foot," he's just not an actor I particularly care to watch. Like Meryl Streep, Day-Lewis is very good, but there's a technique-driven quality to his acting that leaves me cold. In "There Will Be Blood," he portrays a pioneering oil man whose ruthless single-mindfulness leads to inevitable destruction.
* I like Johnny Depp, and he's deservedly caught the eye of the Academy twice before. But his portrayal of the murderous Fleet Street barber in the visually and musically dreary "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is all about make-up, lighting and style, smoke and mirrors. He doesn't act; he performs. And what a dreadful movie "Sweeney Todd" is. I admit I like my musicals with bright costumes, spectacular dance moves, a definite showstopper and, well, music. I defy anyone to sing one verse of the movie's indistinguishable, monotonous "songs."
BEST ACTRESS
* One of my pet Oscar peeves is when a foreign language movie is nominated in a category other than best foreign language film. That said, Marion Cotillard has been nominated for best actress, and it simply is what it is. And her performance as Edith Piaf, the waifish French songstress in "La Vie En Rose," is something to see. I'd seen Cotillard previously in a light, totally forgettable comedy with Russell Crowe. Hers is a spell-binding performance. The French-language picture, however, was disappointing, with short shrift given to her impact on the World War II French Resistance and the confusion caused by a dozen or so supporting male characters, half of whom are named Louis, drifting in and out of the film.
* Ellen Page, who was so terrific in 2005's "Hard Candy," does a real star turn here as the smart-mouthed pregnant title character in "Juno." Even if she doesn't take home the Oscar, this young Canadian has a long, secure future in films.
* Her usual nervous mannerisms toned down, Laura Linney holds her own with co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman in "The Savages," a look at two ill-equipped siblings suddenly forced to cope with their demented and dying, elderly father. It's a comedy.
* Oft nominated, Cate Blanchett reprises the role of Elizabeth I that she created in the 1998 movie, "Elizabeth," in the latest offering, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." With less than enthusiastic reviews for the movie, not Blanchett, this is one I skipped at the theater and rented on DVD. The Australian actress, who won best supporting actress playing Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator," is always in top form, and I enjoyed this continuation of the Elizabeth role she pretty much owns.
* Julie Christie may have all the Oscar buzz on her side, but the hot star of the 1960s is a tremendous disappointment to me in her role as an Alzheimer's patient in "Away from Her." Here's another film that got lukewarm reviews despite praise for Christie's performance, and I had to catch it on DVD. Apparently Fiona, the Christie character, had some sort of intermittent Alzheimer's that allowed her to deliver lengthy, astute soliloquies on cue, while never repeating so much as a sentence, word or syllable. Perhaps a special Oscar should go to "best hairdo in a leading role" for Christie's coif that unraveled along with her character.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
* Tommy Lee Jones may be my favorite actor, but Philip Seymour Hoffman is the best, bar none. And not since his Academy Award-winning turn in "Capote" has his incredible range been as apparent. As the CIA slouch with a razor-sharp mind, Hoffman steals "Charlie Wilson's War" from Hollywood favorites Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.
* Trading his Latin leading-man good looks for this role as a deranged, coin-flipping, creepy killer, Javier Bardem is a joy to watch in "No Country for Old Men." With a bolt-spitting cattle gun as his weapon of choice, the Spanish star is so good as a quirky hit man traveling throughout west Texas in single-minded pursuit of stolen drug money.
* One of my favorites since "The Full Monty," the English character actor Tom Wilkinson turns in his usual spectacular performance as the loony lawyer off his meds in "Michael Clayton." He's another fine actor who has been previously nominated for an Oscar.
* A nostalgic pick, first-time nominee Hal Holbrook is fine in his sympathetic role as the lonely good Samaritan in the overlooked "Into the Wild."
* Ignored for what I consider a perfectly good performance in "Gone Baby Gone," Casey Affleck is merely annoying as the Jesse James wannabe who inevitably turns on his idol. I couldn't get his resemblance to Frankie Muniz of "Malcolm in the Middle" out of my mind. And despite the words "assassination" and "Jesse James" in the title, and Brad Pitt in the title role, this three-hour-plus movie is one of the most tedious and boring films I've ever endured. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is even worse than its title. Awful!
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
* Unfamiliar with Amy Ryan until her nomination for "Gone Baby Gone," I checked out her Wikipedia page and discovered she had played Alvin Dewey's wife in my favorite 2004 film, "Capote," the Hoffman flick I thought I had memorized. These two roles could not be more different, and Ryan is wonderful in both.
* A bundle of nervous, twitching, self-doubting energy, the unusual-looking English actress, Tilda Swinton, is very convincing as a female lawyer playing hardball in "Michael Clayton."
* Saoirse Ronan, a young Irish-American actress, is okay as the preteen who sets off a tragic string of events in "Atonement." Every year or so, the Academy likes to throw a nomination to an unlikely recipient -- the very young (Anna Paquin, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Justin Henry and Tatum O'Neal) and the very old (Hal Holbrook, Ruby Dee, Richard Farnsworth, Gloria Stuart, Jessica Tandy and George Burns). Whether Ronan sustains a career is to be seen.
* "American Gangster" is right up my alley, but veteran actress Ruby Dee's performance was one of the glaring false notes in an otherwise good movie. As the poor Carolina-bred mother of Denzel Washington's title character, Dee dropped any and all reminders of her rural roots once she moved into her son's drug-financed world.
* I didn't see Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There," and apparently, for some good reason, I'm not alone. Among the several actors -- all playing characters with other names who represent aspects of folk legend Bob Dylan's life -- are a woman (Blanchett) and a black man. This was not a format likely to put bodies in seats.
Tonight's 80th Academy Awards, hosted by Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show," will be televised live beginning at 8 p.m. on ABC.
T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached by e-mail at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5545. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.