rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2008
Directed by Louis J. Horvitz; produced by Gilbert Cates; hosted by Jon Stewart
February 24th, 2008, saw most 2007 films rightfully win their Academy Awards, with few surprises in the major categories. Critically acclaimed 'No Country for Old Men' took home four major awards - Picture, Director, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay - while 'There Will be Blood' (Best Actor), 'La vie en rose' (Actress), 'Juno' (Original Screenplay) and 'Michael Clayton' (Supporting Actress) took the other "big" awards.
'The Bourne Ultimatum' won the second most awards, all technical, with three (Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing). Austria's 'Die Fälscher' was named Best Foreign Language Film, 'Ratatouille' the Best Animated Feauture Film and, surprisingly, Best Feauture Documentary went to 'Taxi to the Dark Side'. 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age', 'The Golden Compass', 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street', 'Atonement' and 'Once' all won one award. Both 'There Will Be Blood' and 'La vie en rose' doubled their wins with Best Cinematography, in a bit of a surprise, and Best Makeup.
It was a result many people could live with. Personally I had little to complain as well. I hoped for a 'Sicko' win, just to see Michael Moore on that stage again, and I loved Ellen Page in 'Juno', although Marion Cotillard gave one of the more entertaining speeches of the evening, and deserved to win as much as Page (or Julie Christie) would have. I hope Johnny Depp will win his award one day, but Daniel Day-Lewis was too great in 'There Will Be Blood'. Supporting roles went to Javier Bardem, logically, and Tilda Swinton, surprisingly, both fine with me. 'Into the Wild' and 'Eastern Promises' got too little nominations in the first place, although I was happy to see them get some recognition.
The show itself was not that impressive, but fun nonetheless. Besides Cotillard's speech, I liked those delivered by Javier Bardem, Brad Bird and Joel & Ethan Coen. Other highpoints included Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill playing Halle Berry and Dame Judi Dench, the montages featuring old winners and memorable moments, the songs performed by the lovely Amy Adams ('Enchanted') and by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová for 'Once', the eventual winner. Host Jon Stewart showed some class by returning Irglová to the stage after a commercial break, when she was not even able to begin her acceptance speech in the first place.
Stewart impressed many with his performance this year. A lot better received than two years ago, his jokes were funny and he really respected and praised the nominees as they deserved. The classy move described above showed this even more. Admittedly I am a fan of the intelligent comedian and would like to see him do it every year, except, maybe, for a Billy Crystal-performance. This year's lack of other comedians - only Steve Carrell and the already mentioned Rogen & Hill had a nice time up there too - gave Stewart the advantage. Owen Wilson also presented an award: it was good to see him up there, but it seemed he wasn't ready for comedy yet.
The show ran only a little too long, partially because the acceptance speeches were actually pretty short. Of course, there was little fun in them, but this year I was not really bothered either. With only a week or so to prepare, due to the writers strike, you have to give credit to producer Gil Cates and his creative team. In the montages there were some painful mistakes - Brad Renfro, and others, seemed to be forgotten in the "in memoriam" montage - but the show itself was pretty well produced. Next year, with more time to prepare, it could and should be better. Hopefully the film are better seen as well, so more people will tune in to see this (still) great event.