Intermission: Sappy Oscar awards hold few surprises

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Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.|ret||ret||tab|

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On one hand, the 76th annual Oscar awards program from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held no surprises. On another, it did.|ret||ret||tab|

The fact that the final episode in Peter Jackson's trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," swept every category for which it was nominated and set an Oscar record for doing so was a given. Hollywood had to finally 'fess up to the logistical feat Jackson accomplished and reward him for the box-office grosses his tedious set of pictures gathered. While I respect the amount of work that went into the project, I would never re-watch one laborious second of any of those films.|ret||ret||tab|

What was surprising to me was how horribly sappy the program was presented. Year after year, viewers bemoan the lame commentary and the sheer length of the presentation. Host Billy Crystal's opening song medley was cringe-inducing from the start and when he got to the part making light of "Mystic River" a powerful and serious film it was excruciating. Later, as Crystal went into the "I know what you're thinking," the show sunk to depths beyond compare to even previous Oscar nights.|ret||ret||tab|

Hopefully next year the powers that be won't include this kind of thing. I can only imagine what they would do with "The Passion of the Christ." |ret||ret||tab|

The Independent Spirit Awards were presented in about half the time the Oscars consumed and that ceremony was dominated by Sofia Coppola's brilliant "Lost in Translation." Had this been another year, Coppola the first American woman to be nominated as best director would have been presented with more than the Best Original Screenplay award she got at the Oscars. She proved to be an awful actress in her dad's "The Godfather: Part III," but showed she knew what to do behind the camera with her directorial debut, "The Virgin Suicides." She wrote and directed "Lost in Translation" and, outside of Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River," it was my favorite film of 2003.|ret||ret||tab|

The academy had some other bold moves this year beside nominating Coppola. Keisha Castle-Hughes from "Whale Rider" was nominated as best actress. At 13, she's the youngest woman to ever achieve this honor. |ret||ret||tab|

Charlize Theron, who played serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster," was a lock for this award. Hollywood always gives a nod to characters with mental problems and Theron had the double whammy of "uglying up" for this role. Without a doubt, she's one of the most beautiful actresses working today and her portrayal of Wuornos was completely against type.|ret||ret||tab|

Sean Penn, after three previous nominations, finally won a best actor award. His role in "Mystic River" was a powerful one, and he deserves the credit he's gotten. The surprising thing is as one of Hollywood's most notorious outsiders that he actually showed up to accept the award. Political speeches were squelched most of the night, but Penn got in a nice, quick barb about the motives for the latest war in Iraq. He quickly moved on, which is more than can be said for the rest of the show.|ret||ret||tab|

One of the few categories "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" wasn't nominated for was cinematography. My choice was "The Girl with the Pearl Earring," a sumptuously filmed production that did justice to the paintings of Vermeer, the artist at the heart of the story. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" took the prize here, as well as in sound editing. The latter award was well deserved. The creaking of the ship and the thunder of the cannon were expertly portrayed. I thought it should have won for sound mixing as well, but "Return of the King" was in the same race, so no chance.|ret||ret||tab|

One surprise was in the supporting actress field. Most critics cited Shohreh Aghdashloo's performance as the quietly powerful wife in "House of Sand and Fog" as the best of the year. Since Renee Zellweger took home an Oscar last time out, smart money said she was not going to get this one. Smart money was wrong. Zellweger is a gifted actress, and I've liked her in every film she's done, but this award was misdirected. Aghdashloo was so strong in her film and took the portrayal above and beyond a role that could have simply been minor. Hers was a textbook definition of a "supporting" performance.|ret||ret||tab|

The best musical moment in the show came when Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara performed "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" as Mitch and Mickey, their love-torn, hippie-era duo from Christopher Guest's "A Mighty Wind." It should have won best song but, again, something from "The Lord of the Rings" was in the same category.|ret||ret||tab|

"City of God," a movie that never made it here, got a lot of notice, being nominated in the cinematography, editing, adapted screenplay and directing categories. It didn't win anything but got some valuable exposure (if anyone was still awake) and is something to look forward to when it's released to the home-video market.|ret||ret||tab|

Something else to look forward to would be a shorter, more to the point, Oscar ceremony next year. For some reason I don't think that's going to happen.|ret||ret||tab|

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