Oscar Eye: The Morning After

By Katey Rich: 2009-02-23 02:58:18

You could be forgiven for going into last night's Oscar ceremony thinking that surprises were possible. In one place there was talk of Melissa Leo sneaking up in the Best Actress race, and in another corner, someone might suggest Wall-E could set a record and win all five awards it was nominated for.

But by the end of the four-hour, surprisingly zippy ceremony, business had proceeded pretty much as usual. Slumdog Millionaire walked away with 8 of 9 possible trophies, missing just once in one of those pesky sound categories. Benjamin Button was recognized for its achievements where it deserved-- visual effects, makeup and art direction-- and otherwise stayed out of the picture. In the acting categories, even where there were potential upsets, the safe bets won-- Kate Winslet has an Oscar finally, and Sean Penn has two, probably having narrowly beat out an equally deserving Mickey Rourke, whom he graciously singled out from the podium.

As for the ceremony itself, which producer Bill Condon had promised would "tell a story" and be totally different from any we'd seen before, business was pretty usual there as well. Hugh Jackman was a funny and dynamic host, especially in that low-budget opening number, which I like to think of as an homage to Be Kind Rewind. Pulling Anne Hathaway up on stage definitely created that cabaret feel they were going for, even if it was kind of abandoned as the night went on. And even though the big song and dance number with Beyonce, Zac Efron and all of Young Hollywood was 100% cheese, it's hard to deny the entertainment value of it.

The show clocked in at a solid four hours, despite attempts to streamline the thing by having poor Will Smith hand out fifteen awards and cutting the montages to a bare minimum. But really, I don't mind four hours-- that gives enough time for the winners to give their full speeches (way to go, Kate!) and even the winners of things like sound mixing to thank anyone beyond their parents and agents. No matter how hard they try to get Robert Pattinson presenting, or how many times they cut between Jennifer Aniston presenting and Angelina Jolie in the audience, the real viewers of this thing will stick out all four long hours, and relish every minute. Better to have four quality hours than three hours that rush by so quickly it's almost like they're apologizing for taking up your time.

I loved the new way of presenting acting awards, giving each actress nominee a chance to tear up as a screen legend extolled their praises. I loved the mini montages introducing each of those statues, especially since Oscar acceptance speeches remain very, very hard to find in video form online. I really loved the dynamic set, how it felt different every time a different award was presented, as if best art direction was more than an afterthought on a way to an award with more starpower. And, unrelated to any of this, I loved that the director of best live-action short I believe, thanked Mr. Roboto.

So sure, none of the awards were surprises-- no one had the luxury of rushing up onstage breathless and in shock, and everyone will probably have a hard time winning much money off their Oscar bets. And despite all the promises to radically reinvent the Oscars, the ceremony mostly felt like a slightly hipper, sleeker version of the same thing we've been watching all along. But they're the Oscars, dammit, and they'll be at least intermittently entertaining no matter what. This year, we got lucky-- they were entertaining more often than not. After many years of discomfort and boredom, we'll take it.

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