Oscars 2011: Snooze-fest with British Highlights
With all the anticipation built up around this year’s Oscar hosts, Anne Hathaway and James Franco, one might have thought that the 83rd edition of the Academy Awards would be an engaging ceremony for both the audience at the Kodak theatre and at home, bringing together younger and older generations. And so it was… for about five minutes – the length of the opening skit: a clip starring Hathaway and Franco attempting to break into Alec Baldwin’s dream, “Inception-style”, to steal some tips for hosting the Oscars. The clip was, in fact, a hilarious montage of several scenes from the films nominated for this year’s Best Picture. What followed was, as many critics described the show, a “snooze-fest” that shows that the harder the producers try to put together an amazingly entertaining show, the bigger their failure turns out to be.
The awe-factor was from the beginning greatly reduced due to the fact that the big expected winners of the night turned out to be exactly as predicted:
Best Actor: Colin Firth for The King’s Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman for The Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale for The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo for The Fighter
Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech
The hosts, who were supposed to liven up the atmosphere with their young spirits, were actually drawn to boredom because of the “tamed” lines and numbers they were given to perform, so as not to offend anybody, as Ricky Gervais succeeded to do at the Golden Globes. Even though the chemistry between Anne and James was great at the beginning, towards the end it seemed like Anne had carried most of the show’s burden on her shoulders alone. As The New York Times put it:
“Separately, Mr. Franco and Ms. Hathaway are charming and charismatic, but together they had an odd absence of chemistry. Mr. Franco looked a little distracted and even blasé […]. Ms. Hathaway was better alone than at Mr. Franco’s side.”
Time Magazine’s review was even harsher: “There was a rough, dress-rehearsal feel to much of the show, which also suffered from odd long shots, the usual slack middle and several clip reels which, weirdly, spoiled plot points and key moments from movies that, in part, the awards are supposed to promote to viewers who haven’t seen them yet.”
The musical moments were also not so much praised but criticized – with some critiques reminding Gwyneth Paltrow, who sang Coming Home from her film Country Strong, that she is primarily an actress – except for the ending performance of Over The Rainbow, by the PS 22 Kids’ Chorus from Staten Island, which was the main highlight of the show.
Speaking of highlights and critiques, The Telegraph UK writes, without being entirely biased, that “the highlights, as usual, were all provided by the Brits” – to which we might add Melissa Leo and her F-word-dropping moment – “The Oscar for Best Presentation of an Oscar goes to Russell Brand and Helen Mirren and Colin Firth wins twice: once for Best Actor and once for Best Acceptance Speech.”
Moreover, since the night’s big winner was the British drama about King George VI’s stammer, The King’s Speech, which won 4 Oscars, the best bits of this year’s award ceremony were clearly taken over by the British. This being said, maybe there is some sense to The Telegraph UK’s remark that “only [the Brit] Ricky Gervais can save [the Oscars] now”.
Related articles
- OSCARS 2011: The King’s Speech and Colin Firth reign supreme, Natalie Portman wins best actress (dailymail.co.uk)
- Oscar Night Ruled By ‘The King’s Speech’ (mtv.com)
