Slumdog Rises to the Occasions
Millionaire, Milk Big Winners at 81st Academy Awards

In what was universally considered a weak crop of nominees, British independent sensation Slumdog Millionaire continued its award season domination and took home eight Oscars including one for Best Picture of the year at the 81^st Academy Awards. The film also won honors for director Danny Boyle, writer Simon Beaufoy’s screenplay adaptation, cinematography, editing and sound, while popular Indian singer and composer A.R. Rahman nabbed two for Best Music and Best Song.

The cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire - photo courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

In other news, Kate Winslet finally ended her winless streak besting 15-time fellow nominee Meryl Streep in the Best Actress category for her stellar work in the controversial post-WWII melodrama The Reader. Penélope Cruz bubbled over in emotional enthusiasm as she accepted her prize for Best Supporting Actress for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, while the late Heath Ledger’s father, mother and sister tearfully accepted his posthumous award for Best Supporting Actor for his blistering performance as the menacing Joker in Christopher Nolan’s otherwise (and unjustly) overlooked The Dark Knight.

In something of a minor surprise, Sean Penn bested supposed frontrunner Mickey Rourke for the Best Actor prize for his mesmerizing turn as 1970’s slain San Francisco civil rights icon Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s Milk. Delivering arguably the night’s most eloquent speech, the famously liberal movie star took his moment to not only recognize the magnificent work by his good friend Rourke, but to also lambaste those outside the Kodak Theater protesting in support of California’s Proposition 8. “I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support,” he said. “We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.”

Before that, however, the writer of that movie, Dustin Lance Black, delivered a humdinger of a speech himself after accepting the award for Best Original Screenplay. “When I was 13-years-old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk,” he said, tears welling in his eyes. “It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.”

Heath Ledger's family accepts his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor - photo courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

While the awards themselves pretty much went as expected (WALL•E won for Best Animated Film, Man on Wire nabbed Best Documentary and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button walked away with both Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup), with actor Hugh Jackman at the helm the show itself tried its best to be anything but. At times, viewers would have been forgiven if they mistakenly thought they’d turned on a rerun of the Tony Awards, an opening musical number (which included a not-so-impromptu Nixon impersonation from Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway) more Great White Way than celluloid L.A.

For me, the best advent of the night was the device of bringing out five past acting winners to personally introduce and extol the virtues of the nominees. The overly used cliché is to say that the real honor is just to be nominated and for maybe the first time ever I felt like this was true. The site of a regal Eva Marie Saint saluting the magnetic power of Viola Davis’s explosive performance in Doubt or a fiery Shirley MacLaine bringing Rachel Getting Married star Hathaway to tears was one-of-a-kind, and while some will say it slowed down the show here’s my vote for making this new wrinkle permanent.

Another change I liked was having one presenter, or one pair of presenters, dole out three or four prizes instead of bringing out a new set for each award. This allowed for true entertainers like Steve Martin and Tina Fey to shine, exuberant show-offs like Will Smith to strut their improvisational skills and comedic dynamos like Ben Stiller to do an extended Joaquin Phoenix impersonation that had the celebrity audience in stitches.

Penélope Cruz and Kate Winslet accepting their awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress - photos courtesy of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

Overall, though, the sheer unabashed predictability of the winners (Japan’s Departures taking the Oscar for Best Foreign Film over Israel’s perceived forgone conclusion Waltz with Bashir notwithstanding) made the night run a bit anticlimactically. Sure Seth Rogan and James Franco (with a hearty assist from Janusz Kaminski) tickled my funny bone, and yes Queen Latifah serenading the audience during the In Memoriam segment broke my heart, but when you know who is winning what when (for the record, I messed up on four categories) suspense pretty much goes right out the window.

Pity, because I think this year’s producers of the Oscar telecast are really onto something good. While I could have done without a lip-synching Beyoncé or a cavalcade of Disney darlings dancing the night away, thanks to Jackman, some beautiful gowns (Cruz’s was seriously to die for), a couple of great acceptance speeches (I’m glad I’m not the only one who talks to shampoo bottles) and Ledger’s family’s standing ovation I found much to like about the telecast.

I just wanted more, something the majority of this year’s nominees simply couldn’t give me. Hopefully 2009’s slate of potential contenders will rise to the occasion and give me all the glitz, glam and cinematic greatness I feel the Academy Awards deserve.