Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Jackie Earle Haley: Meet My Oscars Dark Horse

If there was an oscars category for most disappointing movie of the year, I would not have a hard time figuring out my nominations: Borat (which was so funny on TV, but SUCH a bad idea for a plot-driven film), Talledega Nights (which I didn't have that high expectations for anyway, but which really sucked--the big joke seemed to be that it made fun of product placement while doing a nauseating amount of it), For Your Consideration (when did Christopher Guest movies start to feel so predictable?), Marie Antoinette (what happened, Sofia?) and, last and certainly least, Little Children. I don't mean to say that Little Children was the worst of all these films--actually, it was arguably the best. But it was certainly the most disappointing; my God, I had such hopes for this film! I love Todd Field--at least, I loved In the Bedroom. But Little Children was predictable, formulaic, and ultimately not very thoughtful; in other words, it was everything people who didn't understand In the Bedroom accused In the Bedroom of being. Which means that either Todd made a serious misstep, or I am the one who misread In the Bedroom.

In any event, now that Oscars season has rolled around, I've returned to Little Children with a cooler mind, and decided that, to be fair, Jackie Earle Haley was wonderful. He is rightfully nominated for best supporting actor, and, since I don't want to pick both Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy in my pool (both will probably win, but a man has to maintain some dignity), I've decided to go with Haley. Now, Haley is a real dark horse, but I can't help but think he's got a shot. People really respect pervert performances--just like, in the words of Kate Winslet in her appearance on Extras, they love to award the "mental." In all seriousness, I expect an upset here, since, as this article points out, people might be hesitant about giving Norbit an academy award.

1 comment:

Betty and Bimbo said...

Thanks for the link, Mags. I personally wasn't crazy for Murphy in "Dreamgirls" but it seems unfair to punish him for Norbit when that's not what he's nominated for, don't you think? Or do you think the Academy is feeling the Norbit squeeze on a more subconscious level? Probably not.

By the way, is there any way we can see who others voted for in the pool? I just logged into the site and couldn't figure it out. Can we get a pool update? Apropos of Norbit, how big is that booty?