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Marie
Asner's Oscar Picks for 2002
By Marie Asner Is it the advent of the musical? Perhaps, and then what will Oscar do with Chicago competing with Eminem? Shades of tradition vs. rap, the music ballots may be as talked about as the Best Actress category. There, we have Nicole Kidman as the repressed Virginia Woolf against Diane Lane who melted the screen in Unfaithful_ Yes, folks, it's February, and what better way to battle winter doldrums than to indulge in the 75th Academy Award race. Buckle up---here we go for the top eleven categories, Film, Director, Actress, Actor, Actress in a Supporting Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Documentary, Foreign Language Film, Soundtrack and Song. Did anyone doubt that Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers would get a nomination? It did; however, the picture must have manufactured itself because director Peter Jackson was shut out of a Best Director nod. Methinks next year when the trilogy is complete that Jackson will come into his own. The Hours is no surprise, either, and I, for one, am glad that this film has garnered a nomination in Film Editing, for without this particular skill, the film would not be effective. Chicago is a welcome to many who have been crying for a musical. It's not your traditional fluff, though, with the subject being murder, but then as some are apt to point out, that's Chicago for you. Gangs of New York took people back to the time of immigration and what happened along the Eastern seaboard at the time of the Civil War. If you didn't realize blood was red, you certainly know it after seeing this film. The Pianist was sometimes called The Perils of the Pianist for just when you thought nothing more could go wrong, it did. However, Roman Polanski did present a riveting film. Out in the cold are My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Antwone Fisher, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Far From Heaven. Martin Scorsese certainly poured his heart into Gangs of New York; no wonder he has an Oscar nomination for Best Director. People will be roaming New York City for years searching for Five Points. Stephen Daldry pulled exquisite performances from three top actresses, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman for The Hours. The editing helped, too. Rob Marshall got Richard Gere to tap dance in Chicago, and doing so may have been sufficient to earn Marshall a nomination for Best Director. Pedro Almodovar had an unusual story about coma patients to work with in Talk to Her, which has a nomination for Almodovar in Best Screenplay, also. No in Best Film, though. Go figure. If Roman Polanski gets the Oscar for The Pianist, the question will be, who will collect the award? The Perils of the Pianist could be subtitled The Perils of Polanski Hmmm. Standing in the street are Peter Jackson for The Two Towers, Todd Haynes for Far From Heaven, Steven Spielberg for Catch Me If You Can or Alexander Payne for About Schmidt. Salma Hayek worked for years to bring Frida to the screen and did a colorful job as the wounded painter. Where is Alfred Molino for Best Supporting Actor, though? Nicole Kidman showed us how some writers create works while battling depression in The Hours. Diane Lane had a vivid affair in Unfaithful, that was early in the year, but lingered in people's minds. Julianne Moore had her world fall apart in Far From Heaven._The film was edged out in the Best Film category, but director Todd Haynes did receive a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Renee Zellweger turned herself into a song and dance performer in Chicago. Let's see if Oscar likes the tune. Behind a locked door are Maggie Gyllenhaal for Secretary, Isabelle Huppert for The Piano Teacher and Jennifer Aniston for The Good Girl. Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of New York) and Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt) are the front-runners in the Best Actor category. Day-Lewis literally became Bill the Butcher in an over-the-top-watch-out-for-the-blade performance, while Nicholson went low key as a retired man trying to begin a new life. Adrien Brody lost weight for The Pianist, but music lovers will appreciate his dedication. Michael Caine lets his face do the acting in The Quiet American and this speaks volumes. The surprise is Nicholas Cage in Adaptation. Granted, he played two roles, but what happened to Leonardo Di Caprio in Gangs of New York, Campbell Scott in Roger Dodger or Robin Williams in One Hour Photo? Kathy Bates did a nude scene in About Schmidt, and though people will talk about this first, her portrayal of a harrowing future mother-in-law got her a Best Actress in a Supporting Role nomination. Julianne Moore was the ice queen in The Hours, and though I would not have separated the actress ensemble in this film, The Academy did. Meryl Streep (also in The Hours) is nominated here for Adaptation, thus giving her the recognition SAG did not through their clerical error. Catherine Zeta-Jones is here for Chicago and up against Queen Latifah for the same film. Outside are Patricia Clarkson for Far From Heaven, Edie Falco for Sunshine State, Toni Collette for About A Boy or Michelle Pfeiffer for White Oleander. Chris Cooper is nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in Adaptation by playing an unruly guy with no front teeth. Ed Harris has a marvelous dying scene in The Hours, while the classic Paul Newman orders dying in Road to Perdition. John C. Reilly was busy with three wonderful roles this year (The Hours, Chicago, and Gangs of New York) but received his nomination for Chicago. Christopher Walken, who reminds many people of a walking Stephen King novel, was good as the con man father in Catch Me If You Can, and the nomination process agreed. Standing in the sidelines are Willem Dafoe for Auto Focus, Alfred Molino for Frida and Dennis Quaid for Far From Heaven. Animated Features are becoming story-oriented, and Spirited Away has been riding the crest. Treasure Planet, a retelling of Treasure Island, brought new meaning to "outer space." Ice Age on the other hand, was a humorous account of life during glacier time, while Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron revisited the Old West. Lilo & Stitch combined both space aliens and contemporary life in Hawaii. Makes one wonder how many children will walk the warm beaches there looking for a lost Stitch. In Best Foreign Language Film, Mexico, which had a dazzler in Y Tu Mama Tambien, sent _El Crimen del Padre Amaro_ (The Crime of Father Amaro) and received a nomination for the story of a priest gone astray. China's Hero is set in olden times, while Germany's Nowhere in Africa is about a Jewish family beginning a new life in Kenya. Finland's The Man Without A Past concerns a man's battle with amnesia, and Zus & Zo from The Netherlands has sisters trying to keep a brother from marrying. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine certainly caused a stir with its take on gun control and garnered a nomination in Best Documentary Feature. Interviewing Charlton Heston didn't hurt Moore's chances, either. Daughter From Danang concerns the search for a lost Vietnamese mother, while Spellbound is a backstage look at what makes up a national spelling bee. Prisoner of Paradise is the story of Kurt Gerron who was forced to write a German propaganda film during World War II. Winged Migration is beautifully filmed with almost no dialogue and, of course, the subject matter is birds. On the outside looking in are The Cockettes, The Kid Stays In The Picture and Standing in the Shadows of Motown. When I reviewed Howard Shore's soundtrack for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, I didn't find anything new there and neither did the Academy, as Shore was shut out this year for a nomination. John Williams made it for Catch Me If You Can. It wouldn't be Oscar time without Williams in the running. New to the voting people is Philip Glass with his score for The Hours. Elliot Goldenthal gives us vibrancy for Frida, while Elmer Bernstein combines a series of music themes in Far From Heaven. Thomas Newman goes back to Prohibition times with music for Road to Perdition. What happened to Gangs of New York or Chicago? In the Best Song category, there is something for everyone. John Kander and Fred Ebb have "Chicago," and guess what film that is from. Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor did "Burn It Blue" for Frida. Bono and a host of others did the lead song from Gangs of New York, while Paul Simone wrote about fathers for The Wild Thornberry's Movie, probably the only thing people (excuse me, kids) will remember from that film. Eminem, with Jeff Bass and Luis Resto has the title song from 8 Mile, and we wonder who will perform it on Oscar night? Here are my choices for that special Academy Award night of March 23. Best Film: The Hours
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