Obviously The Artist was the big winner, taking five trophies including Best Picture, Director, Actor. Hugo matched that tally with five craft wins, while the dreadful Iron Lady won two (gak!), and the list of one-win wonders includes The Help, Beginners, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Muppets (becoming the first Muppet movie to win an Oscar! YAY!)
Surprises were few and far between, and those that we did get were decidedly unpleasant ones if you ask me. The biggest of said unpleasant surprises was no doubt Meryl Streep's victory in Best Actress, but don't let me give you the impression that I'm vindictive. I'm as big a fan of the lady as the next man. Year after year, Streep continues to solidify her claim as the greatest actress of her generation with consistently excellent performances, unfortunately often in films less-than-worthy of her gifts. If there's any living thespian deserving of three Academy Awards, it's her...
...but why did it have to come at the expense of Viola Davis? This was clearly her year, and hers was clearly the best performance of the five. Not to pontificate too hard on the Academy's (and Hollywood's) demographic tendencies, but when is she going to have an opportunity like this again? I wonder if this might be Oscar's most severe mistake in years.
But severe mistakes seemed to be a running theme for the evening. I'm totally bugged that I didn't let myself believe the hype for Hugo in the sound and effects categories, where it trumped work from other nominees that was inarguably more accomplished. Talk about lazy voting. Stay tuned for my annual Top Ten Pet Peeves of the Year list.
To add insult to injury, the one craft category where they didn't exercise lazy voting, Best Film Editing, the outcome was even worse, opting for Baxter and Wall's haywire cutting job on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. My instinct for the longest time was telling me they'd go for the flashiest editing, but nearly fifty years of precedent (not since Bullitt in 1968 has a film only won Editing, and not since Traffic has it gone to a non-ACE-winner) swayed me from my gut.
But let's try to accentuate the positive. Some of the evening's winners were truly deserving. Christopher Plummer winning was a highlight for me, even if it was expected. A Separation managed to break the trend of tepid voting in Best Foreign Language Film, making it the single best film to win an Oscar this year. And when Mark Bridges won for Costume Design over much grabbier period bait, I was genuinely thrilled. When was the last time a black-and-white film won Costume Design? Might have to look into that.
The show itself, while unremarkable, was still efficient and enjoyable, and certainly less embarrassing than the last two. Billy Crystal did what he does best, and that's fine by me. He's still the best Oscar host I've ever seen. It's all familiar shtick, from the opening montage that splices him into the nominated films to his cheesy song-and-dance routine and everything else, but I love that familiar shtick!
I'll chime in at some point with my aforementioned Pet Peeves column, always a good way to get the bitching out of my system before moving onto next season.
