The 2005 Academy Awards (Beware: Spoilers)

Hehe, just as I started typing this post, whilst watching final 35 minutes of St. Elmo’s Fire, this great line by Alec: “No Springsteen is leaving this house!”

Classic!

: )

OK, for the first time in the history of ... well, me ... I have seen every film nominated for this year’s Academy Awards. Thanks to finishing up my bootleg-ish copy of The Aviator this afternoon, minus a few glitches on the DVD right toward the end, and seeing the amazing Ray last night. Of course, I have not seen all of the performances that have received nominations, nor do I have any desire to, really ... except for Hotel Rwanda. That film, I do, indeed, wish to see, and I have a feeling it will be along the lines of The Killing Fields or The Year of Living Dangerously and I will no doubt love it. And be annoyed as all-get out that it, too, was not among the Best Picture nominees.

But we shall worry about that later.

And, if I were a voting member of the Academy, based on the 5 Best Picture nominees, all things considered but, mostly, how each film affected me, I would declare Million Dollar Baby the winner.

Hands down. No questions asked.

This is a film that has stayed with me ever since I watched it. This is a film that I saw twice in the theater, once more on video and am hoping to sneak in another viewing before the Oscar telecast begins in a couple of hours.

This is a film that makes me smile and dream and believe, and breaks my heart, and even then, after the tears, makes me love life and the possibilities that exist, if you work hard and believe in yourself and your talent, and have passion about everything and anything you do.

I love Maggie and Frankie and Scrap. And the choices they make are not always the politically correct ones, but they are the human ones.

And the story is beautiful.

If I were to rank the 5 films, Million Dollar Baby would be my No. 1, Finding Neverland my No. 2, Ray my No. 3. Any of those 3 could win and I would be OK with it. Disappointed for $MDB, but happy for either of the other 2.

Finding Neverland affected me, too, because I loved Peter Pan. And its characters, too, grabbed my heart. I cannot imagine it winning, but ... I would smile if it did.

The Aviator reminds me a bit of Ray, from the standpoint that both of the main characters, Howard Hughes and Ray Charles, respectively, were men that some would consider to be seriously flawed geniuses. Both have outstanding performances from their lead actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx. However, to me, I just did not really care about Hughes after watching this film; I mean, I respected him, but I really did not feel anything for him.

I have never been a huge fan of Ray Charles, except I do love his “Come Rain or Come Shine” song from my thirtysomething soundtrack (the song plays in the episode in which Ellyn gets married). After seeing this film, though, and learning a little bit about his life, I have a newfound appreciation. Mostly, I wish I’d had a chance to see him perform live.

The film changed my perception of him.

As for Sideways: I wanted to like it, but I really didn’t enjoy it. I wanted to relate to the main character, a writer, but all he seemed to do was mope. (Do I do that? God, I hope not.) I wanted to laugh (wasn’t it s’posed to be a comedy?) and I wanted to feel something for the characters (wasn’t it s’posed to be a drama?), but I didn’t.

Matter of fact, I didn’t even crave a glass of wine when I left the theater (wasn’t it s’posed to be about wine?)!

Foxx will win Best Actor, but if this weren’t his year, I’d go with Clint Eastwood.

I hope Hilary Swank wins Best Actress and Morgan Freeman wins Best Supporting Actor. There could be performances that are as good as theirs, but none better.

And I hope Clint wins Best Director.

And, hopefully, I won’t be up past 11 watching the damn show!