Academy Award nominations yield few surprises

MARSHALL FINE, GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

Originally published Wednesday, February 13, 2002

Hollywood probably is patting itself on the back for its principled stand in not giving a single major Oscar nomination to last year's most successful film -- thus proving that, by completely snubbing "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," they weren't ruled by box-office considerations.

Which is a little like congressmen declaring themselves in favor of campaign-finance reform because they returned a contribution from Enron.

On the other hand, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences did nothing to dispel its image as a bastion of mainstream, middlebrow taste by swooning for overproduced "A Beautiful Mind." Although the Ron Howard film and "Moulin Rouge" tied for the second most nominations (eight) behind front-runner "The Lord of the Rings" (13), it seems certain to be the favorite when the 74th annual Oscar presentations are made on March 24.

Disconnect

Unlike several recent years, when independent films put Hollywood on the defensive, this year's nominations were a mixed bag of indie and studio features.

For every "Beautiful Mind" there was an "In the Bedroom." The writing nominations were the only place where the independent films seemed to hold sway, with nods for "Gosford Park," "Memento," "Monster's Ball," "Ghost World" and "In the Bedroom," in the two screenplay categories.

Oscar's schizophrenic nature is never better demonstrated than in the disconnect between the best picture and best director nominees. How can David Lynch ("Mulholland Drive") or Ridley Scott ("Black Hawk Down") be considered among the year's best directors when their films aren't competing for best picture? How can "Moulin Rouge" and "In the Bedroom" be among the year's best pictures, when their directors, Baz Luhrmann and Todd Field, aren't considered for best director?

Hollywood probably will be feeling smug for giving three nominations to black performers this year: Denzel Washington in "Training Day," Will Smith in "Ali" and Halle Berry in "Monster's Ball." While those are more black nominees than in any single previous year since 1972, the self-congratulation ignores the many years in which no actors of color were nominated.

Snubs

There weren't many egregiously wrong-headed nominations, though Oscar managed to stumble in its first year of honoring feature-length animation. The nominations to "Monsters, Inc." and "Shrek" were expected; but the slot for "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius" allowed Oscar to overlook the year's most adventurous animated film, Richard Linklater's "Waking Life."

Still, there were a few notable snubs.

Gene Hackman, who won several pre-Oscar awards for his work in "The Royal Tenenbaums," wasn't given an Oscar nod.

Billy Bob Thornton seemed to be a shoo-in for at least one nomination of his several terrific performances of the year: either in "The Man Who Wasn't There," "Monster's Ball" or even "Bandits." But he was ignored in a strong field.

And the aforementioned "Harry Potter" got token nods for art direction, costume design and music -- just what the audience went to see it for, right? But it didn't earn a visual-effects nomination (while the bombastic and bloated "Pearl Harbor" grabbed one).

Some shockers

The most surprising nominee of the day? Ethan Hawke as supporting actor for "Training Day." Virtually overlooked in the wake of Washington's blazing performance in the same film, his work was quiet and strong.

Other surprises: The original screenplay nomination for the French film, "Amelie," which also got a foreign-film nomination, was a low-grade shocker. So was the best-actress nomination for Renee Zellweger for "Bridget Jones's Diary," a film released so early in 2001 that it was almost forgotten.

The year's weakest category had to be best original song. I defy anyone to hum a single bar of the songs nominated from "Lord of the Rings," "Pearl Harbor," "Kate & Leopold" or "Vanilla Sky."

Once upon a time, this was an award that generated top 10 hits -- and reflected the contemporary music scene.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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