Of the big eight awards (Picture, Director, Actor and Actress, the two Supporting and the two Screenplays) this is the only absolute, no doubt about it lock of the year. I don't see any way that Ledger doesn't win this. He will be the first posthumous winner in the acting categories since Peter Finch won Best Actor for
Network at the 1977 ceremony.
It's great that Josh Brolin got his nomination. He was quite good as Dan White in
MILK and it makes up at least a little bit for his being left out of so much of the celebration of the awards season last year even though he had the starring role in
No Country for Old Men (not to mention he was also in
American Gangster, In the Valley of Elah and
Planet Terror last year too!). It also is an unofficial acknowledgment of his work as Bush in Oliver Stone's
W. Brolin's star is definitely rising in a hurry, one of those fifteen-year overnight success stories in Hollywood.
Robert Downey Jr. also had a whale of a year, starring in one of the biggest and best-reviewed box office smashes of the year in
Iron Man that started the summer movie season and then capping it off with his hilariously contrived portrayal of a method actor gone a few steps too far in
Tropic Thunder. Downey has been on a roll that has finally translated into butts in seats and now a return to the Oscars. His previous and only other nomination came as Best Actor in 1993 for
Chaplin. We all know the mostly self-induced rocky road he's traveled from there to here, so it'll be nice to see him smiling when Heath's name is called.
Philip Seymour Hoffman may well become a fixture at these ceremonies. He seems to be in serious contention every single year now, since he won Best Actor just four years ago for
Capote after a decade's worth of great performances leading up to it.
Charlie Wilson's War last year is the only other nomination he managed, but his work in
The Savages and
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was Oscar-caliber and had the movie done better he might have even been double-nominated this year with
Synecdoche, New York. He was perfectly cast in
Doubt. But he must know he is only there to applaud Michelle Williams or Christopher Nolan or whoever it is that walks up to accept Heath's statue.
Other than the big awards
The Reader managed, the only real out-and-out surprise in the nominees was Michael Shannon. Stars Leonardo DioCaprio and Kate Winslet were both expected to be among the Oscar nominees for their work here, but it wasn't to be. Michael Shannon really came out of nowhere. He's been cropping up in smaller roles for a while now, and he was amazing in the lead of the small indie pic
Shotgun Stories, which played the festival circuit in late 2007 and had a small release in the first part of 2008. Even if Heath weren't going to win this in a landslide Shannon would have zero chance of winning, but perhaps this coupled with
Shotgun Stories will raise his profile a bit and get him bigger roles in bigger movies. At least I hope people seek out and rent
Shotgun Stories.
As for some of my favorite supporting performances of the year that I would have liked to see make the cut and be sacrificed to The Joker, Micheal J. Smith Sr. was amazing in the little-seen
Ballast, Eddie Marsan was genius playing hilarious, pathetic and frightening in
Happy-Go-Lucky, I think both Irrfan Khan and Anil Kapoor are two of the key ingredients to
Slumdog Millionaire's success, Tom Noonan was wonderful in
Synecdoche, New York, Tunde Adebimpe added such a great if quiet presence to
Rachel Getting Married, Malkovich was very good both subtle in
Changeling and deliciously over-the-top in
Burn After Reading, can't forget Mathieu Amalric in
A Christmas Tale, Ralph Fiennes was clearing having a blast
In Bruges and Haaz Sleiman was strong as the unlucky Tarek in
The Visitor.
But none of them had any real shot at a nomination, and nobody was going to pass Heath anyway.
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