This is Morgan Freeman's fifth Oscar nomination, and he does have the one win in the Supporting category for his work in Eastwood's
Million Dollar Baby. He was very good as Nelson Mandela, not trying to play a large arc of the man's remarkable life but rather one year basically as he took power as the newly elected President after Apartheid was ended, and even more specifically mostly as it related to the Rugby team's quest for a World Cup. Considering Mandela is so well known, both physically and vocally, it's remarkable how well Freeman - who doesn't look a whole lot like him - really embodied him in his performance, capturing the man's essence. All that aside, Eastwood's film
Invictus is solid but doesn't ever hit that highest level, which doesn't help Freeman's cause. Don't think he'll win his second trophy this year, but even at the age of seventy-two he's so good and so beloved in the business I'm sure he'll get other bites at the Academy apple before it's all done.
Colin Firth earned his first Oscar nom for
A Single Man. He's been very good for quite a while now, and though he's probably best known for his work in comedy or as Mr. Darcy in the 1996 TV mini-series of
"Pride & Prejudice", I think this is easily his most challenging role and he nailed it, following a closeted Gay man in early 1960 Los Angeles for a single day as he tries to deal with the sudden death of his longtime partner. But he has little chance of winning this first time in the Oscar arena. Hopefully he'll be back again.
At the age of thirty-nine Jeremy Renner is one of those fifteen-year overnight success stories. After toiling in small parts for over a decade, his big break seemed to have come in April of 2009 when he got the starring role in ABC's bizarre and cool cop series
"The Unusuals". Unfortunately for him (and the audience), that show was quickly canceled before it had a chance to catch on. Luckily for him, though, he had a movie already in the can: Kathryn Bigelow's
The Hurt Locker. The apolitical Iraq movie is essentially a suspense piece that happens to take place disarming explosives on the streets of a warzone. That he was basically an unknown face to audiences probably helped them get caught up in the story and characters rather than watching a known commodity of movie star. Well, he's known now, and an Oscar nominee. It would of course be a huge upset if his name were actually called on Oscar night, but he'll have other good directors sending scripts his way now.
I think George Clooney is the closest thing to an old fashioned movie star we have going this era. He's so damn good looking and had so much success that my natural, jealous inclination would be to hate the guy. But he seems so genuinely cool, so honestly self-deprecating, so generous, so loyal, so frickin' awesome that instead I find myself rooting for a guy who already has absolutely everything. Cary Grant had that same quality for me. Clooney's work in
Up in the Air was not the kind where the actor disappears deep into character in a chameleon-like way, rather it's using his persona and looks to service this melancholy story about job loss and finding one's purpose. And boy does it work. This is George's third Oscar nom as an actor, having made the cut two years ago for
Michael Clayton and winning four years ago for
Syriana (in the Supporting category). Since he already has a win it may actually lose him a few votes this time around, but frankly I'd love to see that sexy, famous millionaire get up there and get another statue.
Jeff Bridges has a few things working in his favor: he's a second generation actor who has paid his dues and survived for decades, he's never won an Oscar before in four previous career nominations, and he's already won most of the other major awards leading up to the Oscar. Oh, yeah, and one more thing: he's perfect in the role of Bad Blake in
Crazy Heart, an aging Country singer/songwriter who has never quite hit it big or managed to keep a decent relationship going for very long. It's a sort of
Tender Mercies for the new millennium (it even has an appearance by Bobby Duvall). The sixty-year-old Bridges earned his first Oscar nom for
The Last Picture Show at the age of twenty-three, something his beloved father Lloyd and brother Beau never managed. For any of the old guard Hollywood still around and voting this is a chance to honor the son of an honorable colleague. Oh, yeah, and don't forget: he's really, really good in the movie.
I wouldn't say Jeff Bridges is an absolute lock the way Daniel Day-Lewis was a couple years back in this category, but he's got as much of a pre-show handicap as say Forest Whitaker for
The Last King of Scotland and Philip Seymour Hoffman for
Capote. Now I wouldn't be totally shocked if George Clooney got the upset come Oscar night, but if he does it will indeed be an upset. This is Jeff's trophy to lose at this point.
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