2009 Oscar Wrap-up

Colin Covert - Knight Ridder/Tribune

The global focus, the radically redesigned, crystal-bedecked Kodak Theater, and a tribute to comedies produced by Judd Apatow were just a few of the efforts to revitalize an 81-year-old tradition that has been showing serious signs of fatigue.

Many of the evening's winners had been predicted weeks earlier, and there was little suspense in the atmosphere. The evening was a love feast for "Slumdog Millionaire," the indie triumph made on a paltry $15 million budget. The picaresque Third World adventure was a come-from-nowhere success story. In fact, it was such an underdog that it almost went straight to DVD in the all-important U.S. market after the film's original backer, Warner Independent, shut down in May. It was eventually picked up by Fox Searchlight Pictures, which released it to popular and critical acclaim in November.

But in the early going Sunday, the film was a real-life Cinderella story. A beaming Danny Boyle, a 52-year-old first-time director nominee enjoyinghis first mainstream hit, pogoed onstage "in the spirit of Tigger from 'Winnie-the-Pooh,'" and thanked the population of Mumbai. Hoisting the Oscar, Boyle said, "you dwarf even this guy."

Slumdog's cast and crew thronged the stage as the film won best picture and producer Christian Colson declared, "we had no stars, no money...what we had was a script that inspired mad love (and) a genius for a director."

"Most of all we had passion and belief and our film shows that if you have those, anything is possible."

"Slumdog" was nominated in 10 categories and won in seven, including adapted screenplay, cinematography and both music awards, for score and song.

The evening's upset was Sean Penn's best actor award for his performance of Harvey Milk, the gay San Francisco supervisor slain in 1978 by a fellow city official.

"You commie, homo-loving sons of guns," grinned Penn. "I want to make it clear I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me," the politically outspoken actor said, alluding to "the signs of hatred' carried by protestors "as our cars rode in tonight." Chiding gay rights opponents, he challenged them to "anticipate the great shame in the eyes of their grandchildren" in years to come. Returning to artistic matters, he saluted the presumptive favorite, "The Wrestler's" Mickey Rourke, declaring "he is my brother."

"Slumdog's " unstoppable victory march began early as Simon Beaufoy's Hindi-and-English rags to riches story took the award for best adapted screenplay. Its edgy, color-saturated cinematography earned director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle an Oscar, presented by Ben Stiller in a haystack beard and dark glasses, spoofing Joaquin Phoenix's recent eccentric public appearances. "Slumdog" picked up the award for film editing, and best original score and song prizes went to Indian composer A.R. Rahman followed, as the film gathered unstoppable momentum through the night.

Kate Winslet, nominated on five previous occasions, finally won best actress for "The Reader," as a Nazi prison guard who seduces an underage German boy. Winslet, who was overcome with emotion at earlier awards ceremonies, made a restrained but tremulous acceptance, asking her father to whistle from the auditorium so she would know where to wave, and dedicating her award to the film's late producers, Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.

The show dispensed with the traditional clips of nominated actors, instead giving each of the five nominees a tribute monolog from a previous winner. The evening's first award, delivered by previous best supporting actress winners Eva Marie Saint, Goldie Hawn, Whoopi Goldberg, Anjelica Huston and Tilda Swinton reinforced the Oscars' international theme. Penelope Cruz became the first Spanish actress to win an Oscar for her role in Woody Allen's Iberian love triangle "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." It was the third time Allen has guided one of his actresses to the award, and Cruz preformed the role substantially in untranslated Spanish. She delivered her thank-yous in the same manner, concluding with a heartfelt "muchisimas gracias."

Heath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his electrifying portrayal of the Joker, Batman's sociopathic mass mudrering nemesis, in "The Dark Knight." Ledger's father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell and sister Kate Ledger were in the audience and took to the stage to accept the award on behalf of the Australian-born actor, who died of an accidental drug overdose in New York last year. "We both knew what you had created in the Joker was extraordinarily special and had even talked about being here on this very day," his sister said. The theater audience greeted the award with an emotional standing ovation.

Political acceptance speeches were rare, but not entirely absent. Steve Martin and Tina Fey, Hollywood's best-known screenwriter-actors, presented the best original screenplay to Dustin Lance Black for the gay-themed political biography "Milk." Black used his time to address "gay and lesbian kids" watching the ceremony. "No matter what everyone tells you, God does love you," he said. "Very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally across this great nation of ours." Presenter Bill Maher, writer and star of last year's athiest documentary "Religulous," disputed the existence of a diety before handing the Oscar to "Man On Wire." The film tells the story of Philippe Petit, the high-wire artist who walked between the World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974. Petit offered the shortest acceptance speech in Acadamy Awards history ("Yes!") and balanced the statuette on his chin.

Before the best animated film Oscar, Jack Black joked to co-presenter Jennifer Aniston that every year he makes a ton of money taking a role in a DreamWorks Animation feature and then "I bet it all on Pixar." As predicted, "WallE" won the award.

"Button," nominated for 13 awards, began the evening with a string of wins in technical categories, winning best visual effects, art direction and makeup, for ageing Brad Pitt into a wrinkled midget and recreating WWI-era New Orleans. The aristocratic 18th century romance "The Duchess," written by Twin Cities playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, won the prize for best costumes.

A ho-hum bunch

Last year's Oscarcast, with a downbeat pack of best-picture nominees, was the lowest-rated ever, with 32 million U.S. viewers. Sunday's broadcast faced an uphill battle to recapture the ceremony's erstwhile popularity. Two of the year's most popular and critically beloved films, "WALL-- E" and the Batman epic "The Dark Knight," were shut out of best-picture consideration.

The contenders for the top prize were a mostly ho-hum bunch: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader" and "Slumdog Millionaire." Only "Button" had crossed the $100 million mark.

Without populist favorites to draw in viewers, longtime key sponsors for the broadcast, General Motors and L'Oreal, pulled out, as did Dove soap. ABC dropped the price for 30-second ads from a high of $1.8 million last year, to as little as $1.4 million.

To inject new energy into the standard recipe of musical numbers, tributes to deceased luminaries, honorary awards, and host and presenter patter, Oscar producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon (who collaborated on "Dreamgirls") broke with tradition. They kept the identities of presenters secret until showtime, sent the acting award presenters to the stage in five-person squads and reduced dead air between acceptance speeches to a minimum.

The ceremonies' host illustrated the producers' efforts to appeal to viewers nostalgic for the high-kicking glamour of Old Hollywood and action-oriented young audiences alike. Hugh Jackman, a song-and-dance man and occasional romantic lead who sidelines in X-Men movies as the comic book superhero Wolverine, took the stage with a self-deprecating jab at his wide-ranging talent as "an Australian playing an Australian in a movie called 'Australia.'"

The contenders for the top prize were a mostly ho-hum bunch: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader" and "Slumdog Millionaire." Only "Button" has crossed the $100 million mark.

Best picture favorite "Slumdog Millionaire" began its victory march began early as Simon Beaufoy's Hindi-and-English rags to riches story took the award for best adapted screenplay. Its edgy, color-saturated cinematography earned director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle an Oscar.

Without populist favorites to draw in viewers, longtime key sponsors for the broadcast, General Motors and L'Oreal, pulled out, as did Dove soap. ABC dropped the price for 30-second ads from a high of $1.8 million last year, to as little as $1.4 million.

----

More movie news

Movie reviews

Copyright 2012 by Knight Ridder/Tribune