Coronation: Oscars 2011 yield no surprises

More Oscars Photos

Winners

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Lead Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Lead Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Director: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Okay, so The Fighter swung in a one-two combination in the Supporting Actor/Actress categories (sorry, Jackie Weaver, I was really rooting for you). But The King's Speech stammered and stuttered its way to the big prizes on Sunday night, as you can see above: Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Director (Tom Hooper). Natalie Portman rounded out her awards season sweep as the troubled ballerina in Black Swan, picking up the Oscar for Best Actress.

Inception picked up the Cinematography Sound Mixing and Visual Effects awards, and The Social Network picked up Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score (Trent Reznor must be over the moon). Toy Story 3 earned the Best Animated Feature trophy. 

Can A Best Picture Direct itself?: Who'll Go Home with Oscar 2011

The nominees for Best Director are:

Darren Aronofsky -           Black Swan
Tom Hooper                     The King's Speech
David Fincher                    The Social Network
Joel & Ethan Cohen           True Grit
David O Russell                  The Fighter

Conspicuously absent from that list, in my view, is Christopher Nolan. We certainly understand that with ten Best Picture slots and only five Best Director nominees than some worthy candidates will be left out, but surely, on the basis of combined mass appeal and clear artistic vision (no, I'm not going into all that 'explaining the dream plot' business), Nolan (below, right) deserved a shot, possibly at the expense of Russell.

Chris Lee, writing on news blog The daily Beast, sums up the barriers to Nolan's "anointing" thusly:


the [Director nomination] snub also highlights a certain image problem Nolan seems to suffer among his peers. According to a cross section of Oscar campaign masterminds—ranking publicity experts and people who have worked with the filmmaker—he's regarded by some as too cool for school. Nolan's chilly English demeanor, combined with his refusal to engage in the usual kind of Academy campaigning that has become de rigueurduring awards season, may have alienated him from the rank and file of the Academy's 367-member Directors Branch.

The King's Speech love-fest continued -somewhat at the BAFTAs, with many talking of a multi-award sweep that would include helmer Tom Hooper (who has already gotten the Directors Guild seal of approval) In the decade since the BAFTAs moved forward to take place while academy members are still voting, they have foreseen four Best Picture Oscar winners:'Gladiator' (2000), 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003), 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008) and'The Hurt Locker' (2009).


But we're discussing Best director here, and the BAFTAs this year made a surprising choice. They passed over  Hooper and went instead for The Social Network's David Fincher. Personally, Hooper is still the front-runner, but if anybody is to pip him at the line, it will be Fincher.


It wouldn't be the first time that the Oscar votes between Best Picture and Best director are split. In 2005, Crash broadsided Ang Lee's Oscar party, snatching the Best Picture Oscar and leaving Lee to settle for Best Director for his controversial Brokeback Mountain. On the flipside, 20 years ago, Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture without the director even scoring as much as a nomination.


I'm calling Fincher to similarly spoil the party (a bit) for The King's Speech 

God Save The Ozzies: The Kings Speech Trailer 2010 HD

It's not a small irony that a film about an English king is nearly stolen by one Australian actor and ably supported by another (although the latter, Guy Pearce, in a delicious twist, was actually British-born). Even more so given the open antipathy expressed by said king (George VI) towards said Australians.

That aside, King's Speech is an earnest, well-acted, immaculately filmed, often amusing representation of both the individual and collective trials of the early half of the 20th Century, particularly from the viewpoint of the monarchy. As the then price's father ,George V, says ruefully on noting the increased encroachment of media in the lives the royals, "We've been reduced to that very lowest rung of society....we've become actors."

The details of this particular drama - notwithstanding the debate about George VI's stance towards Hitler and Nazism - are fairly well known. Even before  his ascension to the British throne by virtue of the abdication of his brother Edward VIII (Pearce) George, referred in part by his given first name of Albert, is somewhat desperate seeking therapy to correct his severe stammer.

That search, largely handled by his wife Elizabeth (later to be known as the Queen Mother, not to be confused with current monarch Elizabeth II), played with an intriguing delicacy by Helena Bonham-Carter, leads them to Lionel Logue, frustrated Shakespearean actor and - as we later learn - counselor to shell-shocked Ozzie soldiers during the First World War.

Logue's unconventional style and reliance on informality (he immediately calls the prince "Bertie" without any leave or remorse) throw off the royal couple at first but, as is inevitably the case, one can't argue with the results. what then ensues is a combination of speech therapy and mental therapy, with both characters gradually revealing more of themselves , building up to the film's momentous climax, the wartime speech of the title.

Firth is excellent of course, retaining both the humanity and the imperious dignity of the character with no apparent effort. But he should be thankful that the role of Logue was not classified as a co-lead, otherwise he'd have serious competition for the Oscar (Rush, of course, is up for Best supporting Actor). Rush is super lative in every frame that he's in, at once a deferential and reluctant hero and a brash, egotistical showman.

However valid the concerns about historical accuracy, The King's Speech is a narrative and photoplay that can be enjoyed on their own merits. As far as well-intentioned, superbly played period pieces go, its this year's model, and that's all it needs be.

Your bashing Can't harm Me....I'm the Green Hornet!!! movie claims #1 spot int'l

The latest iteration of The Green hornet has so far proven impervious to scathing reviews, including from this blog, taking the top spot in international box office returns, and holding for a tight number two in the US, behind the new Anthony Hopkins occult thriller, The Rite.

Foreign gross total for the Seth Rogan vehicle, a 3D reworking on a popular radio series about a masked vigilante and sidekick Kato, stands at $61 million. Weekend highlights were No. 1 openings in Taiwan ($1.195 million from 158 sites for a per-screen average of $7,563), Singapore and Malaysia. Worldwide, Hornet has grossed $139.8 million so far.

Blessed with 10 Oscar nominations, True Grit made its overseas debut in Australia, drawing $2.3 million from 197 situations. The figure exceeds the comparable market opening of same directors Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country For Old Men in 2007 by 200%, said distributor Paramount. A Mexico debut for Grit is set for this week.

With its 12 Oscar bids, The King's Speech sailed to the No. 2 position in the U.K. with an estimated $5.5 million garnered from 546 locations in its fourth round. In Australia and New Zealand, via Paramount, The Weinstein Co. co-production starring Colin Firth secured $2.1 million from 246 screens. A No. 5 Italy opening looks to provide about $1 million from about 140 sites.

No. 1 in Russia was The Mechanic, director Simon West's remake produced by Millennium Films/Nu Image Ent. of the 1972 Charles Bronson action vehicle. Universal, which handled the Russian release with Jason Staham as a ruthless hit man, reports the opening market gross was $4.2 million drawn from 478 locations. Opening No. 4 in the U.K. via Lionsgate, The Mechanic drew an estimated $3.9 million there from 301 sites.

Opening a muscular No. 1 in the U.K. ($7.3 million from 750 venues) was Disney Animation'sTangled, which collected $14.7 million overall from 4,073 locations in 43 territories. It ranks No. 2 overall on the weekend.

Overseas gross total for the 3D animation reworking of the classic Rapunzel tale stands at $254.3 million with about 20% of the international market yet to play. Worldwide, Tangled has grossed $443.9 million, ranking it as the 25th biggest-grossing animation title ever released.

Taking the top spot in Germany ($4.8 million from 454 sites) – as well as the No. 3 slot on the weekend overall -- was Disney's Tron: Legacy, which grossed $12 million from 4,763 situations in 53 markets. With about seven% of the international market yet to play, the 3D sequel to 1982's Tron has accumulated $196 million so far on the foreign theatrical circuit, and $362.7 million worldwide.

Fourth was Fox's Black Swan, which pushed its early foreign box office total to $29.1 million thanks to an $11.4 million weekend at 1,292 screens in 16 territories. The Natalie Portmanvehicle from director Darren Aronofsky opened in third place in the U.K. with $4.2 million garnered from 429 screens.

No. 5 on the weekend was director Clint Eastwood's supernatural drama Hereafter from Warner Bros., which tallied $9.9 million from about 2,200 screens in 32 markets. A No. 1 second weekend in France drew $3.5 million from 482 screens for a market cume of $9.8 million. Total foreign cume is $42 million.

20th Century Fox's Gulliver's Travels, grossing $9.1 million from $3,380 situations in 41 territories, has compiled an overseas cume of $125.7 million. A No. 1 opening in South Korea for the Jack Black vehicle produced $4.5 million from 492 situations, which Fox said was its eighth biggest weekend opening in the market ever.

Warner's family-oriented animation title Yogi Bear grossed $6.9 million at some 2,700 screens in 26 markets, hoisting its foreign cume to $33.6 million. A Mexico debut is due this week.

Sony and other distributors' The Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie grossed $6.6 million on the weekend from 2,640 situations in 57 markets for a foreign cume of $151.1 million. Fox's romantic comedy Love & Other Drugs came in with $6.5 million from 2,802 screens in 39 territories for an overseas gross total of $53 million.

RED, Summit International's spy-action with Bruce Willis, resurfaced in Spain and Japan for a weekend tally of $4.4 million. The Japan bow, handled by Disney, drew $2.7 million from 297 spots. The Spain figure was $1.7 million from 348 sites, for a market rank of No. 2.

Paramount's comedy Little Fockers pushed its foreign cume to $153 million thanks to a $4.2 million weekend at 3,043 screens in 55 markets. Sony's romantic comedy How Do You Knowdrew $4.1 million from 1,550 sites in 11 markets for a foreign gross total of $6.9 million.

Universal's The Dilemma, the comedy from director Ron Howard and costarring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, secured $4 million from 1,217 sites in 21 markets for a foreign cume of $11 million. Sony's Burlesque with Cher bagged $4 million from 1,640 screens in 40 territories for a cume of $37.2 million.

Its King's Speech vs True Grit, with Fighter and Social Network in there

The King's Speech emerged the top nominated film in the just announced 2011 Oscar Nominations, taking 12 nominations, ahead of the latest Coen Brothers epic, True Grit coming with 10 nominations. Again, we have a directorial snub: Christopher Nolan's dream-thriller Inception is among the Best Picture contenders, but if it wins, Nolan won't be acknowledged by the Academy

The Best Picture nominees are:

The King's Speech;
The Fighter;
Black swan;
Inception;
127 Hours;
Toy Story 3;
True Grit;
Winter's Bone;
The Kids Are All Right;
The Social Network

Our comments and "Who Will Go Home With Oscar" preview begin tomorrow