IT”S OSCAR WEEK! Woo Hoo! If you have been reading this blog for a couple of years you know that during Oscar Week I go through and introduce you quickly to the nominees and their characters and end with my predictions on Saturday. Here is the schedule, Monday is the Best Supporting Actresses, Tuesday-Best Supporting Actors, Wednesday – Best Actress, Thursday – Best Actor, and finally Friday – Best Picture. If you don’t know already this will be the 6th year in a row that I have predicted the Oscars. In the previous 5 years I am at a very respectable 75%. I have been able to predict 6 out of 8 categories in each of those years, so part of the fun this year could be figuring out which 2 categories I will miss. Of course it kind of puts the pressure on me to get the 6 right. So here we go. Best Supporting Actress may be the most wide open of the acting categories with the other three being pretty solid locks. If there is a surprise pick it may very well come from this one. Today and for the rest of the week I will list the nominees alphabetically.
Amy Adams - The Fighter
Amy Adams plays Charlene Fleming the girlfriend of Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg). Charlene is a strong, very opinionated young woman who won’t take any guff from Micky’s family and will fight back. She feels she knows what is best for Micky and that is getting him away from his family. Amy Adams is a very good actress. This is her third Oscar Nomination. She was previously nominated for Doubt and for Junebug. Like her character Adams is willing to jump right in and is not intimidated by anything. She played opposite of Meryl Streep in Doubt and Julie & Julia.
Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech
Helena Bonham Carter plays Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George (Colin Firth). Queen Elizabeth is a strong, devoted woman who loves her husband and helps him through the trying times during his accent to the throne. King George had a stuttering problem and she is the one who found a person who could help him overcome it. Helena Bonham Carter is one of my favorite actresses. She can be serious, like in The King’s Speech and Fight Club, she can be quirky, like in Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Alice in Wonderland, and she can play evil as in the Harry Potter films, and she is not afraid to be a chimpanzee in Planet of the Apes. Unbelievably, at least to me, this is only her second nomination and first since 1997’s The Wings of the Dove.
Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Melissa Leo plays Alice Ward, mother of Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Alice is a head strong woman who loves her sons and knows she knows what is best for them. Melissa Leo has been a workaholic of late acting in 33 movies and 8 shorts since 2005. When you see she is in a movie you know you will get a good solid performance from her. She was nominated in 2009 for Frozen River.
Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit
Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a 14 year old, out to make sure the man who killed her father pays for his crime. She hires Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to to just that. She is smart and can handle herself in most situations. Hailee is probably the hardest to gauge. This is her first nomination, well, it is her first full length motion picture. She has been in one TV movie, two guest appearances, and 4 shorts (Did I mention she was 14?)
Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom
Jacki Weaver plays Janine Cody. Janine is the grandmother of Joshua Cody and the mother of three sons, all involved in various crimes. Janine is not quite as sweet as she seems and she has been hardened by the life of crime her sons live. Her daughter, Joshua’s mother died of an overdose and she will do just about anything she needs to to keep her boys alive. This is another hard actress to talk about since most of her work is Australian and I am not familiar with any of her work. This is Weaver’s first nomination.
Hilarity Ensues 