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Facing a new economy and a yes-we-can president in the White House, Sunday night's 2009 Oscars presentation definitely reflected changing times. Revamping the show to counter sagging ratings, producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark worked to shake up a dated, irony-encrusted Academy Awards ritual with a dash of sincerity and innovations. Like their big production number And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going in the 2006 movie Dreamgirls, their show possessed a slightly off-key bravado, elements of retro-kitsch and touching emotional moments.
In the long run, the Oscars needs more than a new set design to captivate a contemporary audience more interested in participation that spectacle: A transparent, televised voting procedure, or even an American Idol-style vote on the winning nominations (as director John Sayles has suggested) might be the eventual solution. For now, the 81st annual broadcast marked a baby-step away from the familiar – and first reports of viewership numbers were encouraging: Overnight numbers released yesterday afternoon had the Oscar broadcast pulling in 36.3-million viewers, 6 per cent more than last year's record low.
A look then at what risks were worth taking on Sunday night:
The hits
Kunio Kato: 'Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.' (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
Videos
Danny Boyle and Sean Penn reflected on their Oscar wins at the Governor's Ball Sunday night, while the starstruck young stars of 'Slumdog Millionaire' talked about meeting Brad and Angelina. (Feb. 23)
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Photogallery
Internet Links
- Full list of winners: The official Oscar web site
- Oscars 2009: Complete coverage, trailers interactives and more
Wolverine as host
The Oscars are sometimes known as “the Super Bowl for women” so the sexy, self-deprecating Hugh Jackman was a smart choice. His Billy Crystal-style comic medley that kicked off the show wasn't exactly classy (rhyming “excrement” and “sentiment”) but at least he seemed at ease and good-natured. No doubt last year's Oscar host, Jon Stewart, was much funnier in mocking Hollywood pretensions, but audiences may be growing bored with the sport of shooting big fish in a small barrel.
The set
With its semi-circular stage and clamshell arch, the stage suggested the intimacy of a supper-club, a welcome contrast to the bewildering network of ramps, risers, pillars and screens that have become an Oscar standard. This year, the stars in the audience seemed more human and vulnerable, like a particularly good-looking Vegas package tour from Des Moines, Iowa, giddily waiting to see who the spotlight might fall on.
Double the fun
Most of the comedy was provided by teams of presenters such as Tina Fey and Steve Martin, James Franco and Seth Rogen, and Natalie Portman and Ben Stiller (doing a less-than-subtle imitation of a bearded and befuddled Joaquin Phoenix, as he appeared on Letterman last week). All performed their material as if they'd actually read it before rehearsal. And the idea of having them present several awards helped speed things up.
Short, sweet acceptance speeches
Heath Ledger's family, accepting his award for best supporting actor, was dignified and moving. Best-screenplay recipient Dustin Lance Black recalled growing up as a gay teenager, and Philippe Petit ( Man on Wire) balanced an Oscar on his chin. All were a pleasure. But the prize for best (and most cryptic) acceptance speech went to Japanese animator, Kunio Kato: “Thank you, my pencil. Thank you, Academy. Thank you, animation. … Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.”
The misses
Directing in bad taste
The cut away reaction shots to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – twice – while Jennifer Aniston was onstage presenting the animated feature and short awards – was tacky, undermining the show's pretense to class. Worse was the handling of the In Memoriam section, purportedly honouring those in the film business who died in the last year. As Queen Latifah showed off her pipes singing I'll Be Seeing You, the camera panned over television monitors at skewed angles, paradoxically, making the names and images of the departed difficult to see.
The musical production mess
Rob Lowe's Snow White dancing number that opened the 1989 Oscar telecast is still remembered as the worst musical moment in Oscar history, but Sunday night's production numbers came close. The “tribute to musicals” featured Jackman along with Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron and Beyoncé – it was long, pointless and choppily choreographed. The producers also ruined the best-original-song category, with overwrought production and an insultingly brief time given to each song. The Oscars broadcast needed to change, but seventies television variety shows aren't the right model.
The quintet of praise
This novel approach to presenting acting awards wasn't a complete failure, but it definitely needs some tweaking. In each of the acting categories, five presenters took turns commending each of the nominees. The trouble was the pairings of winners and nominees only occasionally made sense. By rights, shouldn't 15-time Oscar nominee Meryl Streep get to praise herself? And what did it mean for Michael Douglas to say that Frank Langella's performance as Nixon in Frost/Nixon was “incomparable” when Sir Anthony Hopkins, standing right beside him, could easily compare it to his own performance playing the same president in the 1995 film Nixon? Sure, it's nice to know that Sir Ben Kingsley liked Mickey Rourke's performance in The Wrestler, but a 30-second clip from Rourke's film would have been far more useful impressing Oscar audiences.