Oscars 2009

Kate Winslet finally gets her an Oscar!

The talent Kate Winslet portrays on screen as she brings her characters alive is absolutely mesmerizing. Globally we all got wind of her in Titanic. Some may have thought that it was Leo that was pulling in the audiences for that mega-hit - you know all those girls that kept swooning over him and falling over themselves. Yet, she was the one that walked away with uber nominations, including an Oscar nomination. Since that time, she has rolled out some incredible and unforgettable roles. Her passion, her charisma, her fierce ability to grip each and every individual audience member and refusing to let them go until the movie is over and leaving them only wanting more, is the true art of an incredible and legendary actress; and that is Kate Winslet.

One thing that kept me in tune with the Awards season this year 

was watching Kate win accolades for her performances in both The Reader and Revolutionary Road. When she kept winning 'Best Actress' for The Reader it became somewhat predictable that she would win the Oscar for it. However, when her name was called last night at the 81st Academy Awards, it still came as a sweet surprise. That's the thing about the Oscars, you really just never know. The best part was when she yelled out to her father to "whistle or something" so she could spot where her parents were and then immediately we all hear this insanely loud whistle and then both Kate and her parents continued to wave at each other for several moments -- it was a sappy yet comforting moment.

The whole show this year was incredible. They finally changed the look of it - modernized it somewhat and made it more intimate. Best Actress and Best Actor were announced by 5 of the previous winners who each gave a tribute speech about a nominee. I think this was a fantastic idea. Although, I do wonder who wrote those bits, because some of the past winners gave wonderful and sentimental tributes to a nominee, such as Marion Cotillard's tribute to Kate Winslet. Later Nicole Kidman's seemed a little "bla" when she spoke on Angelina Jolie. Or perhaps it just seemed that unbalanced because Cotillard was in tears and genuinely "in love" with Kate Winslet when she was talking, lol. Maybe she really does idolize her...

And what about A.R. Rahman winning 2 Oscars for his Score and Song in Slumdog Millionaire. He was funny on stage. I'm not sure what he spoke about, but I picked up on one line which was simple but beautiful:

"All my life I had a choice between hate and love. I chose

 love and I am here."

I did wonder why Zac Efron and Alicia Keys kept making Rahman's name sound Arabic, lol. They put a lot of emphasis on the "Rah-man" the middle part of his name. They kept making the "ahm" part of his name sound like "ach-man". It was hilarious and made them look stupid and almost pretentious. You think someone would have told them how to correctly pronounce his name during rehearsal. The performances of "O Saya" and "Jai Ho" weren't too wonderful. I was under the impression that Sukhwinder Singh was going to perform with him, but out came the two female singers - who did a wonderful job on their own and added flavour that was much needed in that performance. And I don't know about you, but John Legend mixing his song in with "Jai Ho" didn't work at all! Not at all. What were the composers thinking...

Hugh Jackman, the host, was funny - even though he's not a professional comedian, as past hosts have been - he was fresh and made the Oscar night, his own night; unparalleled to any other presentation in the past. Right now I'd have to say my top two hosts for this Award ceremony are Ellen Degeneres and Hugh Jackman -- the rest have sadly been boring.

Best "ohhh.." Moment: When Jennifer Aniston walked out onto the stage with Jack Black and had to stand there for like 10 minutes doing 2 presentations, all the while staring directly at her ex-husband, Brad Pitt and of course Angelina Jolie. Lol....words cannot describe how that must have felt -- try to get your hands on a copy of that clip if you didn't catch it.

Best "in your face" Moment: When Sean Penn told off the people that voted for Proposition 8 in California to ban Gay Marriage. 

Favourite Moment: When Hugh Jackman airlifted Anne Hathaway and made her sing the next duet for his parody of Frost/Nixon. Who knew Anne Hathaway could sing so well! She's also one of my favourites and now that Kate Winslet has gotten her due -- let's turn our attention to Anne Hathaway in the future.

Hope you enjoyed the night as much as I did - I don't think I have ever sat through an Oscar presentation from beginning to end like that.

;)