2007 Oscar Preview- Day 8: Best Picture

The Nominees Are: Babel, The Departed, The Queen, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine
Who’s Missing: Duh, Children of Men of course. I know I’m a broken record but this is a film that affects the audience with not only it’s dazzling visuals but with it’s story, characters, and message. It’s a thinker of a film that will hopefully find it’s audience on video and in the history books of the future.
Who Should Win: The only movie that came close to Children of Men for me in 2006 was The Departed, and I didn’t see either of them until 2007. Now thanks to my laziness and the miracle of quick DVD releases I’ve seen The Departed twice and let me tell you it only gets better. Perfect casting, sharp writing and magnificent direction make The Departed the one to beat in this category.
Who Will Win: I must confess I broke my rule of seeing every best picture nominee but I have no regrets. I believe I’ve seen the 3 pictures that have the best chance of winning (Babel, Departed, and Sunshine). The Queen will fall short because it’s really just a vehicle for some magnificent performances. Iwo Jima will lose because as much as the Academy loves Clint I think the foreign language barrier might be too off-putting. So that leaves the last 3. Sunshine surprised everyone by pulling out a win at the SAG awards but I think that was it’s high point. While it’s a fine movie, it’s nothing any of the voters haven’t seen before. Babel took home the Golden Globe but there seems to be a growing backlash against the film’s structure and it’s whore like approach to award season. That leaves The Departed which is a film everyone loves and while it might not be as original as Babel or have the indie cred of Sunshine I think it strikes the right balance that will appeal to the majority of voters.

That’s it for the preview folks. I’ll be back Monday with my thoughts on everything from Ellen (that’s hard to type), the winners, the speeches, the tributes and yes, even the fashions.