RETHINKING THE 2002 OSCARS
WHY ‘A BEAUTIFUL MIND’ SHOULD HAVE LOST, ‘MULHOLLAND DR.’ SHOULD HAVE SWEPT AND HALLE BERRY’S WIN IS ONE FOR THE AGES
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H E W O R S T O S C A R wins don’t age well after 30 seconds; the best endure for decades. On the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Oscars, we’ve relitigated the winners in eight major categories — and offer alternatives for what should have been nominated or won.
Best picture Winner: “A Beautiful Mind”
“Gosford Park”
“In the Bedroom” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” “Moulin Rouge”
Justin Chang: I know “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy got its due in 2004, and I don’t care: “The Fellowship of the Ring” remains a thrilling stand-alone achievement and the best of these five nominees. It deserved to win. That said, the two greatest films of 2001 were Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Dr.” I’d like to think the more global, more discerning academy of today would have recognized them.
Glenn Whipp: At the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. that year, after we gave Lynch the director honors, there was grumbling that the “Lynch Mob” must be stopped. And it was: “In the Bedroom” won best picture. A terrible call. It was sort of rectified years later when we voted “Mulholland Dr.” the film of the decade. Lynch’s surreal, suspenseful take on Hollywood’s dream factory may be the film of the century.
Director
Winner: Ron Howard, “A Beautiful Mind” Robert Altman, “Gosford Park” Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” Ridley Scott, “Black Hawk Down” David Lynch, “Mulholland Dr.”
Whipp: Lynch Mob! (Side note: This is a terrific set of nominees. For all the grief Howard endured during the Oscar campaign, it must have felt incredible to be included in this company and prevail.)
Chang: Can I shout out the Lynch Mob and the Altman Mob? Especially since Altman never won a competitive Oscar and a “Gosford Park” win would have been the perfect late-career triumph. But as strong as this lineup is, it would be stronger still if it included Wong for his swoon-worthy, endlessly influential work on “In the Mood for Love.”
Lead actress
Winner: Halle Berry, “Monster’s Ball”
Judi Dench, “Iris” Nicole Kidman, “Moulin Rouge!” Sissy Spacek,
“In the Bedroom” Renée Zellweger, “Bridget Jones’s Diary”
Chang: I liked Spacek best at the time, but Berry’s groundbreaking win belongs to the ages. That’s history I have no interest in rewriting. But that Naomi Watts wasn’t nominated for her staggering, shape-shifting work in “Mulholland Dr.” — the greatest performance of her career and one of the greatest performances of
this young century — is an omission the academy will never live down.
Whipp: I’m delighted and surprised that Zellweger earned a nomination for a ... comedy. It would have been lovely if this was the movie for which she won her lead actress Oscar. Also: Kidman won the next year for “The Hours,” but between “Moulin Rouge!” and “The Others,” she had a remarkable 2002. But I agree, Justin. Watching Berry’s speech again, I wouldn’t recast. Her passion in “Monster’s Ball” stands up.
Lead actor
Winner: Denzel Washington, “Training Day” Russell Crowe, “A Beautiful Mind” Sean Penn, “I Am Sam” Will Smith, “Ali” Tom Wilkinson,
“In the Bedroom”
Whipp: If you asked what movie gave Washington his lead actor Oscar, they’d likely say “Malcolm X” or maybe “The Hurricane.” I love that he won for the way he reveled in the villainy he brought to “Training Day.” Absolutely deserved ... much like Gene Hackman’s Oscar-winning turn in “The French Connection.” I mention Hackman because he should have been nominated in 2002 for Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums.” I miss seeing him in movies.
Chang: I recall complaints that Washington won for such an irredeemably villainous role, when it’s precisely his subversion of his own role-model image that makes his “Training Day” performance so magnificent. Hackman absolutely should have made the cut; I’d also have nominated Guy Pearce for his sardonic, tragic, through-a-Polaroid-lensdarkly turn as the amnesiac antihero of “Memento.”
Supporting actress
Winner: Jennifer Connelly, “A Beautiful Mind”
Helen Mirren, “Gosford Park” Maggie Smith, “Gosford Park” Marisa Tomei,
“In the Bedroom”
Kate Winslet, “Iris”
Chang: It’s a battle between the upstairs-downstairs dames for me, and as much as I adore Smith’s supremely imperious Lady Trentham (a terrific dry run for her Emmy-winning work in “Downton Abbey”), my vote would go to Mirren for her subtly heartbreaking performance as Gosford Park’s tight-lipped, perspicacious housekeeper — maybe for her devastating final scene alone. But while I’m on a trip down “Memento” lane, I’ll note that Carrie-Anne Moss’ blistering performance as a femme fatale for the ages should’ve easily cracked this lineup.
Whipp: You could fill this category with women from “Gosford Park.” Kelly Macdonald’s beautiful naivete as Smith’s maid was crucial, as was Emily Watson’s feisty spirit as the head housemaid. Add Eileen Atkins, as Mirren’s rival, and you’ve got a clear victory for the downstairs staff. How do you choose? Well ... I think the answer is always Mirren, isn’t it?
Supporting actor
Winner:
Jim Broadbent, “Iris” Ethan Hawke, “Training Day”
Ben Kingsley, “Sexy Beast” Ian McKellen,
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”
Jon Voight, “Ali”
Whipp: Broadbent is a treasure. When you combine his turn as Dench’s foil in “Iris” and the impresario crooning “Like a Virgin” in “Moulin Rouge!” he deserved a prize or three. But Kingsley ... maybe I’m in a mood to honor sociopaths. Like Washington in “Training Day,” Kingsley caught audiences by surprise, giving us a volcanic gangster miles removed from Gandhi. I was surprised to see him here in supporting as he so dominates my memory of the movie.
Chang: Kingsley was spellbinding in “Sexy Beast.” But as you mentioned Gandhi, I must tip my hat to Gandalf; McKellen would’ve gotten my vote for his wizardly work. It’s ridiculous that he remains the only actor to receive an Oscar nomination across that entire trilogy. Equally ridiculous: How did the academy overlook Steve Buscemi for “Ghost World”? (And how has Buscemi still never been nominated for an Oscar?)
Original screenplay
Winner: Julian Fellowes, “Gosford Park” Guillaume Laurent and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, “Amélie” Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan, “Memento”
Milo Addica and Will Rokos, “Monster’s Ball” Wes Anderson,
“The Royal Tenenbaums”
Chang: I can’t begrudge Fellowes his win; I also wouldn’t have minded seeing Anderson win his first Oscar for “The Royal Tenenbaums.” But it should’ve been the Nolan brothers for “Memento,” a delirious brain-scramble of a thriller that assembles its many puzzle pieces into something so much more than a gimmick. And speaking of brain-scrambles: Richard Kelly’s eerily imaginative, justly cult-reclaimed “Donnie Darko” was surely one of the most original stories told by any filmmaker that year.
Whipp: “Memento” remains my favorite Nolan movie, which probably makes me a heretic or dilettante to his core group of believers. But I’m glad “Gosford Park” won something from its seven nominations.
Adapted screenplay
Winner: Akiva Goldsman, “A Beautiful Mind” Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff, “Ghost World” Rob Festinger and Todd Field, In the Bedroom” Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”
Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. Schulman, “Shrek”
Whipp: “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” is a Steven Spielberg film ripe for rediscovery, a fascinating hybrid of Kubrickian chilliness (Stanley Kubrick originally conceived the project) with his own sunny optimism. It’s both creepy and moving, and no one really knew what to make of this fascinating film at the time. I’d put it in ahead of a couple of the nominated screenplays, while giving the Oscar to the pitch-perfect “Ghost World.”
Chang: Twenty years later, “Ghost World” remains not just the best of these nominees but, remarkably, one of the finest comic-book adaptations ever written or produced. I’d boot out both “A Beautiful Mind” and “Shrek” so as to make room for not only your excellent suggestion of “A.I.” but also “Werckmeister Harmonies,” brilliantly adapted by director Béla Tarr and László Krasnahorkai from the latter’s 1989 novel “The Melancholy of Resistance.” As with all mind-blowing Hungarian masterworks, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.