Two best actor nominees were both deserving

Usually in a movie, there’s a main character who experiences a change. How that change come about is what constitutes the story. Then there’s another character who doesn’t change but helps or causes the main character to transform. The latter is the supporting character.

But in “Amadeus,” the story of Mozart as told from the viewpoint of his envious and less talented rival Antonio Salieri, there are two main characters, and each causes the other to experience a transformation. Salieri goes from contentment to soul-destroying jealousy, and Mozart goes from childlike selfsatisfaction to emotional turmoil and the beginnings of alcoholism.

Tom Hulce (pictured, right), who played Mozart, and F. Murray Abraham, who played Salieri, were both nominated for best actor that year, and Abraham won. It’s good that at least one of them won. But every time I see the movie, I have to ask myself who really deserved the prize. Obviously, they both did, but of the two, I think I’d vote for Hulce, who wonderfully embodied the joy and torment of a genius too big for one body to contain.

See “Amadeus” and decide for yourself. “Amadeus”: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17. $12-$15. Vogue Theater, 3290 Sacramento St., S.F. www.voguemovies.com

Orion Pictures