To be perfectly honest, I really am looking forward to seeing who wins Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor. I have my fingers crossed that Heath Ledger wins the best supporting actor Oscar posthumously. His portrayal of The Joker was mesmerizing and flawless. The only other actor in recent history to do so was the late Peter Finch died two weeks after completing the film, Network (which gave us the famous phrase, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'
Finch ended up winning the Best Actor Oscar posthumously for his portrayal of a disgruntled Newsman. So now on to Best Actor. My personal favorite is Mickey Rourke. Critics are raving about his performance in The Wrestler-he has already won the BAFTA and Golden Globe for his portrayel of Randy so one would naturally assume the Oscar would follow. Rourke himself fully realizes that he's burned enough bridges in Hollywood with his divaesque ways and explosive temper that he thinks many of the voters remember that. He thinks Sean Penn will win. God, he had such talent back in the 80"s and a handsome face to match. Two of Roarkes films that really stood out were The Pope of Greenwhich Village and Diner(the latter being my favorite). He quit acting to concentrate on a boxing career and acquired enough plastic surgery to get the freak of the year award but he did make a comback in the film Sin City ( I have it on video) and is getting rave reviews for The Wrestler. The academy loves a good comeback so I don't think Mickey should count himself out.
If Sean Penn walks away with the Best Actor Award for Gay Rights Activist Harvey Milk, I'm happy with that. Whether or not one likes Sean Penn as a person, he does give 150% to a performance (check out Mystic River-his performace as a grieving father was unforgettable) and his performace as Harvey Milk (yes, I did see the film a few weeks ago and I can't stop raving about it.) Seans performance was dead on and was quite moving. So with that, I'm off to do a bit of reading before I tune in to what has been promised as a rather low budget ceremony. May the best PERFORMANCE win.