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The winner of the Academy Award for best actor will either be Sean Penn for "Milk" or Mickey Rourke for "The Wrestler." I thought Penn had it nailed until Saturday night when Rourke won the BAFTA prize. Last year, the winners of BAFTA's acting awards also won the Oscars, so this bodes well for Rourke. My money is still on Penn, but now I am a little less certain. One thing that favors Penn is, from what I understand, most the voters have already mailed their ballots. I think the late voters will side more with Rourke because they will be voting with their hearts and not their heads. A Rourke win will provide the ultimate sentimental moment and puts a little bit of sunshine into the bleakness of today's America.
That being said, my vote goes to Penn for one simple reason: The award is supposed to recognize an outstanding achievement by an actor in a leading role. I can't get over the notion that Rourke is not really acting that much in "The Wrestler," but just being himself in a film that is a slightly disguised story of his own resurrection. Penn's performance, on the other hand, is a master-class in acting. Look at Penn as Jimmy Markum in "Mystic River," Samuel J. Bicke in "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," Paul Rivers in "21 Grams," Sam Dawson in "I am Sam," Emmet Ray in "Sweet and Lowdown," and especially his Matthew Poncelet in "Dead Man Walking" and see if you can find a trace of his Harvey Milk in any of them.
Sean Penn and Daniel Day Lewis are the two best actors of their generation. Last year, the Motion Picture Academy recognized part of that fact by awarding Lewis his second acting trophy. Now it's time the Academy continue this by recognizing Penn's artistry a second time. Sentimentality, be damned.
That being said, my vote goes to Penn for one simple reason: The award is supposed to recognize an outstanding achievement by an actor in a leading role. I can't get over the notion that Rourke is not really acting that much in "The Wrestler," but just being himself in a film that is a slightly disguised story of his own resurrection. Penn's performance, on the other hand, is a master-class in acting. Look at Penn as Jimmy Markum in "Mystic River," Samuel J. Bicke in "The Assassination of Richard Nixon," Paul Rivers in "21 Grams," Sam Dawson in "I am Sam," Emmet Ray in "Sweet and Lowdown," and especially his Matthew Poncelet in "Dead Man Walking" and see if you can find a trace of his Harvey Milk in any of them.
Sean Penn and Daniel Day Lewis are the two best actors of their generation. Last year, the Motion Picture Academy recognized part of that fact by awarding Lewis his second acting trophy. Now it's time the Academy continue this by recognizing Penn's artistry a second time. Sentimentality, be damned.
UPDATE: I'm now hearing that any Oscar voter who saw Mickey Rourke's BAFTA acceptance speech will want that moment duplicated at the Oscars in two weeks and, thus, will vote for him. So I guess that means the award is really for the speech and not the performance.
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