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SHINING A LITTLE BIT OF LIGHT ONTO THE DARKNESS OF OSCAR

Amy Adams has scored some of the best reviews of the year for her comedic performance in Enchanted

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By Joey Magidson

Does every Oscar nominated film have to be dark and dreary? Along those same lines, does every actor have to portray a drug addict, dead celebrity or ugly villain in order to be recognized? Despite what some people may believe, the answer is actually no. There are plenty of examples that prove that the Academy has a history of nominating actors (and also films) that are lighthearted in nature, and sometimes, they even take home the gold!

Most recently, we saw this with Meryl Streep and her role in The Devil Wears Prada. Why did she get nominated? The answer is quite simple: she was absolutely fantastic in the film. This goes to show that if someone is good enough in a film, they will get nominated regardless of the weight of the film they are in (say what you want about Marisa Tomei and her role in My Cousin Vinny, but I think that is another great example, and she won too). Need any more evidence of this point? Well, I have some, and the real trump card is this: Johnny Depp. No one is going to argue that any of the films in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy are in the same league as The Godfather, but he was so captivating in the first film (and also so different) that the Academy could not reasonably ignore him.

Lighthearted films (or for the purposes of this paragraph: fantasy films) often can capture the imagination in ways that other films can’t. Look no further than the Lord of the Rings trilogy for proof. You need more fingers than I have available to count the nominations (and wins) the films received and even an actor in the first film got a nomination (Ian McKellen, not that I needed to remind any of you). In the past, there is another example of this: STAR WARS! That film got nominated for Best Picture, and only lost because ANOTHER LIGHTHEARTED FILM WON! That film was a Woody Allen classic called Annie Hall. Along those same lines, Woody Allen also received a Best Actor nomination and Diane Keaton took home the award for Best Actress (extra bit of information: actors and actresses in Woody Allen films often are recognized for their work in his comedies. Take for example Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite).

As we’ve seen already in this article, history has examples of light triumphing over dark. The original Rocky won Best Picture, and what film did it beat? Taxi Driver, that’s who. The Italian Stallion won out over the psychotic Travis Bickle. Lost in Translation got nominated for Best Picture and Bill Murray’s outstanding performance was nominated as well.

Where is all this going? Well, I bring all this up because Amy Adams is getting a tremendous amount of buzz for her work in the new (and very well received) film Enchanted. This is about as lighthearted as it gets and in a year where we are just about being flooded with depressing flicks (many involving Iraq or the War on Terror), she could be the perfect tonic. The question is, will she even be nominated?

I think she has a very good shot at a nomination. She has the perfect combination of being previously nominated for Best Supporting Actress (in the criminally under seen Junebug), strong reviews for the film (an extraordinary 92% on RottenTomatoes at the moment), and most of all, raves about her performance. Take for example what Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune says of Amy Adams. He gushes that she is “every Disney princess in one ebullient package” and that while she has always been doing great work, “now everybody knows it.” High praise indeed, and praise that more than likely will contribute to a second nomination for Ms. Adams.

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