Highway To Oscars: United States Vs. England

For Best Lead Actor this year, no doubt that it will come down to just 2 names. Because Morgan Freeman, George Clooney and especially Jeremy Renner will only feel grateful that they’d even get to invited to the party. The ultimate match is between Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and Colin Firth for A Single Man..
Bridges is Hollywood’s and fans’ favorite, having won Golden Globes, Indie Spirits. Colin Firth won BAFTA awards, which is British equivalent to Oscars, rightfully so because he’s British and probably not many in England got to screen Crazy Heart yet. But Firth is not a weak contender, he can cause a major upset tomorrow. If Bridges isn’t in the list, Firth would win that statuette easily. His performance in A Single Man was perfect.
But Hollywood loves a story like The Wrestler, which is what Crazy Heart has been compared to. A man hitting rock bottom, hoping for a change but they’re just not able to and they return to the one thing that brings them a sense of salvation. Plus since they gave the Oscar last year to Penn instead of Rourke, they’re gonna make up for it by giving this year’s to Bridges. On top of that, this is the 5th time that Bridges has received nomination, so some voters might see that as long overdue, kinda like what happened to Kate Winslet in previous year.
Having said that,.. remember the dryspell years of Martin Scorsese and who can forget poor old Peter O’Toole? So it’s still not a guarantee that because you’ve been nominated for so many times, that you’ll finally get one.. Firth might still surprise us if his name ends up in that envelope instead of Bridges. It would definitely make for some serious major headline the day after.