Oscars: Best Actor Sean Penn

Best Actor:
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler Winner: Sean Penn Surprising primarily because of the Academy's history of rewarding the comeback, Sean Penn was truly great in a demanding high-wire act, and the industry truly loves his abilities. This race came down to Penn and Rourke, of course, and while there was more mainstream support for Rourke's storyline, there's clearly something quite powerful in Penn's Harvey Milk.

Comments

[Mike]

I saw both and truly believe that Rourke should have won but it is so outside the "Hollywood" elite that he could not do so. It turned out as such. At least the foreign press got it correct! After almost two decades and to come back so strongly you would have thought these clowns would have overlooked their propensities for the "Milk" type scenario and tend more to the manly, gritty and inspired "Wrestler". Shame on them IMO.

[Get The Big Picture]

You know, Mickey Rourke has burned a lot of bridges in the industry. I know there are lots of people happy he's back, but Darren Aronofsky couldn't even get financing for this movie because of Rourke's reputation. So, they might not forget so easily. Plus, it's not like Sean Penn was just jumping off a curb in Milk. That's a really good performance, too.

[Frank bugnose]

It was a very tough choice in the best category: However the biggest piece of work that could have won was frank langela. His work in frost/Nixon was as good and a lot of people think better than Sean or Mickey. It was a great year for performances in all. .. but you can only have one winner

[MRPigg]

It's another one of those "any other year" scenarios. Then again, all five would have lost to Daniel Day Lewis last year. My personal favorite was Penn, but the only upset win this year would have been Brad Pitt. I'm happy for Penn's win and I liked his humble, self-depricating speech. Don't feel bad for Rourke, the nom was enough of a consolation.

[Get The Big Picture]

Yeah, I thought Langella did the best job, and shame on Universal for letting Frost/Nixon languish in extremely limited release until the third week of January. I just can't say enough about how hard it is to humanize one of the most reviled Americans of the 20th century, and actually make the audience feel for him. That's astonishing, to say nothing of the personal embodiment of Nixon. And I think because it's a more low-key performance - sitting down in chairs a lot - and because Langella does it all so gracefully, we don't get the full effect the first time through.

I don't think Pitt was all that special, and I was really happy for the Jenkins nomination.