THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS

What can be said? It is not an exciting year, but neither are most years. I'm sorry there is such a nomination gap between the mostly exhilatering but overlong, uneven and not great THE AVIATOR and the deeply moving and somewhat spiritual MILLION DOLLAR BABY. That HOUSE OF THE FLYING DAGGERS only got an award nomination for cinematography is quite an injustice. Other injustices incude Paul Giamatti's being overlooked for SIDEWAYS, ditto Jeff Bridges for DOOR IN THE FLOOR.

What was a pleasant suprise was the much deserved nomination of Mike Leigh as Best Director for VERA DRAKE. In terms of his handling of actors and his sense of how long to hold a shot, he is ulnmatched. That he pushed out the director of FINDING NEVERLAND makes this nomination all the sweeter.