Knew it. "Atonement," a tony, high-minded, very nicely shot film that is the epitome of an awards-season movie, won its first major award by taking Best Drama in the Golden Globes ceremony that wasn't. Somewhat surprisingly, the carnage-heavy "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" took Best Musical or Comedy trophy, beating out heavyweight contenders "Hairspray" and "Juno" (and no-chancers "Across the Universe" and "Charlie Wilson's War").
"Atonement"'s win over the much-lauded "No Country for Old Men" is, to my thinking, a harbinger of the Oscars to come. Not that the Keira Knightley literary adaptation will win best picture -- just that Academy voters will be searching for a movie that makes them feel better about themselves than the gritty, take-no-prisoners Coen brothers drama. I don't think it'll be "Sweeney Todd," as heartening as its win tonight is.
The writers' strike put the kibosh on an actual awards ceremonies, and after some ugly last-minute grandstanding by Dick Clark Productions, winners were announced by hosts Billy Bush and Nancy O?Dell, vamping heavily through an hour-long "special" on NBC. The general consensus is that they should have gone dark completely and simply issued a press release. Joanna Weiss has her take over at the Viewer Discretion blog.
But, hey, Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor, Drama for "There Will be Blood" and Johnny Depp won Best Actor, Musical or Comedy, for "Sweeney Todd," so hooray for dark, quixotic men who can really act. Marion Cotillard won Best Actress, Musical or Comedy, for "La Vie en Rose," and Julie Christie won the dramatic award for "Away From Her," so hooray for, uh, great European actresses.
Less surprisingly: Cate Blanchett got Supporting Actress for "I'm Not There" and Javier Bardem got Supporting Actor for "No Country." "Ratatouille" won Best Animated Feature only because "Persepolis" wasn't even nominated. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" won Best Foreign Language Film and its director, Julian Schnabel, won Best Director. Best Screenplay? "No Country for Old Men." Best Score? "Atonement" (and that one does make sense, thank you, again only because Jonny Greenwood wasn't nominated for "There Will Be Blood."
There were also some TV awards. Full list of nominees and winners is right here.
