10. Bill Murray Loses Best Actor for Lost in Translation
2004 is the best year that Oscar has seen in at least the past 20 years, with 11 Oscars going to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. In my own humble opinion, this was the last time the Academy actually gave Best Picture to the best film of the year. The sweep for Lord of the Rings somewhat overshadowed a pretty big error on the Academy’s part though, this being that they failed to give Bill Murray the Best Actor Oscar for his brilliant performance in Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Instead, they opted to give the award to Sean Penn for his so-so performance in Clint Eastwood’s forgettable Mystic River, a film I’ve seen once and have had no desire to see again.
Lost in Translation is a film that I’ve seen around a dozen times at this point and I think it can easily be said that it is one of the best of the last ten years. In fact, if Return of the King hadn’t been around that year, it would have been the incredibly easy choice for Best Picture and Best Director. The film is anchored by Coppola’s outstanding Oscar-winning script and Bill Murray’s subtle, yet powerful portrayal of Bob Harris, an actor who’s adrift in Tokyo while shooting a whiskey commercial. When he meets a young woman (Scarlett Johansson) in a similar situation, the two open up to each other and develop a relationship that will redefine their lives. Murray is funny and charming, and yet he brings an amazing amount of gravitas to this man who is lost in his own life. We’d never seen Murray give a performance on this level before, and it’s doubtful that we ever will again. How was it that the Academy didn’t give him the Oscar? Perhaps it was because they just didn’t take him seriously enough, a theory which is somewhat supported by the fact that Johnny Depp won the SAG award for Best Actor that year for Pirates of the Caribbean and failed to win the Oscar as well. However it happened, it’s a big blemish on their record for a category in which they are normally really good at choosing a great performance.