Ten Years Ago: Sean Penn won for his role as Jimmy Markum in Mystic River. He beat out Bill Murray's melancholy Bob Harris in Lost In Translation, Jude Law's determined Inman in Cold Mountain, Ben Kingsley's uncompromising Massoud Amir Behrani in House Of Sand And Fog, and Johnny Depp's eccentric Jack Sparrow in Pirate's Of The Caribbean. Now: This category might see some of the biggest changes ten years later. First and foremost, Paul Giamatti gets in for his crazy brilliant turn as Harvey Pekar in American Splendor. The unfortunate soul getting left out is most likely Jude Law but there's no time for tears because Giamatti was just that good. The other big change would be in the actual winner. There's no one arguing Penn's merit here for his turn as the grieving, vengeful Jimmy Markum but I can't see how Bill Murray doesn't now win for Lost In Translation. Sofia Coppola's masterpiece has only gained acclaim over time and is the type of film that gets better and better with each viewing. What this does is give viewers additional insight into the individual performances and Bill Murray gave a performance for the ages. They hold the vote this year and Murray wins, hands down.
I'm married and live in New York with my wife and pets. I'm a writer and definitely not a comedian (just ask my wife). I've successfully linked my twitter, goodreads, facebook and google+ pages although the successful aspect of all that is up for debate. I also started my own blog on wordpress and have just finished my first novel, The Violent Winds. Now it's time to try and trick some unsuspecting fool into buying it.
