The Oscars

Well! I finally saw "Million Dollar Baby" yesterday (Saturday), just in time for the big Oscarfest tonight.
It is certainly one of the darkest films I have seen. It clearly reinforces the notion that most of this year's big films have been downers. The acting is superb all around.
Without Paul Giamatti in the race, the Best actor is going to come down to Clint Eastwood or Jamie Foxx ("Ray").
I would not be unhappy with either choice. Or for that matter with my favorite, but I think hopeless cause of the evening, Don Cheadle in "Hotel Rwanda." But between Eastwood and Foxx my somewhat reluctant preference is for Eastwood (for the same reason that I would choose Virginia Madsen over Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress). It seems to me that channeling a well-known personality like Ray Charles (as brilliantly as Foxx does it) or the equally wonderful job Blanchett does with Kate Hepburn is more of an acting trick or gimmick than a fully fleshed-out performance like Eastwood's or Madsen's.
Perhaps another way of saying this is that Eastwood and Madsen do much more with alot less to work with.
Although I still haven't seen Imelda Staunton ("Vera Drake"), it will be hard to beat Hillary Swank.
Morgan Freeman or Thomas Haden Church? Again a toss-up, but my vote (if I had one) would go to Freeman. If you want to see a performance without a false note, Freeman's is it.
So we come to best director: Martin Scorcese ("The Aviator") or Eastwood? If they give it to Scorcese it will be because they owe him for all the times they didn't. "The Aviator" is not a very good film. Although Scorcese did the best with what was there on the page, there wasn't much there.
Finally Best Picture. Since neither "Motorcycle Diaries" nor "Hotel Rwanda" were nominated, I would go with "Million Dollar Baby." How can you go wrong rewarding a movie that's hated by extreme right-wing film critic Michael Medved and his pals Rush Limbaugh and Rabbi Daniel Lapin.
One last word about the "Million Dollar Baby" controversy. I'm not at all sure that I would have made the same decision that was made by Eastwood's character, but a brief for euthanasia it ain't. It is certainly a legitimate choice within the Framework of the film, even if it wouldn't have been mine.
As Eastwood said to Frank Rich: "What do you have to give these people to make them happy?" I've often wondered that myself.