all cried out

My eyes are red and puffy and I'm mentally exhausted. Today, we watched the last 2 of the 5 Best Picture nominees for tomorrow night's Academy Awards.

This afternoon, we watched "The Aviator." First of all, let me say that I have always been a huge fan of Martin Scorsese's work. Secondly, I will say that the film was beautifully shot, the costumes and sets were beautiful and Cate Blanchett was terrific in her role as Katherine Hepburn. These things aside, I think that The Aviator is a huge steaming piece of crap. Leonardo DiCaprio is not believable playing 6'4" Howard Hughes. He looks 12 and, in my opinion, is a one trick pony. What is it that people see in him. The biggest problem I had is that the film is too scattered. It was 3 hours long and I still felt like I didn't know anything about Hughes by the end of it. The only parts in the whole thing that I enjoyed (and I will admit, I really enjoyed them) were the flight scenes. I can't for the life of me understand why it's up against films like "Ray" and "Million Dollar Baby."

Tonight, after dinner, we saw "Finding Neverland." This film had me crying for almost the entire second half. It was so good. I thought it looked gorgeous and the performances were outstanding, particularly Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore. It was also a treat to see (albeit briefly) Mackenzie Crook in a very "non-Gareth" role. Right now, having just finished watching it, I feel completely exhausted and drained. It was such a good film, a real roller coaster ride for me anyway.

For the first time in I can't tell you how long, I've actually seen all 5 films before the awards broadcast. I can honestly say that as long as The Aviator doesn't win best picture, I'd be happy with whoever the Academy chooses.

On that note, I'm off to bed. 'night kiddies.