Will Norbit cost Murphy the Oscar? 
The grossing backlash towards supporting actor frontrunner Eddie Murphy, has pilled up in the preceding. Damaging reports from online columnist and fellow Oscar watchers, on the basis of his negative rep in the industry, critical merit of his career, intensity of the role and egoistic. Regarding the first point, many claim that Murphy, has been known for being cold and egoistic towards his fellow actors, and collaborators, even the media have it in for Murphy. Jeff Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere even called Murphy “more than a bit of an egoistic asshole, how he's never made anything other than mainstream big-buck comedies”
Which brings me to the second point, what previous works of Murphy indicate any notion of stepping stone to this achievement? Murphy who razzed to financial success in 1980, when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live and followed with 48 Hrs, Trading Spaces and Beverly Hills Cop. And in the past 25 years, Murphy has barely stretched his acting talents, consistent at times, but only when he’s in the safe zone. Hilarious as he is in The Nutty Professor, Shrek and Beverly Hills Cop, but we’ve scene Murphy do it all before. The only piece of work that I would single out, is his work in 1999’s Bowfinger, but at the same time, the sure brilliance of the movie (and the performance), is due to Steve Martin’s screenplay and the film is an ensemble film. But how can you ignore such flops like Pluto Nash, Vampire In Brooklyn, Showtime, Nutty Professor 2, Metro, I Spy, Holy, just countless studio films that generally were bland and unfunny.
The major question surrounding the film and the performance is its quality. Dreamgirls started out as the frontrunner, a prestigious adaptation of one of the loved and influential Broadway
musicals of all time. Helmed by Bill Condon who revived the musical genre in screenwriting 2002’s Chicago (for director Rob Marshall) and directed the critically acclaimed Gods & Monsters and Kinsey, the film headlined of A list talented vocalists, Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Hudson, film vets, Danny Glover and Eddie Murphy and Oscar Winning superstar Jamie Foxx. The film seemed like the sure hit, razzling and dazzling, a pure crowd pleasure, but some where’s it failed. The big hype didn’t pay off, and buzz dwindled. Not totally dead, the film is still lightly well received, strong enough to win the Comedy Globe, even if the buzz for ‘Girls were dying, while Little Miss Sunshine’s buzz was doubling. Now what about Murphy who despite the fall of Dreamgirls are still winning supporting wins at every award show possible? Murphy’s performance was probably one of the films highlights, without a doubt, the Best In Show. Not only because, much like Gere in Chicago, Murphy excels at controlling the screen during signing bits; but also, Murphy finds comfort in the later days of James Thunder Early, especially in his reaction to Curtis’s (Jamie Foxx) regection of the song “Patience”. It’s generally not performance, that’s getting negative feedback; it’s the content of the role. While he does steal the show, this isn’t that much of a stretch, Murphy’s remains deep in his safety zone. We’ve scene Murphy do the James Brown impersonation.
If all of this doesn’t accumulate to the sudden fall of Murphy, the release of his latest gross-out comedy Norbit, is the final straw. This is worst case scenario for Team Dreamworks, considering
that Murphy was Dreamgirls’ strongest asset. Considering the fact that Dreamworks and Paramount both produced, Norbit and Dreamgirls, this is the perhaps the most poor of releasing strategies I’ve scene this season. Who couldn’t have predicted -- specifically the exes who saw the film in advance --- a backlash? And what a backlash it was. Entertainment Weekly gave the film a D; Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle gave it 1/10 while
quoting “Here's a new Oscar category: The Worst Movie Ever Released by Someone Currently Under Consideration for an Academy Award. The winner? Norbit, starring Eddie Murphy, nominated for Dreamgirls.” It received 9% on the Rotten Tomatoes’ Tometometer, its highest rating is an A given out by Edge Boston (thow the other positive reviews ¾ given out by Reel.com and San Fransisco Chronicles), while at the other edge of the spectrum 10 reviews gave it 0 on whatever and another 30 reviews gave it ¼ or lower.
Now if the Norbit factor does factor in the end, who’s taking home the statuette? While back in December, the award seemed fair game to all competitors, but ever since the Broadcast Film Critics, Murphy’s been sweeping. I’m leaning more towards, Alan Arkin, who gave the best
performance, in the ever glowingly loved Little Miss Sunshine. Arkin doesn’t only have the most loved performance in the most loved film, and let’s as relieving it is to see Greg Kinnear finally to get material he deserves; as cute Abigail Breslin and as night and day is Steve Carrell’s performance, there’s nothing like Arkin’s cursing it up, stealing the scene and touching our hearts. Nostalgic sentiment is on Arkin’s side, a double nominee during the 60s during for The Russians are coming, The Russians are coming in 66 and the Heart is a Lonely Heart in 68, and we know, the academy loves its veteran. But I can’t see anyone else honestly upsetting Murphy. We all know that Djimon’s nomination is somewhat of a joke (its good, but not really deserving); Mark Walberg’s award is the nomination, people who love the performance don’t love it as much to vote for it. Then there’s Jackie Earl Haley. Who despite winning the majority of the critic awards, got no major industry awards and seems dead at the moment? Why? (1) The film isn’t the most accessible and approachable of movies; most of the dark humor or the film’s nature in general doesn’t work with mainstream, and didn’t generally work with audiences; (2) The role! Dark roles like this one (even if there seeking redemption) don’t connect with the academy, subject matter is too controversial and gritty (3) Studio underplayed the performance while promotion for the film.
The lackluster support for Murphy, is convincing me that he has lost the “Lock” status. There’s too many distracters, to ignore, it really does look like the industry is turning their backs on him. But we’ll have to wait till Sunday to find out how its going to end
TOMORROW: WHO WILL / SHOULD WIN
