Bullock Races For The Gold

While almost every teenage girl in America and several unlucky adults (yours included) went in droves to see "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" (Which, FYI, will NOT be nominated for any Oscars) another movie shocked the box office even more: "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock.  Now some of you may think that this movie may not compare to "New Moon."  After all "New Moon" made $140 million at the box office while "The Blind Side" made only a quarter of that.  This is true.  However it was also very unexpected.  Drama's starring women in lead roles are, sadly, not very profitable at the box office.  Movies starring women in general tend not to sell well.  This is mainly because most of these movies aren't very good, but studio executives don't look at quality they look at numbers and factors.

Sandra Bullock is well into her forties.  By now she should be one of the "has-beens" of Hollywood, yet she's had a remarkable year.  "The Proposal" was not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it was largely inoffensive and (more importantly) made a ton of money.  "All About Steve" was also a financial success, though audiences were less forgiving of the quality of the film.  "The Blind Side" is perfect Oscar bait and was always intended to be so.  It features a famous actress putting on a little weight, talking in an accent, and making one of those feel good movies that is based on a true story.  At Rotten Tomatoes this movie has a 71% fresh rating, so it's doing decently with the critics (who I find seem to like her performance more then the actual movie).

However the box office can make or break certain Oscar roles.  A stand out performance will usually survive even if the movie tanks, but box office success can pull you through the race.  Bullock most likely would have been nominated for Best Actress anyway, but the fact that her movie was a surprise success at the box office, made money off a crowd that normally isn't profitable (middle-aged women), and is the first successful sports movies in years means that not only is Bullock getting a nomination, she's in it to win it.  I personally still want to see Carrey Mulligan walk home with the gold, but Bullock has been in this business for a long time, so this may be the perfect time for the Academy to honor her.  I know one thing: The Best Actress race just got a whole lot more interesting.