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Golden Globes: Still Golden?

The most memorable thing about the Golden Globes each year is often Ricky Gervais stirring up a bit of controversy by offending various film stars. This is the third year he has presented the awards and it looks like it may be his last. The LA Times said: “It was a markedly respectful and restrained Ricky Gervais who showed up to host this year’s Golden Globes, leaving one to wonder why he bothered to take the gig at all (except for the money, of course)”. The The Hollywood Reporter wondered whether Gervais’ tame performance was to spite the organisers, who brought him back because they wanted his controversy to draw in viewers; Tim Goodman argued “Ricky Gervais just Punk’d the Globes”. However Gervais was not demure. A joke about Jodie Foster’s “Beaver” got some laughs, even from the woman herself, but generally the jokes were only mildly amusing. Gerard Butler joked that worse than not hearing your name as a nominee is hearing your name called out by the host. It got some faint laughs but Gervais was not as controversial as everyone was expecting him to be.

So, who won what? There were a lot of safe choices: Meryl Streep won Best Actress for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; Martin Scorsese won Best Director for Hugo and Woody Allen won Best Screenplay for Midnight in Paris. These seem credible choices for Oscar nominations. Meryl Streep is almost a cert for a Best Actress Oscar nomination. All eyes were on The Artist, to see if it will live up to its Oscar buzz. It bagged three awards- Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy, Best Actor for Jean Dujardin and an award for the score- so it is certainly in the running for the Oscars. George Clooney did well for himself: he got Best Actor for his performance in The Descendants, which also won Best Picture- Drama.

The Golden Globes also gives awards for TV. The Brits made their mark in that category- Downton Abbey won Best Miniseries Made for Television; Kate Winslet won a lead actress award for Depression-era drama Mildred Pearce and Idris Elba won a lead actor award for cop-show Luther.

The overall summary of the event was that critics were left underwhelmed by the ceremony as a whole. Variety called the show “lifeless” and The Hollwood Reporter said that even without Gervais, it was still a “three-hour dud”. Hopefully the Oscars will provide some controversy and entertainment.

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