American Beauty, the closest thing to a favorite for multiple nominations, remained the front-runner by the narrowest of margins. Sam Mendes' scathing satire of suburban angst garnered eight nominations. But The Cider House Rules, in a strong showing no one predicted, and The Insider each pulled down seven. And The Sixth Sense, by director M. Night Shyamalan, 29, of Conshohocken, overcame the academy's traditional disdain for popular thrillers to claim six.
These four will vie for best picture at the March 26 Oscar ceremony along with The Green Mile, the death row drama starring Tom Hanks. The conspicuous absentees in the category are The Talented Mr. Ripley, which attracted only one major nomination; critical favorite Magnolia; and The Hurricane, the biography of boxer Rubin Carter, which may have been a victim of the controversy surrounding its factual accuracy.
For once the best-actor race will be a Hanksless proposition since his turn as a troubled prison guard was passed over. Kevin Spacey's rich and witty account of the father in American Beauty, Russell Crowe's tobacco-industry whistleblower in The Insider, and Denzel Washington's searing reading of Carter in The Hurricane all have a good shot at winning.
But Richard Farnsworth, 79, will have sentiment on his side for The Straight Story. Though not the oldest performer ever nominated - Gloria Stuart was 87 when she received her supporting-actress bid for Titanic - he is the oldest lead actor to be named. "It feels a lot better because I'm getting up there and might not have a chance again," Farnsworth declared yesterday.
Sean Penn rounds out the field with his wonderful account of the jazz guitarist in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown.
The most obvious omissions in the field are Matt Damon, the much-praised star of Mr. Ripley, and Jim Carrey, who was handed his second stinging rejection in a row. After seeing his contribution to The Truman Show dismissed last year, Carrey was passed over this time for his even-better work as the late comic Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon.
Meryl Streep, without whom no serious slate of actress nominees seems complete, is back again as the teacher in the otherwise undistinguished Music of the Heart. (Streep's 12th nomination ties Katharine Hepburn's career record.) But come Oscar night, the smart money will be on Hilary Swank for her riveting tour de force as transvestite Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. The other nominees are Annette Bening, Spacey's frosty wife in American Beauty; Janet McTeer, the much-married mother in Tumbleweeds; and Julianne Moore, who was chosen for The End of the Affair, but could also have made it on the strength of the three other films she graced last year.
"The movie has so many contradictions," Bening said of American Beauty, which goes into theatrical re-release on Friday. "Its heart is in some very difficult truths. To see it recognized in this way is really a surprise."
The supporting-actor race is always intense and this year is no exception. After winning the Golden Globe, Tom Cruise, the sex guru in Magnolia, is the man to beat. (Academy voters ignored Cruise's massively publicized appearance with his wife, Nicole Kidman, in Eyes Wide Shut; Stanley Kubrick's disappointing valedictory won no nominations.)
Cruise faces stiff opposition from remarkable 11-year-old Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense and Michael Caine, the benevolent doctor in Cider House. Michael Clarke Duncan, the condemned man in The Green Mile, and Jude Law, the rich wastrel in Mr. Ripley, are the other nominees.
There were several surprises among the supporting-actress nominees. Riding the appeal of The Sixth Sense - whose whopping $280 million domestic box office didn't hurt - Australian actress Toni Collette, who plays Osment's mother, made the cut. Her rivals are Chloe Sevigny, Swank's girlfriend in Boys Don't Cry; Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight's daughter, who played the flamboyant mental patient in Girl, Interrupted; Samantha Morton, Penn's mute love in Sweet and Lowdown; and Catherine Keener, the conniving accomplice in Being John Malkovich.
Spike Jonze, the boundlessly imaginative creator of Malkovich, edged out the makers of more mainstream pictures for best director. Lasse Hallstrom, for Cider House, also confounded the forecasters, but this contest is expected to be among Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense); Mendes, the British stage director who made his film debut with American Beauty; and Michael Mann (The Insider).
Anthony Minghella, who triumphed three years ago with The English Patient, did not win the expected directing nod for Mr. Ripley. Other directors who could feel miffed with some justification are Norman Jewison (The Hurricane), Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy), and Frank Darabont, whose The Green Mile is the sort of major-star morality tale that usually appeals to conservative academy voters.
Besides his directing nomination, Shyamalan - who filmed The Sixth Sense throughout the Philadelphia area - was singled out for the film's finely crafted and cunning screenplay. He plans to begin shooting Unbreakable here with Bruce Willis in April. The Sixth Sense's final Oscar nomination was for film editing.
George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace fared little better than Eyes Wide Shut, the other event movie of 1999. The insufferable Jar Jar Binks and company attracted only three technical nominations.
Among foreign-language contenders, only Pedro Almodovar's brilliant comedic melodrama All About My Mother has been released theatrically in this country. This makes it a favorite over the other nominees, East-West (France), Solomon and Gaenor (United Kingdom), Caravan (Nepal), and Under the Sun (Sweden).
The Oscars will be shown from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles by ABC on Sunday, March 26, with Billy Crystal mercifully returning to host after a one-year absence in which Whoopi Goldberg emceed.
The show promises something that has been lacking in recent years - genuine suspense. There is no unsinkable Titanic or last year's heavyweight clash between Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare in Love to overwhelm the proceedings. If you put on a blindfold and just stick a pin in your Oscar pool ballot, you'll have as good a chance as anyone of being right.
Desmond Ryan's e-mail address is dryan@phillynews.com
