Reflections in a Golden Eye

So, by most accounts, the big victors next Sunday night will be:

Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn, Milk
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Heath Ledger. The Dark Knight
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Dustin Lance Black, original screenplay, Milk
Simon Beaufoy, adapted screenplay, Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E, animated film

We’ll get to the technical and music awards later.

This is a quick post, just to say that I’m not totally sure of this proposed outcome; call me crazy, but I’m still pondering

(a) what looks to me like a continued head-to-head race between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn coming down the final stretch;

(b) the possibility of Milk also losing screenplay to Wall-E; and

(c) potential upsets in Actress (Meryl Streep?) and Supporting Actress (Marissa Tomei).

I’ve given up on Milk taking a surprise Best Picture and am resigned to the anticipated Slumdog sweep. This year I must admit that surprises in three of the four acting fields wouldn’t be too unsettling; there’s lots of great work to be celebrated: Streep, Leo, Hathaway, Jenkins, Langella, Tomei. Of course, it would be even nicer to see Rosemarie DeWitt, James Franco, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sally Hawkins and Ralph Fiennes in the mix, but you can’t have everything.