Amy Adams: The Oscar Talk Begins
I had no intention of seeing the family-oriented confection “Enchanted,” which opens on Wednesday. But then I read Variety’s review of the movie by Todd McCarthy, who is generally the most insightful, accurate movie critic in America. He writes: “‘Enchanted’ more than lives up to its title. A full-blown musical that commutes between Disney’s patented cartoon universe and the ‘real’ world with cleverness and grace, this splashy production reminds one of nothing in the Disney canon so much as ‘Mary Poppins,’ not least due to the star-is-born aura that surrounds Amy Adams here [shown in photo with Patrick Dempsey], just as it did Julie Andrews 43 years ago. Comparison between the two films will certainly extend to their popularity, as the new one will please nearly all audiences all the time on its flight to the place where [box office] dreams come true.”
Many of the other “Enchanted” reviews are equally upbeat. I haven’t read such unanimous “a star is born” predictions from movie critics since Julia Roberts lit up “Pretty Woman.” So here’s my question: could Amy Adams win the Oscar for Best Actress? She would certainly be the “belle of the ball” type that Oscar loves to honor, and the current frontrunner, Marion Cotillard, is appearing in a French-language movie, “La Vie En Rose,” for which no one has unreserved praise. Here’s the big downside for Adams: when Oscar notices a musical, it’s usually for something cynical (“Chicago”; “Sweeney Todd”?) not something sweet.
