Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Norbit Effect

At the movies this past weekend, the trailer for Anne Hathaway’s new venture, Bride Wars, appeared. It being January, the appearance of a trailer for a lugubrious romantic comedy is not uncommon - January is a storied dumping ground for films with a tired, witless marriage plot – but Bride Wars coincides with Hathaway’s (and Hathaway’s ‘people's’) push for the actress’ first Oscar nomination for Rachel Getting Married. Norbit Redux?
It may just be an urban legend, but if the fact that Norbit’s February 2007 release during the middle of Eddie Murphy’s campaign for a Supporting Actor Oscar for Dreamgirls and his subsequent loss is simply a coincidence, then the significance of the three following events is certainly hard to shake: in a few months, Murphy went from cinematic high with his turn in Dreamgirls, to lowest common denominator with Norbit, to loosing out to Alan Arkin on the Best Supporting Actor race. Did the nauseating ad campaign for Norbit, where a nebbish-looking nerd gets catches the eye of a grotesque giantess and Murphy plays both parts, damage Murphy’s credibility as a dramatic actor in the eyes of Academy voters? Will the Norbit Effect adversely affect Hathaway’s chances for a Best Actress trophy? Do I have anything to back this up?
Some examples:
  • Could the early-January 2007 DVD release of Bandidas, where Penelope Curz and Salma Hayek play hot bank-robbin’ mamas, rob Cruz’s chances of a Best Actress Oscar for Volver?
  • Mark Wahlberg became the only acting nominee of the ensemble cast of The Departed for his scene-stealing performance. Did early advertising for March 2007’s banal Shooter depart the Best Supporting Actor Oscar from him?
  • Did Natalie Portman loose the Best Supporting Actres Oscar for Closer as revenge for the feeling of exhaustion with the Star Wars franchise and a lack of confidence for the final offering, summer 2005’s The Revenge of the Sith?

The prospect of Bride Wars would be insufferable if it were released any old time of the year, but the screeching sounds and dismal images emanating from the trailer cast a pall over what has been a period of revelation for audiences regarding Hathaway. To see her reverting into some harridan beast-bride is dispiriting. (Isn’t the female stereotype of ‘bridezillia’ just mind-boggling and disheartening in general?)
The Norbit Effect is by no means a quantified phenomenon like the Bradley Effect – the Academy does not do advance polling so determining sentiment in the lead-up to the ballot deadline for any category is not objectively possible. Bride Wars does not necessarily mean the death knell for Hathaway’s Oscar chances, but if she comes up short on the 22nd of February, it could be taken as proof that her work in Rachel Getting Married was the exception rather than the rule, unfairly disqualifying for the less-offensive films she is capable of doing.

Epilogue: Friday, 9 January: Richard Crouse, Canada AM's film critic, mentioned The Norbit Effect when discussing the timing of Bride Wars and Hathaway's Oscar chances. If a guy who pomades his hair talked about it on the television machine, then I can't be crazy.

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