Michael Clayton

Last night I watched "Micheal Clayton", one of 2007s most well received and awarded movies. A couple of things about this made me think.

Firstly, I downloaded the film using BitTorrent, naughty me! However, is there a difference between doing this and watching the film once, and just borrowing the
DVD from a friend, and doing the same. Are both illegal?

Secondly, more directly related to the film, what was all the fuss about? OK, it was a reasonable film, but how does Tilda Swinton get awarded an Oscar
for best supporting actress? It seemed to me she was only on the screen for about 5 minutes in total.