Hey, folks. Michael C. here from Serious Film with another overlooked contribution to film greatness. This time out let's look at a favorite of mine going back to my teenage years: the fight choreography of Rob Roy(1995).
William Hobbs is the Marlon Brando of movie sword fighting. He is the guy who blasted away years of mannered and artificial fight choreography and brought it down to Earth. A fencing advisor with credits ranging from The Duelists and Dangerous Liaisons all the way back to Olivier's Othello, one would be hard pressed to find a memorable sword fight from the last fifty years which Hobbs did not have a hand in creating. Out of that lifetime of memorable scenes his masterpiece is undoubtedly the climactic duel from Michael Caton-Jones' Rob Roy. It is a scene that doesn't just sit atop the list of great movie sword fights, but deserves prominent mention in any discussion of the cinema's all time great action sequences.
On a technical level the staging feels like the closest approximation of the real thing ever put on film. Rob Roy leaves in all the elements that the classic Hollywood sword fights left out: the grueling physical effort, the intense concentration required to avoid being killed in the blink of an eye, the long pauses interrupted by a flurry of violence, the courage it takes to even approach someone whose sword is drawn. Nobody is dropping quips in between the action here.
Mind you, I have nothing but love for the great fencing matches of Hollywood's Golden Age. I was raised on Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone. But the work of Hobbs in this field has the same effect as the method acting revolution -- after this nothing can be the same.
Hobbs' brilliance is to make the fencing matches more about the characters than the violence. In the case of Rob Roy, I can't recall another fight scene where the strategies of the opponents can be so clearly understood. We know that Tim Roth's Oscar nominated "Cunningham" perilously outmatches Liam Neeson's "Rob Roy". Yet Cunningham has learned the hard way not to underestimate Rob, who can be powerful and dangerous given the slightest chance. So unlike every other movie sword fight where the audience merely watches for the killing blow, here we follow along as the Neeson and Roth try to outthink each other, Cunningham trying to exhaust Rob with a series of small wounds, and Rob hoping to survive long enough to take advantage of Cunningham's overconfidence. It's a mental duel as much as a physical one.
Hobbs must have known he had a once-in-a-career opportunity on his hands when he was presented with the script. Most movie sword fights spring up suddenly; characters are in them before they know what's happening. Rob Roy's climax involves an arranged duel to the death. It unfolds deliberately, with a sense of pervasive dread. Hobbs takes full advantage of the opportunity, and he, along with the rest of the filmmaking team, crafts not just a milestone in fight choreography, but an unforgettable dramatic scene as well.
We reduce movie trailers to yes/no/maybe so components. It's an expectation management system so that we can go in (mostly) neutral. Ac-cen-tchu-ate the positive ...and negative. My gimmicks are too complex!
In Atom Egoyan's latest feature, Julianne Moore hires Amanda Seyfriend (title character) to test her husband Liam Neeson. Didn't Julianne ever listen to Kate Bush's "Babooshka" growing up. Fidelity tests never end well.
YES. Two hot women getting it on? Yes doubled. That particular male gene did not escape me. Although for a split second I flashed back to Boogie Night's "will you be my mommy?" scene with Amanda standing in for Heather Graham's Rollergirl (Amanda in skates? Mmmm). I blame Julianne's love of incestuous undertones for this hallucination!
NO. Filmmakers still have trouble making our modern computer and cel phone heavy lives exciting onscreen. There's something about e-mail, chat, instant messaging, cel phones and web surfing that is defiantly anti-cinematic. I sincerely hope this isn't an hour of Liam and Julianne staring at LED screens, cross cut with sexygirldrama! by way of Amanda's cel phone. If so, it won't be any fun at all.
MAYBE SO. "You think you can just buy me and then I'm just going to go away?" On the other hand, Amanda as a Mean Girl again? Might be fun though can she do it, dramatically speaking? We know she can handle it comedically. It's just that she reads very sweet onscreen. This could go horribly wrong. It might be yet another film that is elaborated plotted just to demonize female sexuality somehow. And that's so tired. But maybe it's the trailer's overemphatic text tag-lining -- "SHE WILL BECOME EVERYTHING YOU FEAR" -- that's worrying me. It's making her look like a husband-hunting-homewrecking-baby-nursing-Moore-killing psychopath. And we don't need another one of those.*
Chloe opens on March 26th. Are you a yes, no or maybe so on this one?
Once again, Julianne... You shoulda listened to Kate Bush! Kate Bush is the answer. Kate Bush knows.
Usually when I can remember that the general public doesn't go to the movies to see movies but to be a part of pop culture, I'm okay with the constant regurgitation at the cinema. When I don't remember... when I forget that people don't buy tickets to see CINEMA exactly... that's when the despair sets in and I wonder why they always want to see the same film over and over again. (I know, I know, that's the elitist side of cinephilia talking... but trust that I'm totally populist about the all access issue and I am generally angry with film geeks of any persuasion who automatically assume that the new difficult art film is worthier than the new accessible blockbuster or vice versa).
My friend Nick got angry about our heavily regurgitated culture with last month's Sherlock Holmes, giving it a savage beating in review form for all its shortcut identity theft. That Guy Ritchie flick is actually a perfect example. In order to fully enjoy it, you just have to remember that it's not a movie. Sherlock Holmes was a pop culture stocking suffer: Gobble it up, digest it without thinking, move on to other holiday prezzies. It already feels past tense, doesn't it?
But things are getting worse.
The recent cancellation of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man franchise -- they'll reboot it and go back to high school nerd Peter Parker -- is cause for alarm. I can see rebooting things when the originals are generations ago (Star Trek). But Peter Parker graduated from high school not 10 years ago! People don't start getting nostalgic about going back to high school that soon. That happens when they're in their 30s or 40s and then they go and see movies like Peggy Sue Got Married. Freaky Friday or 17 Again. If that yearning for high school starts in your 20s, you're doing your 20s wrong... sorry, Drew! Why do we need to see this again when we can pop in the DVDs any time and watch Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst work their pop culture magic? Rebooting it doesn't even make sense from a nostalgia perspective since it's not "old". There's no new generation to sell it, too. You kind of need a twenty year gap for that excuse.
Spider-Man thru the years: debuted in '62, his own comic by '63, cartoon by '67, live action by '77, saturday morns in the '80s. The blockbuster swings in the '00s. This decade might bring a Broadway musical (long delayed) and a fourth "reboot" film.
There's no movie teaser for my usual "yes, no, maybe so" exercize but Spider-Man 4 breaks down like so in concept...
yes: Marc Webb, the franchise's new director, is talented. (500) Days of Summer shows that he's got a playful streak (Spider-Man would be abysmal if it was trying to be Batman) and a real cinematic sensibility -- even those who dislike his breakout film would be hard pressed to say that it's a hack job: there are actual visual and thematic ideas at work. It's no point and shoot job.
no: no cobwebs on the original trilogy. What's the point?
maybe so: I guess we'll see who they cast as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy before we decide whether we'll lineup... now that there's a real director on board.
It's too bad that the huge failure of Land of the Lost last summer didn't impede Hollywood's lust for all this recycling. In fact the remake/reboot craze makes no sense to me at all because of the dominance of three things: DVD, Cable and Blu-Ray. When movie culture was confined to actual movie theaters, remakes made sense. Now that everyone can watch the things they love over and over again... well, why stare at a xerox when you can look at the original?
What hath Star Trek (XI) wrought? More TV shows turned movies and more movies turned movie reboots. Not that The A-Team and Karate Kid are sacred entertainment vessels. Although don't tell that to my younger self who wanted to "wax on" and "wax off" until Elisabeth Shue materialised as my real life girlfriend.
The original mainstream 80s classic (of sorts) was so huge it even won an Oscar nomination: Best Supporting Actor for Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Morita (RIP). Oscar always did love the teachers and mentors... it's a pretty common awards thread. This retread is not likely to win Jackie Chan similar prizes... there's no way a money grab can come across as sweetly likeable and innocent as the original film. The new version also stars genetic lottery winner Jaden Smith. Would you have any concept whatsoever of reality if you grew up with über famous shockingly wealthy parents and were headlining your own movie by the time you were 11 years old? That's like Liza Minnelli mental territory... only quicker like and with deeper pockets.
yes:Taraji P. Henson (!) The P stands for "love" in Swahili. And I kinda do.
no: Ugh. China as the setting. Even though the lead is black, we've still got to make every foreign or "other" story somehow subtextually about white American superiority. In mere weeks, little Jaden will become better at martial arts than any of the Asian boys who've been doing it their whole lives.
maybe so: We already know that 'wax on/wax off' has become "take your jacket off". But what will painting the fence translate to? Remakes have to spin the famous parts and occasionally that's fun (yes... I'm grasping at straws)
I'm more okay with this one in concept because the original was such disposable entertainment. The Karate Kid (the original) sticks, you know? It's got heart and a fundamental kindness to it which is so not in vogue anymore that I'm scared to think of how comparatively soulless its remake will be. The A-Team is riper for a remake -- even though TV series don't make for great movie concepts -- it was always dumb junk food.
yes:Liam Neeson as "Hannibal". Something about this totally works for me (at least in teaser form) but then I have a hard time resisting him every 4th movie or so for some reason.
no: I can already tell this is one of those movies wherein the action doesn't make any sense. I hate that. This is why James Cameron deserves his unfathomable riches. Explosions and crazy ass cutting do not, in and of themselves, make for satisfying action.
maybe so: Bradley Cooper as "Faceman". I'm still deciding about that one... Bradley Cooper, not "Faceman". You?
Do you feel like Hollywood ate too much and vomited its leftovers all over you? *
JA from MNPP here, taking us on a journey into the Mythical land of Perseus and his bros. (Or is it Brahs? I can never keep my frat-boy-speak up to date.) Anyway I assume by now we all have witnessed the thigh-thundering glory that is the trailer for the remake of Clash of the Titans?
If not, ye shall behold!
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I took some big pretty screen-grabs over at MNPP if you're interested (with special attention paid to Sam Worthington's skimpy skirt, naturally).
I personally am super-stupid-psyched for this movie. Emphasis on stupid. I love the 1981 original deeply for it's epic cheesiness. Ray Harryhausen's creatures nurtured me to the deranged adulthood I now occupy. Indeed, here's the original film's trailer. Compare, contrast.
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But I can completely see the place for a big be-spectacled CG-palooza remake of this sort. Just stir in a couple hundred million dollars, replace Sir Laurence Olivier with Liam Neeson (I do wish they'd gotten dear Dame Maggie Smith back though) and Harry Hamlin's nipples with Sam Worthington's gleaming gams, and voila! Insta-hit.
If they keep this light and silly and big big BIG then this could be a ton of Summer fun next year. Well, March fun. It's out on March 26th. Summer just keeps steamrolling in sooner each year, eh? .
Jose here with some guys in skirts and feuding gods.
Images have began to circle the web announcing the remake of Clash of the Titans (is it just me or does it feel like it was announced about a month ago? Movie production sure is fast nowadays...). The movie based on the 1981 classic is being directed by Louis Leterrier and stars Sam Worthington (who's yet to prove his worth with James Cameron's upcoming Avatar) as the mythical demigod Perseus.
The original was a favorite of mine as a kid. I used to be enchanted by Ray Harryhausen's stop motion effects (I covered my eyes whenever Medusa appeared and was terrified by the Stygian Witches) and the plot got me interested in Greek myths.
Once I became film conscious however, the movie proved to be worthy because of several other things. That cast for starters! With Sir Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Burgess Meredith and Flora Robson among others, the film is an example of how great actors make even campy fantasy seem relevant. Not to mention Harryhausen's breathtaking effects (how he was snubbed for an Oscar is insulting).
Now, next year's remake has people like Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Mads Mikkelsen, but I wonder, just how much of the wonder that fuels the original one, will be recreated with CGI? Few people are remake advocates, but with this one in particular just how much charm will be lost with the, increasingly, generic look of computer animated effects?
Many of you have been asking (publicly and privately) about the trifurcated Best Picture Oscar series that united Nick's Flick Picks, Goatdog's Blog and The Film Experience. Mike, Nick and I created the series together but the ball dropping was all me. I take full responsible for the unfortunate hiatus. Thanks for your patience.
Mrs. Miniver & Mr Schindler. World War II will change them both.
IF YOU'RE A NEW READER the series works like so: We started in early 2008 grabbing the earliest best picture winner (Wings) and comparing it to the most recent (at the time) No Country For Old Men. Then we started working inwards from both directions of Oscar's timeline. Eventually the series will conclude in the late 60s, the halfway point of Oscar's chronology. Here's a complete index of all 15 episodes (thus far) which cover the years 1928-1942 and 1993-2007. Nick is also maintaining a tournament poll of your favorites and ours so, vote.
If you want to really dive into the discussion with us and enrich your knowledge of Hollywood's grand back catalogue, consider renting the match-ups that are on the way. In a couple of weeks we'll be pairing two of Hollywood's most iconic men, Bogie & Clint for a discussion of Casablanca (1943) and Unforgiven (1992). Then it's on to Going My Way (1944) and Silence of the Lambs (1991).
NICK: Having watched my conspirators in pleasure show such effort and ingenuity in our lasttwo installments to put our disparate films in dialogue with each other, I get to enjoy a ready-made Oscar juxtaposition of World War II dramas: Mrs. Miniver, the first entrant from this AMPAS-beloved genre to swipe the top prize, and Schindler's List, frequently hailed as a highpoint in the Best Picture heritage. Neither film is a battlefield picture; instead, they each focalize the magnitude of the war through the expanding consciousness of the titular character, and the subversion of her or his habits of thought and action. Both were the first movies by their pedigreed, Oscar-friendly auteurs to cop the Best Picture and Best Director trophies after multiple winless nods.
Of course there are also clear markers of dissimilarity between these films and the stories they tell. Mrs. Miniver confronts the war as a crucible of combat, thrift, and social disruption at a time of siege; Schindler's List reconstructs and scrutinizes the supremacist and genocidal ethics and terrible, sometimes enforced complicities that both inspired and drew force from the Nazi war machine. Kay Miniver is a radiant paragon of noble citizenship and domestic steadfastness; Oskar Schindler is a rake and a profiteer whose unlikely emergence as an objector and protector arrives with all kinds of vagaries and caveats attached. Mrs. Miniver was not in every respect a picture that Wyler cherished; Schindler's List was self-consciously conceived, produced, and received as the technical, cultural, and moral apotheosis of Spielberg's career...
The family of actress Natasha Richardson (The White Countess) officially released the news earlier today. She was declared dead today at the age of 45. What seemed like a minor skiing accident on a practice trail in Quebec (she reportedly walked away from the fall, laughing) quickly morphed into a life ending tragedy. Head trauma and brain injuries are mysterious things and difficult to predict (here's an article with a neurologist theorizing on the matter).
This is a loss to everyone who enjoyed her work and of course especially tragic for her family, one of the most important film and stage families of the past century. Natasha's father, Oscar winning director Tony Richardson (Tom Jones) passed away in 1991 but her mother, the legendary Vanessa Redgrave is still vital and working. Natasha performed with Vanessa just two months ago here in New York City as mother in daughter in Stephen Sondheim's classic A Little Night Music. That will be an even more cherished memory now to any fans who attended. They also shared acting duties in Natasha's last film to be released in the US, Evening (2007). And in The White Countess (2005) she shared the screen impressively with both mother and aunt, Lynn Redgrave, a great rental choice should you want to enjoy her gift soon in this sad time. Natasha only shared the screen with her sister Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) once. They were both little children when they appeared (uncredited) in their dad's film The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968).
Natasha is survived by her two sons and her husband Liam Neeson. The couple met on the set of a TV miniseries in 1984 and began dating while sharing the stage in Broadway's Anna Christie in the early 90s. They were married in 1994 just months before their only feature film together, Nell (pictured left) was released.
Finally, here is a look at Natasha in her TONY winning Cabaret performance in the amazing Broadway revival. She's doing one of the all time great show tunes... "Maybe This Time"
With talent like that, we all won for a time.
I haven't written about the Richardson/Redgrave/Neeson family as much as I probably should have given their plentiful contributions to the screen but I hope to do more retrospectives in the future. A look back at Schindler's List was already in the works (soon) and Liam was featured in one of this site's most popular pieces, 40 Favorite Actors of the Aughts published in early 2006. Retrospectives of the entire decade's best work and films begin this fall.
Reports are coming fast and furious and not all of them agree on details but the lovely Natasha Richardson was in a skiing accident Monday. Liam Neeson, her husband, left the set of his latest film to be with her [LA Times]. Natasha hasn't been onscreen a lot lately but she triumphed on stage in the revival of Cabaret on Broadway in the 90s (and Sally Bowles isn't an easy part to play, despite the numerous women who took turns filling her shoes when she moved on). Just a few years ago she was radiant and center stage in the underappreciated Merchant/Ivory pictureThe White Countess (pictured left) opposite Ralph Fiennes. Here's a great fansite.
Let's hope that some of the more ominous reports, some mentioning traumatic brain injuries and death, are incorrect. Official details from her family are expected to emerge soon.
Natasha and her mother, the legendary Vanessa Redgrave, last March in London. [Photo source]
Update March 18th @ 2:56 Still no official word from her family according to the NY Times but many news sources are still proclaiming worst case scenarios such as "brain death" or "on life support". Here's an explanation of how these delayed brain injuries operate. Terrible terrible news.
from least screens to most... (links go to trailers)
L I M I T E D Shadows - Macedonia's Oscar submission in 2007 (also known as Senki) finally sees limited release. It's from the director of Before the Rain and stars Borce Nacev (pictured right) as a physician who mysteriously survives an accident. His mother is apparently a Lady Macbeth type. Medicine for the Melancholy -an indie about African American 20somethings in San Francisco. The Class this absolute must see from France reopens now that it's Oscar nominated. I'm sure my own awards had something to do with that release decision, too [snort]. The Class (also known as Entre Les Murs) won the Palme D'Or last summer and hopefully, it can win the golden boy too. I'm not exactly predicting it, though. It might be too subtle and contemporary for standard awards glory.
Luck by Chance -a Bollywood on Bollywood spectacle. Beefcake supplied by "special appearance" superstar Hrithik Roshan and lead actor Fahran Aktar (both pictured, left). But this thing is apparently loaded with star cameos so if you're into Bollywood, you should probably go. Maybe it's like Altman's The Player only with gigantic musical numbers?
E X P A N D I N G Milk and The Reader have both added 600+ screens this weekend for their widest releases yet. It's a bit strange that Milk, which is the third biggest grosser among the Best Picture nominees, has never hit the 1000 screen mark, making it the BP nominee with the smallest "wide" release.
W I D E New in Town -Hollywood Cliches Part 1: Midwesterners are so kooky and quaint! Hollywood Cliches Part 2: City folk with big careers are always better off if they move to the middle of the country -- you can find love there! see previous post
The Uninvited -Hollywood Cliche Part 3: Dad or Mom's new "special friend" is always evil! The usually delightful Elizabeth Banks terrorizes in this ghostly horror flick about a teen who doesn't trust Dad's (David Strathairn) new lady. Taken -Hollywood Cliche Part 4: Revenge is always sweet. Hollywood Cliche Part 5: When someone is wronged violently in a movie they are almost always skilled with the violence themselves since (loop back to Cliche Part 4). Liam Neeson goes berzerk in this thriller when his daughter is kidnapped. This movie has been made dozens of times recently (albeit with different stars and director) but Hollywood never tires of whipping audiences into a frenzy of righteous bloodlust. Has there ever been a movie about somebody who was inept at killing bad guys when they were egregiously wronged?
Any movie plans for you this weekend or are you settling in with DVDs or, god forbid, ignoring the cinema altogether? *
I'm heading to DC in a few hours where I'll be staying for the next few weeks for an off-writing gig [editors note: it's true: TFE doesn't pay the bills. *sniffle* so I take non-writing jobs to replenish the bank account on occassion]. I've been to DC a couple of times before and always enjoyed the journey.
I've heard they've shuttered every single one of the wild clubs I once hit and loved (ugh. DC was so sexy/crazy just 5 years ago... what happened?) but my favorite touristy things aren't going anywhere ever. They'll all be standing long after we're all dead and buried. The three things I'm craziest about.
the hugely moving Vietnam memorial. You'll never see anything like this built again. Public pieces are too artistically diluted these days by committees, polls, media scrutiny and aesthetic unfriendly corporations.
the ruby slippers in the Smithsonian. It's my Judy G problem -- or my Judy G blessing however you wanna see it.
The majestic Lincoln Memorial. I've always responded to massive statuary.
I was thinking about that last one today and wondering when and if we'll ever see Liam Neeson (an underrated star) play Abraham Lincoln in the Steven Spielberg directed biopic which is currently slated for 2010. I hope so. Spielberg has made a few bios in his time atop Hollywood's directorial pack but Schindler's List (starring, hey... Liam Neeson!) was easily the best of them. Lincoln seems like a good match of actor and role. Supposedly Neeson has already read 22 books on the 16th president to prepare. Biopics are usually the quickest way to Oscar glory but it's never a sure thing: Kinsey didn't win him a nomination even after an LAFCA prize. Maybe the reunion with Spielberg will give him a boost?
I was on iChat with a friend yesterday and I jokingly suggested he pop over to DC to see me. Unfortunately he had vowed he wasn't setting foot there until Bush have moved on. So the timing was wrong. For him, I throw up this hilarious (and true) running mate campaign logo...
Anyway... If you're familiar with DC, I'd love to hear suggestions about things to see and do and places to eat on the odd evenings when I'm out on the town.
The Top 100 Actors of the Aughts Countdown continues with numbers #35 ~ #31. Wilson "Re: The Brothers Wilson. I've read in more than one place of delusion that Luke is the more attractive sibling..." Phoenix "The world spins in bizarre ways..." Bridges "It doesn't matter if an actor is sweating blood or tossing it off, a great performance is a great performance is a great performance." Neeson "Always knew he would age well..." DiCaprio "That "King of the World" moment still haunts me... (and not in the good way)"
Read the rest... then discuss right here in the comments! It's so easy and good for you, too. #30 through #26 will be up on Tuesday with the new poll for more of your ranking pleasure.
The Top 100 Actors of the Aughts Countdown continues with numbers #35 ~ #31. Wilson "Re: The Brothers Wilson. I've read in more than one place of delusion that Luke is the more attractive sibling..." Phoenix "The world spins in bizarre ways..." Bridges "It doesn't matter if an actor is sweating blood or tossing it off, a great performance is a great performance is a great performance." Neeson "Always knew he would age well..." DiCaprio "That "King of the World" moment still haunts me... (and not in the good way)"
Read the rest... then discuss right here in the comments! It's so easy and good for you, too. #30 through #26 will be up on Tuesday with the new poll for more of your ranking pleasure.
I like to throw a curveball --bet you didn't see Van Gogh coming, did'ja? If Vincent Van Gogh hadn't been so crazy what with the ear chopping and not taking care of himself he woulda turned 153 years-old today.
Here are my three favorite Van Gogh self-portraits...
And yes, I'm aware I've neglected to include a bandaged ear shot. But who needs it when he can convey just as much sans prop?
My favorite Vincent moment in a movie: It's not from any biopic. It's Diane Keaton and Woody Allen arguing about the 'Hall of the Overrated' in Manhattan. "Van Gock" "Van Gock?" Hee.
I like to throw a curveball --bet you didn't see Van Gogh coming, did'ja? If Vincent Van Gogh hadn't been so crazy what with the ear chopping and not taking care of himself he woulda turned 153 years-old today.
Here are my three favorite Van Gogh self-portraits...
And yes, I'm aware I've neglected to include a bandaged ear shot. But who needs it when he can convey just as much sans prop?
My favorite Vincent moment in a movie: It's not from any biopic. It's Diane Keaton and Woody Allen arguing about the 'Hall of the Overrated' in Manhattan. "Van Gock" "Van Gock?" Hee.
Happy St. Patrick's Day... (if I could figure out how to make this text green, I would.) if you still need more kissables there's Cillian Murphy & Jonathan Rhys Meyers
[polysexual disclaimer: i wanted to throw a few Irish Actresses on here but all I found was this article on the absence of famous Irish actresses]
Happy St. Patrick's Day... (if I could figure out how to make this text green, I would.) if you still need more kissables there's Cillian Murphy & Jonathan Rhys Meyers
[polysexual disclaimer: i wanted to throw a few Irish Actresses on here but all I found was this article on the absence of famous Irish actresses]
Well, just saw KINSEY. A worthy Condon follow-up to Gods and Monsters. I would like to advise you on Oscar expectations except seeing the film doesn't clarify that as much as public reaction will. The biggest surprise I suppose is that it's hugely entertaining for a biopic. Very funny, dramatic, interesting. And somewhat inventive in its telling even though it does follow the classic biopic structure. i.e. bits of youth followed by bits of establishing romance w/ spouse followed by adult life with the major triump/setback/triumph arc that is common to these things. A lot will depend on the other films I suppose. As a film its a success. As an Oscar thing... not a slam dunk but it could happen.
It gets a lot of oomph from its unusual and rather epic (if you stop to think of it) subject. The acting is terrific all around but I'm not sure anyone within has a nomination locked up. Neeson is superb but there's heavy competition in his category. Linney seems to lack that one big scene that you know will be played as its awards show clip. That mythical scene usually lets you know if that person is surefire for a nod. This is not to negate her contribution to the film --she's wonderful as usual so it could happen. Lynn Redgrave is super also as you may have heard but despite Oscar 'Judi Dench cameo' buzz I'd be completely shocked if that talk continues. She's onscreen all of 3 minutes. Peter Sarsgaard is also good (no surprise there given his filmography) but I'd be surprised to see him anywhere near the supporting actor shortlist unless the film goes over really well with the public. We shall see.
