This is an unabashed look at each nominee in the big eight Oscar categories. We will look at all the nominees and the various categories. No prisoners are taken, so take heed and gird your loins.
Nominees:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth, Robin Swicord
Doubt, John Patrick Shanley
Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan
The Reader, David Hare
Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy
Overall Feelings:
One. I count one nominee that is worth being here. I’m not saying there was a plethora of choices when it came to adaptations, but my God…I want to personally thank David Hare and his script because he is the only one who deserves to be in the running. First off, Eric Roth has already won an Oscar for this script, and it was called Forrest Gump. This guy has a tendency to write schmaltzy, clichéd ideas and sometimes gets his just desserts (The Postman). He all fooled us in 1994, but retooling the story to fit with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story is just lazy. Next is Shanley. I don’t deny that Doubt is a well-written piece of entertainment, but I don’t understand what he did to covert this to film. Just because it is a well-written script on Broadway does not mean you can just take the carbon copy and film it to suit the needs of a film. The more I think about it, the less I think Shanley belongs with this group. Anyway…now we have Peter Morgan. I still fail to see the appeal of Frost/Nixon. Was it the fact that Frank Langella and Michael Sheen were so enthralling in the dual leads that we give praise to the film as a whole? I would love an explanation. The script is systematic, immensely forgetful and takes absolutely no risks. It avoids all character flaws and characterization in general and just focuses on the fact that Sheen and Langella were really good in the play. Finally, we come to Mr. Simon Beaufoy. I have yet to share my thoughts on Slumdog Millionaire, but it was an enjoyable experience. I liked the film as a whole and left with a smile on my face. That being said, if I were to rank these nominees in their quality, only Morgan would be worse. What made this film so memorable and the feel good story it was? Two things did. First, was the fact that it was a true story (sort of) and second and most importantly was the direction of Danny Boyle. Can you remember any dialogue from that movie? I can think of maybe three lines off the top of my head. The memories that stick with me are the visuals and the style it is presented in. This is a pure piggy-back nomination. The Academy couldn’t have played it any safer or been any more boring with this line-up.
My Personal Choice:
As I said, I want to personally thank David Hare and apologize to him for not being able to win the Oscar. The Reader is one of those rare films like The Dark Knight in which they are presented with a preconceived notion of what they are and then they turn out to be something so different and presented in a different way, that we are blown away by them. Just how The Dark Knight isn’t a comic book movie, The Reader isn’t a holocaust film. It molds into a brilliant combination of multiple ideas. It starts out a voyeuristic film, then moves into a forbidden love story and transforms into a lost love story and shifts again into a trial film. It continues to a story about age and what could have been, goes to a story about learning and hope, and concludes with a story of redemption and loss. Hare all the way.
Who Should Have Been Nominated:
I know some people hate it and a lot of people just plain don’t understand it, but I thought that Revolutionary Road was a fantastic film. Justin Haythe stayed as close as he could to Richard Yates’ book without copying what made the book work. I’ve heard many a blogger shout about the point of the film, well it’s right there in the writing. It’s about desire, shunning normality, wanting to live, all that deeper meaning in life. Michael Shannon should personally thank Haythe for giving him the words to shout and scream his way to an Oscar nomination.
Who Should Not Have Been Nominated:
My own rules are to only pick one, so I can’t throw out three. That being said, Peter Morgan’s script for Frost/Nixon is mediocre at best. Where would this film be without names behind it? Morgan should be thanking Langella, Sheen and God for the fact that a good number of the members of the Academy are senior citizens. I’m still waiting for someone under the age of 30 to really support this film.
Who Should Win:
Hare for The Reader. For reasons mentioned above, but overall because it was the only film out of the five that, while I was watching it, I didn’t give a wanking motion when I heard some piece of dialogue.
Who Will Win:
(Sigh) Beaufoy and his unimaginative script for Slumdog Millionaire. It’s an unfortunate inevitability. If anyone else had a chance it would probably be Shanley, but I’m not holding my breath. If they call anyone else’s name besides Beaufoy, I swear I’ll do a backflip in my living room. But, I can’t do a backflip so I’ll break my lamp and end up throwing my back out. But it will be worth it.
A Best Adapted Screenplay Poem:
Some enjoy the Nixon,
Some enjoy the Frost,
I enjoy a gun,
To blow my head clean off.
In Doubt there were some nuns,
There were some priests as well,
I wish they would stop yelling,
And just go burn in hell.
Benjamin Button was boring,
I’ve heard this all before,
I also saw this movie,
In 1994.
The Reader was the best,
It wasn’t hard to do,
Have your actresses naked,
And you can be loved too.
Slumdog will win everything,
Taxes, death and this,
I wish I would have taken,
A one-and-a-half hour piss.
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