Three new films in the UK this week, all passing by the executioner's chopping block.
Best of the week: W.
Oliver Stone has returned to form with W. - his best film since Nixon. Stone attempts to fairly even handed in his treatment of Dub-ya, which has annoyed many critics who were out for blood, but he can't avoid a few swipes that are the film's biggest problem. Making Bush look stupid by using this own sayings is fine and accurate, but two or three moments, including the use of the song Robin Hood are overdone and smack of the film the left-wing hoped he'd make and the right-wing thought he'd make. He can't have it both ways and they feel out of place in this film. As does Thandie Newton's sketch-show gurning as Condoleeza Rice. She is hilarious but it's too much really.
Brolin though is excellent. You feel sorry for his W. while at the same time seeing the figure of ridicule we love to mock. Brolin has been gaining more and more momentum in the past few years and this is a stunning turn. No matter how good or bad those acting around him (and most are very good for one reason or another) Brolin is so good that by the second half you just feel like you're watching footage of the 43rd president. It's spooky.
Awards chances: Brolin should get a nomination and it'll be interesting to see if should he get a supporting nod for Milk whether this will happen. He should, but the Milk nod may be seen as a good excuse to avoid the hot potato that W. will no doubt be in awards season. A Bafta nom for him seems more certain. The film may be too soon for much Oscar attention beyong Brolin but Stone is a two time Best Director winner and this is the best film he's made in a decade and it comes in a poor year (so far) for Best Picture certainties so i wouldn't rule it out. Personally i suspect come Jan 22 we won't be seeing key noms for this one outside of Brolin.
He'll never win for this, but if he is nommed for W. as Best Actor and Supporting Actor for Milk then expect to see Brolin walk away with the supporting trophy - especially only a year after he was the central glue to, but most ignored part of come awards season, of last year's Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men. I'm seeing Milk next week and confirm my thoughts on this then.
Pride & Glory - Much better than it has any right to be, this cop thriller is as predictable as it looks and offers little new to the genre, but it is efficiently made by director Gavin O'Connor and his team and raises its game with uniformly strong supporting performances.
It is odd that of all the performances the weak link is Edward Norton, not because he's bad (is he even capable of being so) but because he's sleep-walking through his performance. But Farrell tries valiantly to inject a depth to his character that the script has not provided, Noah Emmerich and Jennifer Ehle shine throughout and Jon Voight shows just how good he can be. A scene with Voight drunk at a family dinner is a masterclass in how to play drunk realistically - if you were told be sank a few shooters ahead of the take you'd believe it.
Awards chances: Not a chance. The film is solid entertainment but unremarkable and has no awards traction at all. Still, it's leagues better than the excrable Righteous Kill!
Easy Virtue - A funny and entertaining adaptation of the more serious Noel Coward play, but it suffers from pendulum swings in tone. Kristin Scott Thomas does her cold and calculating best, Colin Firth is fine if unremarkable and Jessica Biel shows a lightness and skill she hasn't previously displayed. Biel should certainly continue to show people what she is capable of in choices like this and The Illusionist, things we could never have guessed from watching the likes of Blade Trinity and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But Ben Barnes is terrible. Yet another in a long line of good looking wooden young British actors, much like Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightley - not that it hurt their careers.
The script can't balance the humour with the more serious elements retained from the play and it struggles to not fall into a peaks and troughs pattern of enjoyment and boredom.
Awards chances: As always with this type of film costume and production design and related technicals are possible - especially with the period film friendly BAFTA. But there is nothing here in script, film or acting of particular note. Scott Thomas is the best here but she's just playing the cold and witty role she always does and shouldn't get attention here which could distract from her assured (for BAFTA at least) Best Actress nom turn in I've Loved You So Long. I'm surprised awards screenings are going on, but like i said BAFTA is period film friendly so that might explain it.
It you want to see how UK audiences voted with their wallets on opeing weekend:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/nov/10/2
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