James Absolon explains how this Pope-themed film, despite its risky premise, works
Alex Pollard reviews Hollywood's biopic of the controversial Margaret Thatcher
As with most of the awards this year, this is no surprise whatsoever. David Fincher’s critically acclaimed tale of greed and corruption has had critics clambering over each other to laud its great virtues. And with good reason too, it is extraordinary film that thoroughly deserves its vast plaudits, even if I’d still argue that Inception should have taken top prize.
Practically a foregone conclusion considering it was the only particularly good film nominated and the only comedy. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association have been thoroughly chastised for nominating it alongside Alice in Wonderland and The Tourist, both of which are quite frankly boring and are neither musicals or comedies. The best film amongst the competition was RED, an action movie with a few jokes... not exactly a comedy. In the end, The Kids Are All Right simply had to win.
Again, hardly surprising as Fincher took Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant but incredibly dense screenplay and turned it into a fast-paced and beautifully shot journey into the heart of its protagonist. Of course this won’t shock anyone, Fincher has an established track record and is a very well respected talent. His work here is excellent, making both him and The Social Network the big Oscar favourites
With a selection process that chose Le Concert over the sublime Of Gods and Men, I am little concerned about this year’s winner. In the end the victor was Danish family drama In a Better World, a film yet to be released either here or in the States making any comment difficult, though it certainly seems to be something to keep an eye out for.
Colin Firth’s victory was never in really in any doubt after his wonderful performance in The King’s Speech. The Americans always love actors playing English royalty and this gave Firth a real advantage. After all, in 2007 Helen Mirren won two separate awards for playing Elizabeth I and II respectively.
This, in my view, was the most thoroughly deserved award of the evening. Natalie Portman’s exquisite tour de force as Nina in Black Swan, the demented ballerina is both truly heroic and utterly spellbinding. Though with the mountain of critical plaudits the film has received centring on her quite extraordinary performance, she was always going to win.
Both Annette Bening and Julianne Moore were nominated for their excellent performances in The Kids Are All Right, though arguably Bening was the slightly better of the two (or at least, critics generally seem to think so). The other competition never really stood much of a chance coming from inferior roles in inferior films... so, once again, there are no surprises.
It’s good to see Paul Giamatti win this award as he is a hugely talented screen presence. Again, when considering his competition included two sub-standard Johnny Depp performances from two particularly disappointing films, this was to be expected.
- Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale, The Fighter
- Best Supporting Actress - Mellissa Leto, The Fighter
- Best Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
- Best Original Score - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Social Network
- Best Animated Feature - Toy Story 3
- Best Song – Diane Warren - ‘You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me,’ Burlesque
You must log in to submit a comment.
