Chloe

I definitely liked this film more than a number of reviewers did. I always find Atom Egoyan's films interesting but haven't really liked one since 1997's The Sweet Hereafter; that's my favourite, with Exotica being next in line and now Chloe being third. Briefly, the story involves a married couple, played by Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson, whose marriage has become rather distant and unsatisfying, especially from her point of view. He's an attractive and popular college teacher, and she suspects him of having affairs with his students. So she hires a prostitute, played by the young, luminous and beautiful Amanda Seyfreid who's been in just about every other film these days, to seduce him so she can see how he reacts. That's all I'll say about the story, except that it isn't quite that straightforward, though I felt this was more linear and mainstream in content than Egoyan's films usually are. Beyond the outer storyline, though, I found it very thought-provoking about relationships and how we handle them: How much do we take for granted when things are going well and smoothly? How much do we believe the things we think we know with such certainty about each other? How much are we aware of our effect on other people? As well, I felt the tone set by the cinematography was very effective; though often the settings were dark and stark, they were sensual at the same time.

The Ghost Writer

What a thoroughly satisfying film! This is a mystery/thriller directed and co-written by Roman Polanski. I haven't always liked his films, but three from the 1960s really stand out for me: Knife in the Water (in Polish), Repulsion (starring the young Catherine Deneuve) and of course Rosemary's Baby - I was haunted and frightened by all of them. The Ghost Writer is adapted from a book and revolves around a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) and the writer (Ewan McGregor) who's the "ghost" helping him write his memoirs. The acting by both of them, as well as by Olivia Williams who plays the PM's wife, is excellent; the story (which is a barely concealed take on the current political reality) compelling; the details of scenery, settings, colours and overall visual tone perfect; and the music a fantastic complement to the action, heightening the mood without being overbearing. The score was written by Alexandre Desplat, whom I discovered has written scores for quite a number of recent films (The Queen, Coco avant Chanel, Julie and Julia, Syriana, to name a few) but I don't remember in any of those being so taken by the music as an important part of the film as I was in this one. Anyway, I predict that as this year's films are rolled out, I'll continue to think this is one of the best of the year.

March Break

It's just about time for school children here in Nova Scotia to have their March break, and I'll be taking one as well. I'm not going anywhere but will be doing a meditation retreat from March 12-21, so don't expect any posts during that period. Following that, I plan on getting back to my list of films and watching DVDs, and as well, I'm hoping some films of interest will show up in the theatres here by then, either ones left over from 2009 trickling in (Atom Egoyan's "Chloe", for instance) or new ones (Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" is one I'm waiting for).

Oscars 2010

Maybe I'm finally getting too old or jaded to watch the Oscars all the way through, because I have to say that I was more bored than usual with last night's show. It was obvious that some of the kinds of stuff included in past shows to try to make them more entertaining had been cut in the interest of this year's not dragging on for too long, but one thing I missed was a truly enjoyable host; I haven't seen any reviews of last night's hosts or the show altogether yet and will be interested in what the critics say. I like both Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but they were hardly at all in evidence and only provided a couple of mild chuckles. I still miss Billy Crystal, my favourite past host. Well, on to the winners. No surprises in the main categories and, as I predicted, the films I liked best were almost totally shut out of awards. I'm still mildly (though no more) curious about "The Hurt Locker", but the more clips from it I see the more the topic and style just don't really interest me. The only winner who seemed to be a surprise, based on what I had heard, was the best foreign film; I haven't seen any of the nominated films in this category as they haven't been shown here, but I had heard it predicted a number of times that the German film "The White Ribbon" would win. I also haven't seen any of the documentaries except for the "The Cove", which won, and I'd very much like to see the others to give a fair opinion, but I didn't find "The Cove" to be nearly as compelling as other documentaries I've seen in previous years. To me, the most engaging part of the evening was looking at the gowns, which were almost all really gorgeous, and the set for the theatre, also very glitzy and beautiful.

Pre-Oscar musings

Some of you may be surprised to hear that I watch the Oscars religiously every year, have probably only missed a few since I was very young. It's true that they often aren't accurate, in my and many others' opinions, in their choice of award recipients, but I'm still addicted to the show, comparing it to past years in terms of hosts, etc. I also have to confess that I like seeing what everyone's wearing, though I hate the ubiquitous question asked by fawning media reps, "Who are you wearing?" Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin co-host this year, as I really enjoyed the two of them in "It's complicated". But on to my thoughts about this year's nominees.

First I have to say that I haven't seen and may not ever see a number of the films nominated in either major or less major categories. This is because the story, actors, type of film or director doesn't interest me, but sometimes I eventually become curious and decide to see such a film anyway. Here are the ones in major categories on that list this year:

Crazy Heart, The Hurt Locker, The Lovely Bones, Inglourious Basterds, The Blind Side, Precious, Nine, Up, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sherlock Holmes, District 9, A Serious Man. I realize that some of these may be favourites of yours for this year. The ones I'm most likely to see out of curiousity are The Hurt Locker, Precious and Sherlock Holmes. I also haven't seen most of the foreign films or documentaries because I haven't had the opportunity.

Here are my favourite films from those nominated for various things, and I predict that none of them, with the exception of "Avatar" and possibly "Up in the Air", will get any of the major awards:

Up in the Air, A Single Man, Invictus, Avatar, An Education, Julie and Julia in no particular order. I also very much liked "The Last Station" and "The Young Victoria" but not as much. I loved "The Informant" and thought Matt Damon deserved a best actor nomination for his performance, though he was also excellent in "Invictus". Another left-out nomination, in my opinion, is Julianne Moore for her role in "A Single Man". I'm still waiting for "The Messenger" to be shown here. You can see my assessments of the films on this list in my "Film Reviews 2009" document.

I'm not giving any predictions on winners, but I'll probably write something after this Sunday's show.

The last station

"The last station" tells the story of the last days of Leo Tolstoy's life, focusing mainly on his tumultuous and passionate relationship with his wife, the Countess Sofya (excellently portrayed by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, both nominated for Oscars for these roles), but also centres around his young secretary, Valentin (James McAvoy, also played very well as naive and idealistic but ultimately very helpful in a seemingly impossible situation). At this stage of Tolstoy's life he's no longer writing novels, and his most devoted followers call themselves Tolstoyans and try to practice brotherly love and pacifism and denounce material wealth and physical/sexual love. Valentin is caught between the opposing views of the two Tolstoys as well as his own awakening of first love. How can you profess to love mankind and at the same time denounce actually touching and loving a real person? I was entranced by this film, as well as at times infuriated and exasperated at the way people who love each other deeply can cause each other so much suffering. The cinematography was beautiful, helped by the idyllic country setting of Tolstoy's estate. Definitely deserved more Oscar nominations than it got, in my opinion. I'll write some pre-Oscar musings here in the next day or two.