So who will it be? The old or the new? Who will be crowned King of the Oscars? King or Network? Enough cliches. I have been thinking about this for a while. I have seen both the main contenders.
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
I enjoyed both of these films very much. The King not unexpectedly. I love Colin Firth – what ladies of a certain age do not? He gives a nice performance. But for my money if he deserves an Oscar for Best Actor it should have been for A Single Man. Such restraint, such eloquence without words, such emotional intensity within such a small circumference. Compared to that his King was verbose and emotionally in your face. Well, not quite. I think this film is more of an ensemble. All of the acting is great and it seems unfair to pick Colin out more than the others. Together they build a finely modulated to sense of time, place and circumstance. Nothing extraneous is conveyed. We are led down the well trod path of triumph over adversity smoothly and entertainingly and feel all the requisite emotions. Such a conservative film! And here am I a republican cheering on the King managing to speak constantly to his ‘peoples’. Oh well, that’s entertainment. Go with the flow. And enjoy. It’s Colin after all, and ‘our’ Geoffrey and our Guy for that matter, and Helena and Jennifer (Elizabeth Bennett doing a great Aussie accent!) and all the rest of the cast. Who cares if it glosses over George’s early desire to appease and his knowledge of German or completely contradicts Winston’s support for dopey Edward marrying Mrs. Simpson. It gets the big picture right and is a great film. But I don’t think it should take home Oscar.
More surprising to me was that I loved The Network. I did not think I would find a film about students working out how to create facebook (something I have no understanding of and no interest in) very engaging. Dragged along by my family, to my astonishment I was mesmerized and disappointed when it finished – I wanted to see more of this Mark Zuckerberg character. Again this is a pretty conservative film taking us down another well trodden path. Outsider scorned by his peers comes up with the goods that those who have spurned come will come to love and need and revenge is served up (warm rather than cold). Here liberties are taken with the truth again, the nerd has to be rejected by his girlfriend just to emphasize his ‘nerdishness’, unlike the real Mark’s relationship which was solid throughout the period in the film. Oh well no matter a girl / boy romance is not the core of this film.
I have read a wonderful Blog“> (thanks to Richard Brody of the New Yorker) that maintains the central relationship is between Mark Zuckerberg and Edwardo, his only friend who has bankrolled him. That the key emotion is a friend’s betrayal, conveyed in a single look across a lawyer’s table. I sort of agree, but reached a similar point from a different angle. I think the film is about the creative process. What drives people to see possibilities, in this case with computers and the net, but it applies to any field -and want to pursue those possibilities until they take things to another level.
This is something that Edwardo never gets. But Sean Parker does. The scene where Zuckerberg meets Parker and is swept up by him because he does ‘get’ it, is the ‘girl meets boy’ part of this film. From there the betrayal of Edwardo is inevitable. And then when Parker gets into trouble and puts the dream in jeopardy, he too is put out in the cold, this time by phone but just as resolutely. Jessie Eisenberg’s performance deserves the Oscar. Such restraint, such eloquence without words, such emotional intensity within such a small circumference!
Well I am sorry tThe Network did not win best film. Here is another great Blog describing why it should have far better than I could.
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Joe Burke says
I agree completely.
pdoran says
Great read – well done
pdoran says
Great – but looks like an Australian win all round – best editor for The Netbook and the King’s Speech with all the Australian connections what more could we want
Mary-Anne Thomas says
And the results are in. Isn’t it a truism that Oscar loves a disability (dustin hoffman, geoffrey rush, daniel day-lewis) or at least some emotional histrionics (natalie portman)? so no real surprises.
I loved The Social Network, and Jesse Eisenberg’s performance was fantastic, unfortunately for him his character was essentially unlikeable and his performance so naturalistic he was never going to win.
johnh says
I agree that Mr Firth deserved the Oscar for ‘A Single Man’, for a beautiful performance of passionate restraint. However, I am not so sure about Mr Eisenberg, precisely for the reason given by Mary-Anne – the character was so very unlikeable, and I at least found it hard to relate to any of the brilliant and ruthlessly creative ‘boys with toys’ that the film seemed to laud.
My choice for Best Actor this year would have been Jeff Bridges for his supreme scenery chomping in ‘True Grit’, a better film and a much better performance than his win last year for ‘Crazy Heart’.
Best Film this year should have gone to either ‘The Kids Are Alright’ or ‘Winter’s Bone’.
And what happened to Annette Bening’s Best Actress Oscar?