Golden Globes Do Right in End
Let’s begin with Best Foreign Film. As host Ricky Gervais put it with such funny-‘cause-it’s-true frankness, it’s “an award nobody in America cares about.” I generally find that to be a sad fact about American audiences, but in this case there wasn’t anything to really cheer for. The year’s notable hits The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mother were snubbed, while A Prophet, released in the States early in 2010, was a nominee last year thanks to its releases throughout the world. This left us this year with a list of films few American moviegoers are aware of. The Dutch film In A Better World took the prize.
The Best Animated Film category was full of great competition (including Despicable Me and How to Train Your Dragon), but with Toy Story 3 in the mix, none of them stood a chance.
The Best Screenplay award may give us a clue as to what will be nominated for the adapted and original screenplay awards by the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences. 127 Hours (adapted), Inception (original), The Kids Are All Right (original), and The King’s Speech (original) were all nominated. But it was Aaron Sorkin’s incredibly intelligent and carefully-crafted adaptation of The Accidental Billionaires into The Social Network that took the prize. No surprise there.
Let’s move on to the acting awards.
While Mark Ruffalo was unfortunately overlooked for his performance in The Kids Are All Right in favor of Michael Douglas’s return as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s adequate Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps for the Best Supporting Actor award, those that were included – newcomer Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Jeremy Renner (The Town), and Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech) – lost out to Christian Bale in The Fighter.
The Best Supporting Actress award was a tight competition full of praised performances, including Jacki Weaver for the Australian crime film Animal Kingdom and Helena Bonham Carter as the supportive Queen in The King’s Speech. Melissa Leo, who plays a tough-talking and manipulative mother in The Fighter won the honor.
The comedy/musical awards were probably the most contentious of this year’s awards. This is not unusual as last year’s acting and film categories for comedy or musical were also a bit dubious. Robert Downey, Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) beat out Joseph Gordon-Levitt ((500) Days of Summer) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) in a role that hardly required more than to look dashing and clever. This year, Johnny Depp was nominated for two films that are generally regarded as among his worst, Alice in Wonderland and The Tourist. Also, comedic performances by Jonah Hill for either Get Him to the Greek or Cyrus and Michael Cera for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – three comedic films better-received by critics than most of the ones nominated – were passed over. Paul Giamatti took the Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical prize for Barney’s Version, a little-seen drama about the life of a foul-mouthed TV producer.
Despite the inclusion of Angelina Jolie for The Tourist and Anne Hathaway for Love & Other Drugs (two films whose performances were panned), the Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical was a decent competition, even though it would’ve been nice to see Marisa Tomei rewarded with a nom for her performance in Cyrus. Annette Bening was deservedly handed the prize for her dramatically-grounded performance in The Kids Are All Right. I actually favored Julianne Moore’s work in that film, which was also nominated, but Bening is enjoyable enough to watch in that film that her win was acceptable.
I’d like to get the Best Picture – Comedy or Musical debacle out of the way and move on to the rest quickly. The Kids Are All Right, perhaps the only film of this year’s nominees deserving of the award, won. For more of my thoughts on this award go here.
The Best Actor – Drama race was incredibly tight. Ryan Gosling may have been the underdog for Blue Valentine and James Franco (127 Hours) and Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter) were granted well-deserved nominations for this award. But the race seemed to come down to either Jesse Eisenberg for his complex portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network or Colin Firth for his inspirational performance of a stutterer who became king in The King’s Speech. I lean more towards Eisenberg’s surprisingly skilled work as one of the year’s best characters, but Colin Firth, having lost last year, took the award instead.
The Best Actress – Drama award was a tough competition, with the exception of Halle Berry for Frankie & Alice, a film that won’t be released until February, but already has received poor reviews. Newcomer Jennifer Lawrence could’ve taken it for Winter’s Bone, as well as Michelle Williams for her equally brave performance in Blue Valentine. But Natalie Portman took the honor, as expected, for Black Swan.
The Best Director category was full of exceptional work, but it was clearly David Fincher’s for the taking for his tireless efforts on The Social Network.
That leaves us with Best Picture – Drama and it could go to no other film than The Social Network, as it did. Some say The King’s Speech is a worthy contender, however it seems to me that is more a matter of personal preference than objective greatness. That’s because The King’s Speech is an inspiring crowd-pleaser – and a great one at that – and therefore is more appealing to audiences. But The Social Network, like All the President’s Men and Network is about something much more than the triumph of the human spirit. Sure, it’s about some supergeek who alienated those around him on his road to success, but it’s also about how one idea forever changed how we interact with each other, socially and professionally. More importantly, its story was executed by means of the most brilliant filter of creative minds assembled on set in 2010. It is the best film.
The Golden Globe Awards went off in predictable fashion, with not a divisive win to be found. While the nominations were occasionally questionable, it could be said this year’s Globe winners were more in line with the days of old, when they served as an indication of what was to come at the Oscars and what were truly the best in film at the time.
The films that took home the most Globes and, it’s safe to conclude, are most worthy of your time before the Academy Awards are The Social Network (3, plus a win for Best Score), The Fighter (2), and The Kids Are All Right (2). It’s a safe bet that these films, as well as Black Swan, The King’s Speech, and Toy Story 3 can be expected to pop up in the 10-film Best Picture category when the Oscar nominees are announced next week.
It’s worth noting that Ricky Gervais hosted for a second time this year and was quite amazing. He spent the evening skewering the celebrity presenters and nominees in a hilariously mischievous fashion. Some may be too sensitive to such audacious teasing, but it gave the predictable show and its well-to-do culture a much-needed kick in the pants. You can view highlights of his jokes here.
The Academy Awards will be held on February 27th.
What do you think? Did you feel the better films went home empty-handed? Who did you wish took home an award? Write below in the comments, on Facebook, or email at thegibsonreview@gmail.com