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Page 2: jchensor's Best Picture Oscar Recap for 2001Of course, the story doesn't need to be anything complex or radical to be Oscar worthy. The story can be very simple and very compact, as is the case with In The Bedroom (jchensor's rating: 8/10). The simplicity of the story doesn't make the movie any less powerful. In fact, In The Bedroom affected me the most emotionally out of all the movies I saw in 2001. However, if you recall all of the Best Pictures from the past few years, you'll notice one thing all those movies have in common: a strong presence. There's something about these movies that are large in scope with a sense of self-importance. Gladiator was a powerful epic tale of a hero who rose above those who sought to destroy him. American Beauty appeared to be trying to send a strong message about enjoying life with what you have. Shakespeare In Love was a fanciful and humorously satirical romantic comedy about one of history's greatest writers. Titanic, Braveheart, Schindler's List, Rain Man, The Last Emperor, Amadeus... the list goes on and on. All of these movies have a strong presence that makes you think, "Yes... I remember that film!" In The Bedroom will fade away as one of the film industries least known treasures. Most people have never even heard of this film. Years later, this movie will probably be one of those Best Picture nominees that people will look at and say, "What was that movie?!?" And even after seeing this movie, as powerful as it was to me, it cannot hold it's presence among its competitors like Moulin Rouge and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Those movies speak their presence as if they are using the latest THX sound system in your theaters. In The Bedroom speaks to you like yesterday's bard who sat in the fields to tell of a tragic tale. But that's exactly the strong point of In the Bedroom. The thing that makes this movie so effective and so heart-wrenching is the fact that it is told in such an understated fashion. After the tragedy unfolds in In The Bedroom, no one scene stands out among the others until the final act. Each scene is given equal importance and each one sends out its own message. And each scene is brief and devoid of any typical Hollywood tricks to help you feel what you're supposed to be feeling. Not even a musical score, with weepy violins, are employed. The only thing used is the incredible performances by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson (playing the grieving parents Ruth and Matt
And given its topic, this way of telling the story earns In The Bedroom great respect. Too many times in movies, the topic of death is played for cheep thrills or easy tears. Horror films and action flicks kill characters all the time. Some movies even make the horrid mistake of using death for humor and laugh-in-retrospect thrills (e.g. Final Destination). Other movies take death and overplay them and manipulate the audience to react in the way they want (such as the death of the president's wife in Independence Day). These movies prove to be a great disservice to anyone who has truly lost someone dear to them. In The Bedroom allows the viewers to watch how people really react to the death of a loved one, and how it can destroy the lives of many people and even turn those who love one another against each other. It shows how impossible it is for those who are involved to move on, and how easy it is for those who aren't involved to behave as if nothing ever happened. It treats death with the gravity it deserves and it succeeds in everything that it tries without any cheap Hollywood tricks. So In the Bedroom is a terrific movie (my only reasoning for giving it an 8 out of 10 is because the movie made me terribly depressed, and I generally have trouble dealing with depressing films). It can never be done justice through any description or plot summary. It must be seen to experience its true effects. However, it's subtle story-telling and lack of presence will be it's downfall, and makes it virtually an impossibility for winning the Best Picture award (the dubious honor of being the front-runner for Best Picture this year goes to A Beautiful Mind, a movie that employs Hollywood tricks throughout). It's a shame, really, because it deserves a lot more recognition... but then again, maybe being nominated and not winning would be preferable for a movie that doesn't need any Hollywood tricks to help it along.
A Beautiful Mind (jchensor's rating: 8/10) is a very strong movie and is the front-runner for Best Picture this year. Because of this status, it has received a great deal of criticism, likely spawned by rival movie companies, claiming that the film portrays various elements in the life of John Nash (played by Russell Crowe in the film) inaccurately. So many people now believe that the film doesn't deserve to win the Best Picture award. However, these elements, whether true or not, do not take anything away from the picture and should not be the reason why A Beautiful Mind does not deserve Best Picture. No, A Beautiful Mind doesn't deserve the Oscar because of another reason: the movie isn't unique anymore. A Best Picture should stand out as something unique. We shouldn't award movies for telling a story similar to one that's been told before. This is where A Beautiful Mind fails because it is not a "pioneer" and just feels like an old trick. It's a tale of someone who is able to overcome and triumph over a great setback (usually a mental or physical disability), but Forrest Gump already won for Best Picture for telling that story. Numerous other films, such as My Left Foot and Born on the Fourth of July, are other movies that have told this story. A Beautiful Mind does not offer the audience anything that hasn't been seen before. Movies like Memento fall into this category of "pioneer" movies. Nothing like Memento has ever been seen before, and that's what makes Memento so special. Of course, if a movie is telling a story that has been told before, it CAN deserve the Best Picture nod for being a paragon of the type of story it is telling. To be a paragon of its genre, a film needs to be great and have just the right elements to push it over the edge. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for example, was a wonderful martial arts movie, but the moral dilemmas injected into a genre with typically stale storylines, and the incredibly beautiful cinematography are what make Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a paragon of its genre. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, a competitor in the Best Picture race, is a fantasy movie. That certainly is not new and has been done plenty of times. But its vision and imagery, as well as the convincing effects and acting, propel that movie from being just a mere fantasy tale into a movie that shows a world that we are convinced truly exists somewhere. That's what makes it a diamond in the rough. But even in this respect, A Beautiful Mind fails. A Beautiful Mind, at best, is a fairly average movie. The special touches it has does not move it from being a great movie to being a paragon of its type. They only move it from being an average movie to being a great movie. There are two special touches that stand out in the film. The first is Russell Crowe's performance (in what is arguably the second best acting performance of the year after Haley Joel Osment in A.I.). Russell Crowe will most likely get the "Oh Shoot..." Best Actor award this year that Tom Hanks previously won. Tom Hanks won a Best Actor Oscar for his role in Philadelphia. But the very next year, he surpassed that performance in Forrest Gump, thus forcing the Academy to give him the award again. This same thing is happening to Russell Crowe because, last year, he won for a mediocre performance in Gladiator. This year he surpasses that performance ten-fold in portraying Nash. After watching Gladiator, I was dumfounded by his win and wasn't convinced of his true acting ability. But A Beautiful Mind has turned me around and I now have great respect for Crowe as an actor (after his outburst from his cut speech at the BAFTAs, however, I can't say the same about Crowe as a person). An actor has succeeded if you are positive that no one else could have played the role as well as he or she could have. Crowe accomplishes that in A Beautiful Mind. The well-written story (screenplay by Akiva Goldsmith, based on Sylvia Nasar's novel) is the other touch that makes A Beautiful Mind something special. The way they were able to introduce
But if you take these two aspects away, A Beautiful Mind becomes quite average. Taking away the special touches from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon still makes it an incredible martial arts film (the fight sequences are too elegantly done to be denied) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is still a wonderful translation of the book and would be regarded in the similar way Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is regarded. A Beautiful Mind, however, loses too much if you factor out the special touches. Outside of those two aspects, there is very little about the film that makes it stand out as anything special. So although it is a very solid movie, there simply isn't anything that makes it unique when considering it against the entire history of films. In fact, A Beautiful Mind will most likely not endure over time. Years and years from now, movies like Memento will be remembered, but A Beautiful Mind may become a bit more obsolete.
Page 3: jchensor's Oscar Recap
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Fowler). Their portrayal of the confusion, denial, disbelief, and frustrations of a couple who have had their son taken from them are all the audience gets... and all the audience needs. I have not seen a movie that was able to make me feel the pain of the characters as well as this movie and this can be highly attributed to the fact that no tricks were employed. Any movie can be manipulative and use standard tricks to get a reaction out of moviegoers all the time (like showing a grand and passionate "impromptu" speech actually written by 4 Hollywood writers, with scenes of the audience truly moved to tears, all backed by swelling music). None of these are used in In The Bedroom, and yet I've never been that deeply affected by a movie.
characters like Charles Herman (Paul Bettany) and William Parcher (Ed Harris) in a manner that never questions their true existence, and then keep the audience actually guessing even AFTER they start letting you in on Nash's schizophrenia, is wonderfully done. Ed Harris's performance aids this, as he was even able to convince me
that maybe he truly does exist the second time he tries to inject himself into Nash's life. This wonderful plot twist of an alternate reality is something not found in either your typical biopic or your typical "against-the-odds" film. And A Beautiful Mind scores strong points for its carefully written story.