Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

This morning, they are announcing the Oscar nominees for last year’s slate of movies. For the last two years, I’ve tried to watch all the movies nominated for major awards from one set of nominations before the next set came out. I made it last year. I’m going to fall short this year by one film. Oh Biutiful, I’ve had you for over a month and just can’t make myself want to watch you.

As a break from all this heavy stuff, I’m thinking that perhaps I should really watch the top twenty grossing movies in a particular year instead of the award darlings. But really, which is the worse punishment? That’s just going to be a lot of 15-word reviews.

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Some movies tell the fall-in-love part. Some movies tell the fall-out-of-love part. Blue Valentine does both.

Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling play Cindy and Dean, a couple we see at two points in their relationship. The getting together and the coming apart cut back and forth throughout the movie.

From a technical standpoint, I felt that the interplay between the two time periods did not come off all the way. Because it is a slower movie dealing with such heavy emotions, it often took a while to get into a specific scene. Then, once I was into the moment, that moment was over and I had to adjust to the next, opposite one. It didn’t come off that smoothly but all the scenes were definitely done well.

After mentioning the non-indie style of Rabbit Hole, I must smile at this return to indie land, what with the shaky, grainy camera shots and the awkward angles. I felt that this did a service for Ryan Gosling and didn’t do as much for Michelle Williams. Her younger Cindy was very effective, coming off as internally mixed up and problematic as a teenage girl should be. Her older Cindy had those edges blunted, or maybe just dulled, and wasn’t as interesting. To be fair, Dean is a character that had to be more consistent throughout the film, while Cindy is the one that changed from cut to cut.

If I Picked the Oscars 2011 (in order of my vote)

Best Actress:

• Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
• Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
• Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
• Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

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This is the type of movie that I’m used to seeing only with indie treatments nowadays. But, Rabbit Hole actually gets the full on Hollywood-movie glamour, and that makes it a really pleasant surprise.

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play a couple who are eight months removed from the accidental death of their son. You probably have a good idea what this means for the movie, and while it doesn’t really hit any radically different ground, the acting and the style of the movie manage to make it work.

The movie does well in widening the scope of this horrifying topic without losing sense of the center. We are all the stars of our own movies and the death of a child affects everyone, from the neighbors of the family to personal friends to every stranger who innocently asks, “Do you have kids?” The film puts forth their points of view in short, yet effective, bursts of screen time.

I’m typically not a Nicole Kidman fan, but she comes through here. She makes her character sympathetic, vulnerable, and understandable. Aaron Eckhart also shows a different side to his acting abilities. Instead of being a smarmy playboy, he is a warm, strong family man who is hurting and alone. The husband is not as well developed here as the female lead is, but he definitely has several powerful scenes. For me though, Dianne Wiest was the real stand out. Whenever she was in frame, I watched her.

I’m so used to seeing the indie-style applied, whether out of budgetary or artistic reasons, to movies like this. Rabbit Hole, however, looks like a movie with its rich lightening, lens choices, sets and environments. It made me remember that movies like this were once made like movies. The application felt new again.

If I Picked the Oscars 2011 (in order of my vote)

Best Actress:

• Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
• Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
• Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
• Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)

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