Considering this blog was started to track the awards seasons, make some predictions, and give the McGut reaction to what's happening out there -- it behooves me to open this edition of "Roundup" by saying I still think The Help can take it next Sunday. This sucker could Crash its way right in - and be a more deserving winner. No, it doesn't have a director nomination or a screenplay nomination -- those are serious hamstringers. But this is purely due to the fact that The Help was adapted and directed by Tate Taylor and there seems to be some resentment toward the actor cum helmer. But a picture needn't have script or director in the bag to take film. Plenty of pics didn't take director - Driving Miss Daisy, Shakespeare in Love, Chicago, Crash. The list of pics that lost screenplay would take up the rest of this blog. The SAG win for ensemble and the increasing possibility of both Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis taking home gold could well land The Help with the big one.
As the summer came to a close, the adaptation of Kathry Stockett's juggernaut best-seller burst onto the scene. Though it was certainly being presented as if it had the pedigree of a best picture nominee, there were doubts whether it could go the distance -- even to nominee-ville had this not been the awful era of ten. Who knew that it would be far and away the second strongest contender, holding the number two spot as the front-runners went through their continual shift. The Help could have easily fallen into the pit so many films like Steel Magnolias, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Joy Luck Club and How to Make an American Quilt before it. SOLID films anchored in a female cast that become perennial favorites but simply don't win awards. There's something about serious female dramas that stymies their chance at victory. From 1980 until now it's nigh on impossible to point out a picture winner that's femme based. Chicago? Shakespeare in Love? Those are about as close as it gets. How great it would be if those tables turned.
The criticism has been that The Help has sugar-coated the struggle of African American domestics in Jackson Mississippi. Some have gone as far as to say that it's just another film where a white person comes to the rescue. Really? Is this the reaction to The Help? From a "sugar coating" standpoint, the critics seem to have missed the boat on what this film was trying to do. This isn't Mississippi Burning. This isn't To Kill a Mockingbird. This isn't The Maid. It was never trying to be and frankly I don't know why it should have to be. The characters were treated with dignity. The situation was presented with a balance of seriousness and humor that never belittled those who struggled, but mocked the biggest and lent a richness to characters' lives that could have been presented as dour rather than full.
Each character's thread was a well-constructed arc woven through the length of the film and tidily tied off at the picture's end. After 50/50 and The Help, one wonders if Bryce Dallas Howard will ever be forgiven or whether she may well end up the world's youngest Louise Fletcher. Jessica Chastain's ostracism, her marriage with Mike Vogel, and her glee at shaking a bag of battered chicken -- let alone her work in Tree of Life and The Debt have solidified her spot as this year's hottest female breakout. And what can't be said about Emma Stone that hasn't been said already? This lady isn't going anywhere. She's here to stay. The way her Skeeter stepped back and let the actual "help" take the spotlight of this film is what makes it such a triumph.
I haven't even mentioned the older generation of Janney, Spacek and Steenburgen!
Then there's Viola Davis whose only stumbling block on the way to the podium for actress will be her Streep-ness in a world-class career highlight performance. Whether it was her heart-wrenching turn in Doubt or her brief, but captivating performance in this year's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Viola Davis has become a watermark of greatness. Her performance as Aibileen is no exception. Coupled with her voice over and her soothing mantra -- "You is kind. You is smart. You is important."-- the amount of heartbreak or swell Davis can inflict with a single look is second to none. Davis' acting is the sort where one either has to write next to nothing or unleash a tome of frame-by-frame adoration for her the tiny shifts in her facial expressions that dictate the audience's response. Her SAG win bodes well -- as actress has aligned with SAG far more often than not these past years. Being bested by Streep's Thatcher after a 29 year Oscar drought isn't exactly a loss either. This one's neck and neck.
For this fair blogger, the scene (and picture) stealer was Octavia Spencer. Though Davis functions as the film's narrator and guides us in and out of the story her on-screen time bordered on supporting. My initial reaction was that she, Chastain, and Spencer were all going to land themselves in the Supporting Actress category, overly duking it out like the Corleone boys -- only to watch Joel Grey walk away with it all. (What a shock it would be if Grey repeated that victory this year over The Help ladies.) But as the loud-mouthed Minnie -- pie baker, extraordinaire -- Spencer turned in one of the best and inarguably most memorable performances of the year. Whether she's talking about Crisco, going head to head with Bryce Dallas Howard, or stepping on the gas to get Skeeter's book to plow ahead full steam -- Spencer's comedy never turned Minnie into an unbelievable character. She's a dead lock for supporting actress barring any Weinstein Bejo stunner. And well she should be. It's damn clear that The Help must take home trophies. We'll see next Sunday if Spencer's deserved victory is the only one -- or whether her statuette -- bound to be presented early in the telecast -- is the start of a 3 Oscar run.
No comments:
Post a Comment