Predicting the Oscar Nominees: Part 1/3 (Director & Screenplays)

So with just five days left until AMPAS reveal their annual list of annointed folks (check the sidebar for a more accurate countdown, courtesy of Nathaniel) it's time for me to throw in some predictions. As ever, it's somewhat of a struggle to put aside personal feelings and plum for the more logical picks, but I feel like I've done better than usual this year at curbing that tendency.

Final Predictions:

Original Screenplay

"Black Swan"

"The Fighter"

"Inception"

"The Kids Are All Right"

"The King's Speech"

Alternate: "Another Year"

I Want: "Blue Valentine"

I don't think that "Inception" belongs here, despite the originality of its concept - the more expansive the concept gets, the more hazy everything becomes. It concerns me that this could make the list at the expense of Mike Leigh's "Another Year," which, despite some faults, helps its characters to become clearer and its themes richer, the further it goes.

"Inception" should make this five based on how novel its ideas are, but I still think that, along with "Black Swan," it's a little vulnerable. Perhaps it's because those two films seem less tame, and comparatively unconcerned about winning over its audience when you consider other category hopefuls like "The Kids Are All Right" and certainly "The King's Speech".

Adapted Screenplay

"Never Let Me Go"

"The Social Network"

"Toy Story 3"

"True Grit"

"Winter's Bone"

Alternate: "127 Hours"

I Want: "How to Train Your Dragon"

"Never Let Me Go" didn't make much of an impact, but surely Kazuo Ishiguro has a lot of respect within the Academy for his distinguished career, the height of which saw his novel "The Remains of the Day" adapted and nominated in 1993's Best Picture lineup. It seems silly to go for this ahead of "127 Hours," or even "The Ghost Writer" which has populism and prestige going for it —— if significantly less buzz —— but I don't think either film is necessarily commanding attention in this extremely thin category.

Director

Darren Aronofsky, "Black Swan"
Ethan & Joel Coen, "True Grit"

David Fincher, "The Social Network"

Tom Hooper, "The King's Speech"

David O'Russell, "The Fighter"

Alternate: Chris Nolan, "Inception"

I Want: Debra Granik, "Winter's Bone"

If there's a snub it could be David O'Russell, who has a reputation of rubbing people up the wrong way, and the least flashy film of anyone that appears to be in the running. But lately I've began to wonder if "Inception" will be popular with the Academy, as it's difficult to process and definitely not traditional fare. History has proven that directors with popular films (regardless of how showy they are) are more likely to be nominated (Reitman for "Juno", Daldry for "The Reader" etc.) so I don't see why Chris Nolan is a sure thing when "The Fighter" and "True Grit" had much more clout around the time of balloting than his film did.

Danny Boyle will feature on many ballots but I'm praying against a nomination, given that he exercises even less patience for intuitive storytelling as he did on 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire".

The British Weighs In (and so do BAFTA)

Things are hotting up on the Awards front (or cooling down, depending on whether you think there's hope of an upset in one of the Actress categories) with the HFPA and BAFTA announcements these past couple of days. Yesterday was a serious hangover day for me (so many spirits, so little time) so at the risk of flogging a dead horse, here are the Golden Globe winners:

Drama: The Social Network

Musical or Comedy: The Kids Are All Right

Director: David Fincher, The Social Network

Best Actor, Drama: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress, Drama: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Original Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network

Original Song: "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" (written by Diane Warren), Burlesque

Foreign Language Film: In a Better World

Animated Film: Toy Story 3

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

The winners were much less interesting than the whole hoopla around Ricky Gervais, who insulted anyone and everyone. For the record, I don't think you need to be personal about people to be funny, but when there's an organisation as shamelessly celeb-motivated as the HFPA they need to be taken down a peg or two. Awards shows exist to celebrate movies, but, as anyone on Twitter knows, most of the comments directed at performers/films involved are a critique. It's difficult to say what everyone else is thinking, but doesn't Gervais succeed simply because he's willing to call the Globes out on nominating "The Tourist" for ridiculous reasons? Personally, I wish he'd gone a step further and said something about "Alice in Wonderland" and "Red" while he was at it.

I won't say too much about what this means for everyone's Oscar bids, mainly because I plan to assess the big eight races in the next week with some final Oscar nominee predictions. Save for Director, no category seems totally locked up - which is more than can be said for the eventual winners. Still, ask the people behind The Aviator, Brokeback Mountain, Babel, Atonement, and Avatar whether they'd be confident about repeating a Globe win at the Oscars.

BAFTA Nominees:

BEST FILM

Black Swan

Inception

The King's Speech

The Social Network

True Grit

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

127 Hours

Another Year

Four Lions

The King's Speech

Made in Dagenham

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

The Arbor

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Four Lions

Monsters

Skeletons

DIRECTOR

127 Hours - Danny Boyle

Black Swan - Darren Aronofsky

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The King's Speech - Tom Hooper

The Social Network - David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Black Swan - Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin

The Fighter - Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson

Inception - Christopher Nolan

The Kids Are All Right - Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg

The King's Speech - David Seidler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 Hours - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel

The Social Network - Aaron Sorkin

Toy Story 3- Michael Arndt

True Grit - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Biutiful - Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev

I Am Love - Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D'Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante

Of Gods and Men - Xavier Beauvois

The Secret in their Eyes - Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella

ANIMATED FILM

Despicable Me

How to Train Your Dragons

Toy Story 3

LEADING ACTOR

Jarvier Bardem - Biutiful

Jeff Bridges - True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network

Colin Firth - The King's Speech

James Franco - 127 Hours

LEADING ACTRESS

Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right

Julianne Moore - The Kids Are All Right

Natalie Portman - Black Swan

Noomi Rapace - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hailee Steinfeld - True Grit

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale - The Fighter

Andrew Garfield - The Social Network

Pete Postlethwaite - The Town

Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush - The King's Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams - The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter - The King's Speech

Barbara Hershey - Black Swan

Lesley Manville - Another Year

Miranda Richardson - Made in Dagenham

ORIGINAL MUSIC

127 Hours - AR Rahman

Alice in Wonderland - Danny Elfman

How to Train Your Dragon - John Powell

Inception - Hans Zimmer

The King's Speech - Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

127 Hours - Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak

Black Swan - Matthew Libatique

Inception - Wally Pfister

The King's Speech - Danny Cohen

True Grit - Roger Deakins

EDITING

127 Hours - Jon Harris

Black Swan - Andrew Weisblum

Inception - Lee Smith

The King's Speech - Tariq Anwar

The Social Network - Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Alice in Wonderland - Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara

Black Swan - Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson

Inception - Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat

The King's Speech - Eve Stewart, Judy Farr

True Grit - Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN

Alice in Wonderland - Colleen Atwood

Black Swan - Amy Westcott

The King's Speech - Jenny Beavan

Made in Dagenham - Louise Stjernsward

True Grit - Mary Zophres

SOUND

127 HOURS - Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron

Black Swan - Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella

Inception - Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick

The King's Speech - John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin

True Grit - Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

Alice in Wonderland - Nominees TBC

Black Swan - Dan Schrecker

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait'Hadi, Christian Manz

Inception - Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb

Toy Story 3 - Nominees TBC

MAKE UP & HAIR

Alice in Wonderland - Nominees TBC

Black Swan - Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin

The King's Speech - Frances Hannon

Made in Dagenham - Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

I'm slightly ashamed at the narrowness of it all. Fourteen nominations is excessive enough a total as it is, without bestowing them upon "The King's Speech", a film with dull performances and even duller production values. It's also disappointing how much the Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Sound categories overlap. There were more than seven pictures out in 2010, wouldn't ya know?

On the plus side: Julianne Moore's hopes of an Oscar nod remain alive, and Hailee Steinfeld gets into the right category for once. However, I cannot fathom how anyone can think Noomi Rapace is better than Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Williams, Tilda Swinton, or even Hilary Swank, who acquits herself well in "Conviction" and is surely in a baitier role. This category reinforces the sense that this is more about the popularity of the films than it is about other factors like (shock horror!) the performance, or (surprisingly) the reputation of the women in the running.

 

More commentary to follow this week, along with a review of Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy, recently released on DVD in the U.K. The film reaches cinemas across the Atlantic on March 11.

The Tweets Are All Right

Those of you who aren't familiar with my Twitter account — or with Twitter at all for that matter — then you're missing out! I say this because it may help in gaining understanding of some of the grades on the sidebar, especially since some of my opinions are at fierce odds with the critical majority. Within 48 hours of seeing a film I usually grade it and provide a little 140-character summary tweet, although some 2010 features are without one, either because a) I only really started to do them in the summer or b) I simply forgot about it.

There isn't a summary of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World", which probably best represents my relative hatred for a film that was universally acclaimed. Therefore, let me take the opportunity to say that listing someone's attributes and weaknesses to bypass characterisation doesn't sit very well with me. (Consider that a summary if you wish - I count it as 141 characters if you start from "let".)

In any case, here are my original within-48-hours reactions to the films, some of which (in terms of qualitative assessment) have altered slightly.

"127 Hours," C+ : Thank God I knew that bottle of Gatorade was in the back of the van. Pedantic doesn't ever cover it. Boyle needs HELP.

"The American," B : Somewhat plods through familiar terrain, but tight characterisation and gorgeous craftsmanship win out.

"Animal Kingdom," B+ : Ruminative thriller about murky moral consciences that evades cliché and indulgence in hero. Mendelsohn is King.

"Another Year," B: Pacing issues and a couple of dodgy characters mar this depiction of people punished for rejecting old-age.

"Buried," C– : Tagline should be Cellular-esque: "If the signal dies, so does he". Cortes concocts, attacking everything in sight.

"The Disappearance of Alice Creed," C : Just how many stupid women did Gemma Arterton play this year? Gutsy but convoluted, absurd trash.

[Downgraded to C– upon reflection]

"Essential Killing," C : A promising start wasted when it becomes clear that this is little more than an exercise in degradation. Stingy business.

"Frozen," B– : Inconsistent, but quietly astute, riveting stuff. I want to marry Shawn Ashmore.

"Get Low," C– : Schneider doesn't have a clue how to implement backstory. Dour, unassumingly trite lament of old-age.

"The King's Speech," C : Couldn't the BBC have knocked this up for a sliver of the budget? Droll, drawn out, merciless storm in a teacup.

"Last Train Home," B+ : Narrative too orchestrated, but it's a harrowing portrait of poverty. Benefits from Fan's intrusive style.

"Monsters," B– :Meditative with themes rather than manic; achieves poignancy, but not in the way it most wants to. Beautiful, though.

"The Refuge," B– : Guiltily downgraded. Moments of tenderness & character obfuscation stir, but is it an easy way out? Carre wows.

"Restrepo," B– : Conceals sparseness of footage through interview overkill, but it's organically made; candid even.

"Secretariat," C : Stirs emotions, but mainly through seeping sentiment out of every pore. Like the horse, gets better as it goes.

"The Social Network," B+ : Brisk roundabout style works well, and it's not SO determinate. Jesse, Andy impress; flaming trash cans don't.

"Splice," C– : Artificially novel, bizzarely trite. Interesting for a time, but clichéd, and handles Brody character all wrong.

"The Tourist," D : Drags an underdeveloped plot through 95 mins; gives Depp and Jolie horribly 2D characters to sell. They don't. Dire.

"Unstoppable," B : Its star duo aren't that believable, and the token subplots are annoying, but it's SUCH a showstopper. Awesome.

[Upgraded to B+ upon reflection]

"Wild Target," C : Proof that continental humour is difficult to replicate. Blunt is appealing, but it's largely absurd and lax.

[Downgraded to C– upon reflection]

Of course, if you have me on Twitter you'll probably have read these already.

2010 Golden Globe Predictions

My predictions for the Golden Globes, this coming Sunday:

Best Motion Picture, Drama

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network

Prediction: The Social Network

Best Director - Motion Picture

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

David Fincher, The Social Network

Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Christopher Nolan, Inception

David O. Russell, The Fighter

Prediction: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical

Alice in Wonderland
Burlesque
The Kids Are All Right
Red
The Tourist

Prediction: The Kids Are All Right


Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy

Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland
Johnny Depp, The Tourist
Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version
Jake Gyllenhaal, Love and Other Drugs
Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack

Prediction: Johnny Depp, Alice in Wonderland

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter


Prediction: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama


Halle Berry, Frankie and Alice
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Prediction: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy


Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Anne Hathaway, Love and Other Drugs
Angelina Jolie, The Tourist
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
Emma Stone, Easy A

Prediction: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right


Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Christian Bale, The Fighter
Michael Douglas, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Prediction: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams, The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech

Mila Kunis, Black Swan

Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Prediction: Amy Adams, The Fighter

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

127 Hours
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
Inception

Prediction: The Social Network


Best Original Song

“You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me,” Burlesque
“Bound To You,” Burlesque
“Coming Home," Country Strong
“I See The Light,” Tangled
“There’s a Place For Us,” Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Prediction: “You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me,” Burlesque


Best Original Score

Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech
Danny Elfman, Alice in Wonderland
A.R. Rahmin, 127 Hours
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, The Social Network
Hans Zimmer, Inception

Prediction: Hans Zimmer, Inception

Best Animated Feature Film

Despicable Me

How to Train Your Dragon

The Illusionist

Toy Story 3
Tangled

Prediction: Toy Story 3


Best Foreign Language Film

Biutiful (Spain/Mexico)
The Concert (France)
The Edge (Russia)
I Am Love (Italy)
In a Better World (Denmark)

Prediction: I Am Love (Italy)

Bitesize Best Actress Oscar Profiles: Merle Oberon

Merle Oberon in "The Dark Angel"

Lost the 1935 Best Actress Oscar to Bette Davis in "Dangerous"

Grade: **

For a film about jealousy, angst, and love triangles "The Dark Angel" is awfully pallid, conjuring problems for its billed trio in the vein of miserablist melodrama. The first half of "The Dark Angel" spans years and yet we only encounter four characters: Merle Oberon's Kitty, Fredric March's Alan, Herbert Marshall's Gerald, and Gerald's mother, Mrs. Shannon.

One of the main issues for Oberon is founded upon the film's insistence on flitting back and forth between Kitty's romances with Alan and Gerald, neither of which is very interesting or reveals much about the two men. As the romantic core of the film Oberon's role is buried somewhat underneath the melodrama, the dramatic aims of the narrative providing scant opportunity for her to do anything but react to Kitty's dearth of fortune. She often endeavours to do this through impulsively pained gestures of emotional intensity, and her lucid, harsh vocal work distracts from the implied tenderness of the romantic exchanges. Either as a result of the constraints of concentrated melodrama, or because she simply doesn't know what the character is supposed to represent, Oberon is unable to create much of a transitory impression of Kitty, reliably pleasant but fatefully languid a heroine for much of "The Dark Angel"'s testing length.

She does, however, nail the film's final scene (possibly its finest), gladly festering on a rare-afforded opportunity to independently shine. Kitty's feelings, completely unanchored and fragile as she is deceived by her original first love Alan, allow Oberon to explore this woman a little deeper, to investigate the harsh emotional ambiguities that have entered this wispy (for a while, anyway) dilemna of love. Oberon really pushes the reserved character to desperate levels of solemn, impacting frustration, and without over-exerting herself anywhere near as rashly as she does in the film's middle portion.

And yet, you never really get a sense of who Kitty is; whether she is content because she knows she has a husband in the bag, or if she is just a placid introvert biding her time. Oberon doesn't develop enough through the hurdles of the character, and fails to allude to her internal conflict, neither seeming resilient or resigned to life passing her by. Disappointingly, for long spells of "The Dark Angel", the footholds of the script bypass Oberon too. 

Anika Noni Rose in For Colored Girls

This post is especially for Stinkylulu's Supporting Actress Smackdown - The Class of 2010, which reaches its 5th year of existence and long may it continue.

While watching Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” (Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enough) it’s impossible not to marvel at the film’s excellent assemblage of actresses. Whether it’s the legendary attitude of Whoopi Goldberg, the showy tendencies of Thandie Newton, the stern wisdom of Phylicia Rashad, the continually undervalued talent of Loretta Devine, Kerry Washington and Kimberley Elise, or the welcome contribution of relative newcomers Tessa Thompson and Macy Gray, everybody has a hand in carrying the novel’s wrenching emotion into a powerful cinematic experience.

The main difficulty for “For Colored Girls” is that it’s so issue-driven — with seven definitive characters that all interlink in some way — that it often translates as extremely contrived. Although the women themselves feel like realistic representations of the African-American female, the shifting focus of the film offers little time to build a sense of who they are beyond victims. They’re burdened by issues of rape, abuse, jealousy, pregnancy, infertility, but I don’t think Perry does enough to allude to how the women have got to this position, and the production takes on a bit of a Serial Drama structure. That being said, the acting is certainly the biggest success of the film, and one can imagine this turning out disastrously were the seven principal figures not so eminently watchable on-screen.

I have decided to focus on the performance which most affected me, and which sidesteps the constraints of heavy-handed plot elements with enviable ease:

*Warning: There are plot spoilers*

Anika Noni Rose is Yasmine (aka Yellow), a cool lady who teaches one of the film’s other “Colored girls” to dance, at an uptown college. She immediately strikes you as one of these people with an easy-going outlook on life, not especially well-off but by no means poor. As she helps Nyla (aka Purple) deal with her own problems she gives the impression that she recognises herself at that age, passionate and rash, and the way that she deals with Nyla reinforces the sense that she’s giving something back to an art that fostered her creative freedom. Yasmine feels completely content to live as she is, prioritising personal happiness over accumulative gain, missing love in her life for sure, but otherwise together, and proud that she has managed to acquit herself in a vocation that she loves.

We meet Yasmine’s suitor Bill as he chases after her one afternoon like a lost puppy, charming and cheeky, plying her with attention as they discuss the possibility of a date. Yasmine feels reluctant at first, and, even though she is a very attractive woman, reveals a possible lack of experience with the dating game, and a hint of bashful self-consciousness. This scene played back might reveal an innate, instinctive tentativeness in Yasmine towards Bill, and he certainly tries too hard to woo her. One often judges a concerted effort as a form of flattery more than an act of desperation or deceit, and in any case, when he invites her to cook him dinner Rose’s coy, confident smile indicates that Yasmine knows that she can make this another one of her success stories.

In the vein of “For Colored Girls” it’s somewhat inevitable to disclose that this date does not end in success, and in the second most harrowing sequence of the film (the first is not even open to debate) Yasmine finds herself in as drastic a predicament as a woman can endure. When the camera zones in on her during this sequence Rose displays such a distraught sense of resignation, and a painful dose of self-deprecating anger at not getting this one right: she should have listened to her instincts. And it carries through to the aftermath of the event, since she's predictably noble enough to report the offence to police officers but guiltily bitter towards her assailant. As Yasmine is required to identify the man’s body later in the film Rose nails a huge confluence of emotion; her unleashing of anger at not being able to confront him on a level footing, and a faint sense of pride at justice winning out. Her attack towards him reads as a natural reaction yet somewhat fearful, as if she is wary of letting her darker emotions take over.

While you’re certain that the film’s “yellow” heroine has never seen darker days, Rose gauges Yasmine’s arc immaculately, and not so drastic as to suggest that she won’t recover. In fact, one imagines that she’ll take this event relatively on-the-chin as she does with every other element of life (she shouldn’t have to, but she will) and put on as brave a face as she always has. Rose makes Yasmine the most genuine character in “For Colored Girls” despite its clamouring sense of finality towards her strand of the narrative. Yellow is the perfect colour for this woman; reliable, resilient and good-natured, sensitive, fragile and resonant. Rose resonates more than any other single element of the film, and provides one of the most valuable and finest performances of the year.

Bitesize Reviews of "Burlesque" & "The Way Back" (2010)

Burlesque

Directed by Steve Antin

Starring: Christina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci, Cam Gigandet, Kristen Bell

Grade: B -

"Burlesque" will probably be most famous because it should have been awful and actually manages to survive, despite being the brazen, contrived vehicle for Christina Aguilera that one might suspect. It sidesteps a lot of eye-rolls and shaking of heads through being so upfront, bold in its all-guns-blazing approach to, not only the musical showpieces, but the steadfastly-thundering, admittedly modest plotline. Aguilera's Ali, for instance, isn't given an abusive spouse, a mob of gangsters, or some other clichéd reason to escape from her small, gloomy hometown, because there doesn't need to be a demon to evade. Purely and simply: she has talent, and it isn't serving her where she is. Hello the bright lights of L.A., and the Burlesque club run by the formidable Cher, occasionally great in a role that resembles that of a brothel Madam.

Kristen Bell's jealous alcoholic tramp and Cam Gigandet's gratuitously naked barman are very standard representations of the "bitch" and the "boyfriend" respectively, and Eric Dane's sleazy businessman recalls the worst parts of The Devil Wears Prada (i.e. Anne Hathaway's tryst with Simon Baker.) But even as it compartmentalises its peformers, the film shows them on the edge of their abilities, capabilities, existence, and promotes these people in a way that you rarely see anymore. They're often celebrated for their flaws rather than chastised for them, and "Burlesque" ingratiates itself by not taking its characters or their hangups so seriously until it needs to manoeuvre the romance and triumph in the narrative.

"Burlesque" stays afloat mainly because it sells every bit of its premise, enjoyably infatuated with its setting, the theatricality of the art its depicting, and resoundingly fierce about the near-extinct status of the art form in contemporary culture. It's invigorating to see a film with this amount of passion in it. Not immaterial but forgivable, the flaws of "Burlesque" read as a confession that showcase is the primary concern, and that's a difficult value to begrudge.

The Way Back

Directed by Peter Weir

Starring: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan

Grade: C+

It isn't really perceptive — or even informative — to divulge that Peter Weir's "The Way Back" is a true story, given the obvious allusion of the film's staunchly-laid sentiment. Chronicling the escape of prisoners in a Soviet POW camp during World War II, the film features familiar archetypes of men drawn together through imposed confinement: the whiter-than-white hero, the wise old owl, and the opportunistic villain. Sturgess, Harris, and Farrell play their roles very well; the modest, careful approach towards the casting perhaps only blighted by an intermittently shaky showing from Ronan.

The problem with "The Way Back" is that the nature of the story isn't a novel one, and the lineated storytelling is desperately short of incisive drama. The journey that the group make across the borders of Russia, Mongolia and Tibet feature perfectly legitimate pitfalls of hunger, thirst, and the struggle against torrid weather and terrain, but these elements aren't enough to sustain much interest. It reads as too faithful to the story, too cloudy when it comes to certain characters, and often feels only concerned with Sturgess's Janusz. With a narrative this traditional it needs to be immersive for the viewer, and "The Way Back" really never gets there, familiar and fatefully plain in expressing humanism.

For all of the faults of Stephen Daldry's The Reader it at least manages to manipulate an already strongly-founded relationship and create an investable arc. "The Way Back" employs similar techniques in its closing act to illicit emotive response: a result that sees it limp across the finish in a marginally more competent manner than its weary protagonists, and almost as aimlessly.