"Outrage," He Says
A wise and rock-solid Oscar piece from New York's David Edelstein because of two judgments, one explaining the invincibility of Slumdog Millionaire and the other on the wrongness of Kate Winslet winning the Best Actress Oscar for The Reader and not Revolutionary Road.
During a Revolutionary Road screening q & a at the AMC Lincoln Square -- (l. to r.) moderator Glenn Kenny, costar Michael Shannon, star Kate Winslet -- Thursday, 11.20.08, 9:25 pm
I've said this to myself several dozen times but never quite tapped it out in so many words, so here's how Edelstein puts it: "Slumdog Millionaire will win big because the hopeful Third World hero overcomes a system rigged against him in the same way Barack Obama overcame his race and broken home to become president of the United States. Also, winning a TV jackpot is about the last pipe dream left as the world economy crumbles."
Actually, I did say something along these lines on 11.30.08: "In this spirit a Slumdog win could be seen as kindred to the election of Barack Obama. Black president, brown movie."
Edelstein also says "it'll be an outrage and a scandal" if Winslet wins for The Reader instead of Revolutionary Road -- a view I subscribe to 110%. "There's no rational reason for favoring thick-clumpy-German Kate over pretty-suburban-American-hysteric Kate," he says. Of course, Winslet was nominated for The Reader because a good number of Academy people simply disliked the spiritually stagnant vibes -- morose, defeatist -- that Revolutionary Road was necessarily coping with and, after a fashion, spreading around.
I myself thought those vibes were choice and truthful. They were so well acted and captured in so many haunting and oddly creepy ways, and Thomas Newman's spare piano score sank right into my bones and will never evaporate. So few notes but so well chosen, and so deeply felt and performed.
I was never quite sold on the inevitability of what happens at the very end of Revolutionary Road, although it didn't bother me greatly. If April's dreams of acting were unrealistic, why couldn't she and Frank have gone into the city more often and gone to some Broadway shows and fed off that? Why didn't they go to see East of Eden and The Rose Tattoo and talk about these films over drinks, and maybe started a film discussion group? If April wasn't a talented actress couldn't she have at least tried to direct some plays in their local theatre?
I also couldn't finally understand why the Wheelers couldn't have bought a nice-sized flat in Paris with Frank's money and visited two or three times a year to live in it and fix it up a bit more each time. You can work problems out at times. Half measures are better than no measures.
Either way I was certain and remain certain than Revolutionary Road is a far greater film that The Reader, and that Winslet's performance in it will be much more valued down the road. Actually I think it's already won more raves and respect than her work in The Reader. People just didn't like what Rev Road was up to so they threw the baby out with the bathwater. What a perverse decision. Deranged, really.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 20, 2009 at 11:48 AM
comment #1
Sabina E
says ...
I'm still outraged that THE READER got a Best Picture nod while THE WRESTLER and CHE got ignored.
Such a mediocre film... I even got bored reading the screenplay.
Posted by Sabina E
at February 20, 2009 12:59 PM
comment #2
George Prager
says ...
"Such a mediocre film... I even got bored reading the screenplay. "
That pretty much says it all.
Posted by George Prager
at February 20, 2009 1:01 PM
comment #3
BurmaShave
says ...
Is that last line the creepiest pun I've ever read, or what?
Posted by BurmaShave
at February 20, 2009 1:07 PM
comment #4
JHR
says ...
There will be no "wrongness" committed on Sunday...Streep for the win.
Posted by JHR
at February 20, 2009 1:32 PM
comment #5
Breedlove
says ...
SPOILERS
Finally saw 'Rev Road' yesterday. Really good film. I agree with a lot of what Jeff said - I was thinking to myself, jesus, do some community theater, take a vacation, do something other than completely shutting down on Frank because he has some understandable second thoughts. But I can see the other side as well. The final shot of the film, turning down the hearing aid, was sublime.
Question: April was planning on leaving her family behind after the abortion, correct? Running off? That was my assumption since she became emotional at the idea of speaking with her kids on the phone. But I don't really recall her packing bags or anything.
Posted by Breedlove
at February 20, 2009 1:34 PM
comment #6
DarthCorleone
says ...
Half measures could have helped certainly, and it's easy to look from the outside and offer those as reasoned solutions. I think by that point in the film, though, Kate's character was feeling extremely hopeless and emotionally unreasonable. The pregnancy made her feel especially trapped, and Leo's character had been such a cad that she gave into her feeling that the situation was untenable.
Posted by DarthCorleone
at February 20, 2009 1:35 PM
comment #7
MilkMan
says ...
I was going to pick Winslet for the win in my office Oscar pool, but I decided not to join because the woman who runs the office pool - who collects the money, who makes out the ballots, who is the tabulator - has won the pool two years in a row. I might as well just give her my twenty bucks and not even bother picking any winners, so that's what I did this year. I mean, I didn't give her twenty dollars, but I did stop at Winchells this morning and buy three dozen donuts, most of them maple bars, which are her favorite, and so far she has eaten at least four, I think.
Posted by MilkMan
at February 20, 2009 1:38 PM
comment #8
Sabina E
says ...
@ Breedlove:
I don't think she was planning to walk out on the family after the abortion... my impression was that she felt hopeless and trapped, that the least she could do was give herself an abortion so she wouldn't have to deal with emotional baggage that comes with having more kids.
yeah. I thought the movie was way too dramatic, and the ending threw me by surprise. I really don't know ANYONE (in real life) who likes this film, besides readers on Hollywood Elsewhere.
Posted by Sabina E
at February 20, 2009 1:43 PM
comment #9
actionman
says ...
the hearing-aid-finale of RR was fucking priceless. EVERYONE in our theater laughed, and the place was packed.
Posted by actionman
at February 20, 2009 1:50 PM
comment #10
YND
says ...
I know a bunch of people in real life who really like this film. I just wish I were one of them...
Posted by YND
at February 20, 2009 1:53 PM
comment #11
cinefan
says ...
"I really don't know ANYONE (in real life) who likes this film, besides readers on Hollywood Elsewhere."
I would say, just based on my experience, it depends on how familiar people are with the book. When I talk to people who haven't read the book, by and large they tell me that they have no interest in seeing the film because it looks like just another American Beauty knockoff. People I know who have read and loved the book, however, have seen the film and really liked it. Some of them, like me, feel the book is better than the film but still respect both tremendously.
Posted by cinefan
at February 20, 2009 1:54 PM
comment #12
Sabina E
says ...
Cinefan, some people, not famiiar with the book, have made comments to me about how REV ROAD looks like a rip-off of "Far From Heaven" or "The Hours" both films that focus on miserable, privileged white women in the mid 20th century and had no interest in seeing the film, either.
Posted by Sabina E
at February 20, 2009 2:04 PM
comment #13
actionman
says ...
Far From Heaven was, first and foremost, an exercise in Sirk-ian style. The Hours and Rev Road share some thematic qualities, but I'd argue that they're both pretty different animals.
Posted by actionman
at February 20, 2009 2:07 PM
comment #14
Yuval
says ...
The comment about “why didn't they do more community theatre and talked about quality movies” illustrates why the film, while is effective and interesting at times, is quite a misstep from the feelings conveyed by the book. Everyone in the book is unhappy in their life and think they could do better, feel their life is detached from the way they would like to see themselves. April is the worst off. While the characters in the book are complex and charming enough to sympathize with, their actions are always ironic and funny. Almost always funny. Asking why April didn’t try to enjoy her life in New York is like asking why didn’t the two main characters and Waiting for Godot had a few laughs while enjoying a quality meal.
Posted by Yuval
at February 20, 2009 2:47 PM
comment #15
K. Bowen
says ...
Because April was a nut.
Posted by K. Bowen
at February 20, 2009 2:57 PM
comment #16
adaml
says ...
Her performance in The Reader was 6/10, her performance in Rev Road was more like a 9. Completely insane decision to nominate her for The Reader (and let's not even get into what the hell the film is doing in the best pic line up.)
Even though Kate is pretty much overdue by now, I'd still like Streep to win Sunday. If Kate had been nominated for the correct film, I wouldn't have cared.
Posted by adaml
at February 20, 2009 2:59 PM
comment #17
K. Bowen
says ...
Because Rev Road ignores obvious real-life solutions in order to manufacture drama and thereby impugn suburban life?
Posted by K. Bowen
at February 20, 2009 2:59 PM
comment #18
George Prager
says ...
I hate how Thomas Hardy novels ignore obvious real-life solutions in order to manufacture drama and thereby impugn Victorian society life!
Posted by George Prager
at February 20, 2009 3:14 PM
comment #19
Mr. Muckle
says ...
Damn, that's some sweet, subversive revenge, MilkMan. Brilliant.
Posted by Mr. Muckle
at February 20, 2009 3:20 PM
comment #20
bfm
says ...
Love it, Milkman.
Posted by bfm
at February 20, 2009 3:31 PM
comment #21
bmcintire
says ...
I was a little surprised at Jeff's praise for the score of this one. I didn't actively dislike it, but in its heavy repetitive use of the chord orgression/regression motif, it seemed very derivative of some of Newman's previous work for AMERICAN BEAUTY. I also liked Danny Elfman's take on this in A SIMPLE PLAN better.
The book's treatment of April's acting ability was also much more forgiving than the screenplay, making her abandonment of it that much more frustrating and severe.
Posted by bmcintire
at February 20, 2009 4:27 PM
comment #22
Glenn Kenny
says ...
Always delighted to be paired, however peripherally, with the sagacious Mr. Edelstein. Thanks, Jeff!
But seriously; when the guy's right, he's right. And he's absolutely right in this case. If I gave a damn about the Oscars anymore, I'd offer my services in storming the barricades, or whatever, with him.
Posted by Glenn Kenny
at February 20, 2009 6:44 PM
comment #23
filmkr27
says ...
I can't tell you how conflicted I am about Kate Winslet. I LOVED LOVED LOVED revolutionary Road. That Kate was not nominated for this performance is an outrage, the fact that Leonardo Dicaprio was not nominated for the performance of his career is even more outrageous -- he towers over every nominated performance and I've seen all of them.
I can convince myself that Kate's award is really for both the reader and RR but I just don't the satisfaction. Her performance is one of the great performances in movie history -- along with Leo's. If I were to judge based on performance alone of all the actresses, I would have to go with Streep in Doubt over Winslet in the reader.
but I have this feeling that like the SAG's if she had been nominated twice, she would have won best supporting actress for the reader and not for RR.
I feel like more people didn't see RR because it deserves more nominations and awards recognition. I really wish all of you would email the Oscars on their website to move the show back to March -- they insist on nominating these smaller films and truthfully, middle america is just now seeing it be released in their town. If they want people more interested, better ratings, it will only happen if more people have the time to see the movies nominated and oscar voters will not have to be rushed to place their nomination votes right after the holidays. For the sake of the ceremony, please email them!
Posted by filmkr27
at February 21, 2009 10:13 PM
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