If you approach the film without expecting to learn anything about how time works and what theories Prof. Hawking has given the world, you'll be just fine. As romances go, it is rather special. Of course it is. Nothing like a hardship shared with a loved one and the deterioration of a brilliant man, who nonetheless defies the odds given him to make you ball your eyes out.
Eddie Redmayne is brilliant. Oscar-worthy? Absolutely.
My heart goes out the the equally brilliant Michael Keaton in Birdman. He pulled off quite the astonishing feat himself, but (alas!) what chance can he possibly have against someone portraying a real live person of high standing that has a disability to boot. Now that is a role to sink your teeth in and however great you are in any fiction film, you should have picked a different year to be great in.
As for the film itself, well it is quite the kitsch fest and can't hold a candle to some of the Oscar nominated films it is up against, BAFTA for best British film of the year or no (not that The Imitation Game is that much better). But I am sure there is an audience for it. Granted, I'm not it.
My overall score takes into account the sheer greatness of Eddie Redmayne's performance.
6/10
Which brings me to my overview of this year's Oscar crop. At this point I have watched all but one of the best picture nominees and the one missing is American Sniper, which I have currently no interest in watching at all (I may yet, but....). I will probably get to the others in this here blog, eventually, and give a more detailed reasoning. (Yes, I am fully aware of what the rest of the world thinks of Boyhood. I simply believe people are blinded by the effort and time that went into it and want to like it much more than they would if they were to ignore that. And there are other, better films about 'ordinary life' that did not get the attention, because they were made more conventionally.) Anyway, here is my list of favorite to least favorite...
Whiplash
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Selma
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Boyhood
See, Boyhood is not a bad film per se, it is just that I liked the others better.
No comments:
Post a Comment