Anna Karenina
The first twenty minutes exhilarate: actors are thrust onto the stage of a dilapated theater, pulling on costumes, playing scenes before backdrops. But the peculiar intimacy of Joe Wright's take -- setting all of Anna Karenina in this one theater -- is lost when, more and more, the film abandons its own spatial logic. Konstantin Levin's endless ploughing of fields wouldn't work on a stage, Wright must have realized; but long interludes in the bright outdoors suggest the filmmakers weren't sure how to execute their conceit. If we can ignore the visual palate, Tom Stoppard's screenplay swiftly condenses the action, but the dialogue feels truncated. The cast is handsome, though some are fatally young. Keira Knightley reins in her usual instinct for high-strung petulance, and acquits herself well as a tremulous, willfully romantic Anna. Jude Law impresses by playing Anna's cuckolded husband, Alexei Karenin, with decency and affection. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is out of his league as Count Vronsky.
For Your Consideration: Jude Law (Supporting Actor).
They did what? Key to Argo's intrigue are the true-to-life twists and turns of a key moment in the Iran hostage crisis that hasn't been well-remembered. In the "Canadian Caper," Tony Mendez at the CIA launched a successful operation to rescue six diplomats from Tehran under the guise of a nonexistent science fiction film. Americans in November 1979 anxiously awaited a sequel to the breakaway hit Star Wars (maybe you've heard of it?). Sci-fi in Hollywood often reflected foreign-policy anxieties, from the aftermath of World War II to the rise of the Soviets and the space race. The specifics of Mendez's invented film (also named Argo) and rescue mission are already cinematic; Ben Affleck lets the story tell itself without over-dramatizing. Only the final airport showdown feels contrived. Could this be the next step in a major director career for Affleck? He's working with the best; the dynamic ensemble includes Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Tate Donovan. Argo sits confidently aside '70s films like The Conversation and All the President's Men, when films were shot on grainy stock, writers trusted politics to be suspenseful, and editors let actors explore without splicing every five seconds.
For Your Consideration: Best Picture; Ben Affleck (Director); Chris Terrio (Screenplay).
Ang Lee's newest film is more of a museum piece: a moving painting, bathed in light and splashy color, composed in an extraordinary 3D landscape that invents new rules about perspective and depth of vision. Good thing Lee chose a strong literary property to dress up in fancy clothes. A young boy, Piscine "Pi" Patel, survives a shipwreck and spends over 200 days in a lifeboat with Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. Lee focuses on the expansiveness of the setting, rather than its confinements. This is a film about the wonder of faith, and the power of storytelling. Some moments, as in the book, stretch credulity (the carnivorous island, anyone?). The ending also doesn't have much power; the screenplay overstates the twist. On film, who wants explanations and "truer" endings after the enchantment we've just seen?
For Your Consideration: Ang Lee (Director); Claudio Miranda (Cinematography); Visual Effects.
The Sessions
If I hadn't heard the festival buzz, I would have walked into director Ben Lewin's film with apprehension. Another movie about an (almost) forty-year-old virgin? Based on a true story? Starring whatever-happened-to Helen Hunt? But The Sessions reveals a gentleness and thoughtful attitude toward sexuality, led by John Hawkes as the ever-hopeful Mark O'Brien, who spends most of each day in an iron lung. Hawkes finds a quiet, earnest soul beneath his physical and vocal transformation. And Hunt as his compassionate sex surrogate is remarkable. She hasn't starred in a major film in years, and her uninhibited work here feels like a re-discovery. William H. Macy's shaggy-headed priest sticks out; the film doesn't use his character to offer any deeper exploration of O'Brien's faith. Ultimately the film plays like an unusual love story: a coming-of-age for grown-ups.
For Your Consideration: John Hawkes (Actor); Helen Hunt (Actress).
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