I’ve already been quite clear about what you should avoid doing with a barely earned Bank Holiday Monday. Now just watch these films…
Sense and Sensibility (1995) Monday 13.20 Channel 4 (1 win from 7 noms)
I don’t think that there is any doubt that “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” is one of the all time great opening lines to a novel, and one that is worthy of this romantic tale of the Bennet sisters and the dashing Mr Darcy. Although the television series is still thought of more fondly (complete with Colin Firth’s iconic wet t-shirt antics), the cinematic adaptation is…
Hold on, I’ve gotten that wrong, haven’t I? Darn that Jane Austen and her perplexing predilection for entitling her novels with alliteration and ampersands (thinking about it ‘Alliteration and Ampersands’ could easily be the name of Austen’s great lost novel).
Sense and Sensibility has many of the traits & tropes of the costume drama: delicate young women fainting; pussyfoot prancing at a high society ball; gallant gents; impressive & imposing country abodes; horseback japes; and grandiloquent speeches about love and honour.
But the film is is buoyed & benefits from an amiable & accessible script from the pen of Emma Thompson (for which she won her second Oscar) and a surprising lightness of touch from its director Ang Lee (you won’t like him when he’s angry), who would go on to win the Best Director Oscar for Brokeback Mountain 10 years later.
The who’s who cast also keeps the interest piqued. Among & amongst them: Emma Thompson herself (nominated for her leading performance here too, but lost out to Susan Sarandon, having won the prize three years before), Kate Winslet (the first of her six nominations), Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant (in classic stammering & stumbling form), Imelda Staunton, Hugh Laurie (delightfully lugubrious & louche and cranked up to full House mode), Tom Wilkinson (for about 30 seconds), the witch from Simon and the Witch, and Hugo from The Vicar of Dibley.
Also, it includes one of my very favourite & frequently used chat up lines, as the sleazy & scoundrelous Willoughby goes to touch up Winslet’s leg: “May I have your permission to…ascertain if there are any breaks?”. What a lad.
The Tree of Life (2011) Monday 15.25 Sky Indie (3 noms)
One of the most divisive films of recent years, I think that Terrence Malick’s experiment is itself a game of two halves.
While I agree with most that the nonsense about the origins of the earth, the dino action and any frame with Sean Penn’s gurning grill is overblown and uninteresting, the story about the typical 1950’s southern U.S. family is excellent.
Brad Pitt is the domineering patriarch. He plays the severe father and oppressive husband, with quiet frustrated anger. An inventor whose patent applications are a perennial failure, he would rather chase and preach the unreachable ‘American Dream’ than provide a genuinely loving upbringing for his three children.
Jessica Chastain proves once again that she is one of the strongest screen presences in Hollywood at the moment. A sympathetic mother and mentally abused wife, she is never morose or cloying.
Although neither won nominations for The Tree of Life their brilliant performances can not have done any harm in supporting their nominations for other films (Pitt in Moneyball and Chastain in the god-awful The Help).
After winning the Palm d’Or at Cannes, it was pleasing to see a film like The Tree of Life gain some Oscar recognition too, and it is this kind of film that benefits from the Academy’s expansion of the number of Best Picture nominees as it would probably not have had a look-in in the old five-film system. Malick was also nominated, as was Emmanuel Lubezki for his striking cinematography.
Sideways (2004) Monday 19.50 Sky Indie (1 win from 5 noms)
For me, Sideways is one of the best comedies made in the last 10 years. Alexander Payne picked up the Oscar for his sensitive and hilarious screenplay (a feat he would repeat earlier this year for the less-impressive The Descendants).
The real star of the show (and you can tell this because his is the first name on the cast list; Hollywood producers are clever like that) is Paul Giamatti in the lead role as Miles. Introverted (except when drunk), socially awkward (especially when drunk), he is a sub-par wannabe novelist and wine obsessive. Giamatti was once again scandalously overlooked for a nomination.
Polar opposites, he and his prurient best friend Jack, a c-list actor looking for his last kicks as a single man (puckishly played by Thomas Haden Church in Oscar nominated form), embark on a stag weekend visiting the lush vineyards of California. While Jack seeks the affections of any and every woman in sight (including Sandra Oh’s Stephanie), Miles’s obsession for his ex-wife (who, unlike him, has long moved on) is suspended only when he reacquaints himself with the charming Maya (played by Virginia Madsen, and also Oscar nominated), a local waitress and fellow lonely soul and wine enthusiast.
Sideways is perpetually funny, intelligent and touching, and will put you off drinking Merlot for life.
Enjoy
Bloscars
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