Yes - For the movie tickets, popcorn, and the emergency coffee that we desperately needed after watching "There will be blood".
On sunday, K announced for the millionth time that we HAD to watch "There will be blood". Daniel Day Lewis is K's favorite actor. Selfless wife(??) that I am, I kept my premonitions to myself (my general rule of thumb - the higher the tomatometer rating for a movie, the more boring the movie gets, with only a few worthy exceptions). 30 wasted bucks and a lot of stifled yawns later, I realized to my dismay that my gut feel was right. The movie was B-O-R-I-N-G. Even K (who has really good movie taste) agreed.
The only intriguing and interesting thing about There will be blood is its title. I thought it would be a Godfather like saga, especially after the trailers offered tantalizing glimpses into Daniel's character - an oilman who is also a homicidal megalomaniac. However, there was very little happening after the brilliantly shot first twenty minutes of the movie. Daniel Day Lewis plays a cranky middle aged/old man who wants to drill for oil and has a complicated relationship with a little boy (I couldnt tell if he was really Daniel's son). There is also a supposed power tussle with an evangelist. Thats about it.
Daniel's Oscar winning performance is the biggest headscratcher of all. It was not bad - but just mind-numbingly monochromatic. There was one emotion that he portrayed; And sure, he portrayed that emotion well, but I cannot understand why a performance which was so low on nuance, made worse by monotonous dialoge delivery should be blessed with an Oscar. Ironically, the truly brilliant thing about the movie - the sound recording and background musical score - did not receive a single nod from the Academy.
The critics applauded the violent ending of the movie, calling it blood-chilling psycho-drama. All I saw was an old drunk clubbing an incredibly annoying character with a bowling pin. Its almost like all the critics who reviewed the movie had heard some buzz about it's supposed greatness, and then were too embarassed to admit that they simply didnt get it; and then they overcompensated by heaping way more praise than the movie really deserved.
Well, I'll say it for them - The emperor has no clothes. The movie sucked. And yes, we have seen far better performances from Daniel Day Lewis than this. And yes; George Clooney's Michael Clayton was way more brilliant and award worthy.
Some more quick notes on the Oscar -
* Jon Stewart was not too bad, but you would appreciate him only if you are a rabid fan of his daily show
* Americans now join Indians in complaining that the Oscars never go to them (all four acting awards went to Europeans)
* Loved Marion Cotillard's speech ("Thank you life, thank you love")
* Helen Mirren is fabulous - if i looked even a little like her at that age, i would consider it a life well lived
* Move over Cartier diamonds and Prada accessories - Baby bumps have become the must-have fashion accessory of the season. Yea great, so now actresses in addition to being incredibly beautiful and making millions, ALSO HAVE PERFECT PERSONAL LIVES. And yea, George Clooney showed up with his new girlfriend. I guess I should just throw myself off a cliff.
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3 comments:
Supposedly he NEVER goes to the Oscar with anyone and broke his Oscar bachelorhood by taking her. Also, she wore a Valentino sequinned gown and curled the ends of her hair and he joked and said that he helped her do both; he curled her hair and sewed the sequins.
And she's a waitress. Now why are we smart engineers :)
I want my $30 back + compensation on loss of time for Juno
Somethings wrong with the site, u know who iam :( but I cant leave the comment under an alias WHY. I love my new screen name.
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