UnMaggie: The Oscar Noms 2013

So it is Oscar time, and the nominations were released a little while ago. I just need to get my thoughts on these noms on paper (or on the keyboard lol) and my ranking based on what I have seen (which is mostly everything).

RANKING OF BEST ACTOR:

1. Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables: A passionate, heartfelt, intense and tender performance in a rather bore of a film. I'm a huge fan of him here, it looked incredibly demanding and he just gave such a brilliant/flawless performance. His voice is amazing.
4.5/5

2. Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook: Brilliant balance of drama and comedy. This is my favourite film of the year, Cooper is so charismatic and just nails every scene he is in (which is essentially every shot of the film). He comes of a bit of a looney (a diagnosed bipolar with anger and control issues) but his character's determination to find peace and stability is a joy to watch. His chemistry with lead actress Jennifer Lawrence is great (despite a huge age difference between the actors) and they just have amazing line delivery (thanks to a great script). A very close second.
4.5/5 

3. Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln: Who doesn't love DDL? He makes acting so effortless and sometimes thay may be a problem because against showy performances the rather subdued or restrained performances like this one can be kind of forgotten. Overall I was underwhelmed by the film, I hate to say it but it was rather boring and a drag. Historicall it was interesting and an amazing assemble of actors are present in every scene but I wasn't a huge fan. DDL's Lincoln has been getting enormous praise, but I hope he misses out on the gold man this year as I feel it's too early for him to get his third. A good performance, no faults and some good moments but I was expecting a little more from the material (not the actor himself which brings his performance down a little bit).
3.5/5

4. Denzel Washington in Flight: Hmm... Flight. A film advertised as a courtroom drama turns out to be an AA film. I wasn’t amazed here by Washington, it is a consistently good performance. He is engaging as his character struggles with sobriety and generally keeping his shit together before his hearing. John Goodman is great in his small part.

3/5

n/s: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master. 

# 11: Travels with My Aunt (1972)

Maggie Smith

as Aunt Augusta Bertram

in

Travels with My Aunt (1972)

 Screentime: 74 minutes and 2 seconds (68.2% of the film)

Maggie Smith plays the aging, odd and eccentric Augusta Bertram who meets her estranged nephew Henry at her sister/his mother’s funeral and cremation. From there Augusta introduces and welcomes her nephew into her extravagant and rather crazy lifestyle and Henry begins to learn of her illegal dealings as she decides to go overseas and chase after an old lover she met while she was young. The film is flawed and can be bizarre and stupid in places, but is still a fun ride with engaging performances enhancing the absurd screenplay. Interestingly the film’s humour/ type of comedy was something of a rarity of 1972 with gags among others about severed human limbs, marijuana and (my favourite) Augusta trying to sing the church hymn at the beginning.

FILM:

 

Maggie plays an elderly (with significant makeup), middle aged and even a teenage version of Augusta (with the latter looking quite ridiculous as a 40 year old Maggie stands next to actual 13 year old girls wearing the same uniform). Nonetheless she is a riot and so engaging in all aspects of her performances, she wears fabulous outfits (the film won the Oscar for best costume design) and she sports a grating accent. Fun ride, don’t take it too seriously. Surprisingly Maggie got a nomination for Best Actress here (amongst Cicely Tyson and Liv Ullman in much more Academy genre fare), and I think she deserves it!

MAGGIE-METER: 
 

 

"It's the best way to win a woman, Henry, to make her laugh."

# 10: The Honey Pot (1967)

Maggie Smith

as Sarah Watkins

in

The Honey Pot (1967)

 Screentime: 47 minutes and 26 seconds (37.7% of the film)

The Honey Pot is a rather strange murder/mystery/comedy where a wealthy and theatrical man Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) with the assistance of a former actor (Cliff Robertson) inadvertedly decides to pull a rather cruel joke on his three former flames and announces he is dying and asks each to come to his Venice home to say their final goodbyes. The three women arrive: Capucine as Princess Dominiqe, Edie Adams as the actress Merle and Susan Haywood as Mrs. Lone Star Crockett Sheridan (what a name!) who also brings her nurse Ms. Watkins (Maggie Smith). One night Mrs. Sheridan announces she is actually Fox’s common in law wife, however she is found dead in her home. The mystery begins as to who did it and why.

FILM:

I originally thought Maggie Smith had a smallish supporting role, and it turns out she actually ends up with the largest female part, while the biggest star from the cast ends up dead less than hour into the film. Confusing stuff. However she is fun and genuine here as she plays a love interest to Cliff Robertson’s character as well as the problem-solver for the fishy activity that is going on (the other gals really only sleep walk their parts). Her final few scenes are particularly memorable as she takes control of the situation and puts her foot down. A good performance!

MAGGIE-METER:

"... Love? You can't even say it, you poor man, you make it sound like hate."

# 9: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

Maggie Smith

as Muriel Donnelly

in

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

 Screentime: 18 minutes and 31 seconds (15.8% of the film)

 

John Madden's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a story of a group of older British citizens deciding to move and reside in a supposed luxury retirement village in India for a variety of reasons, either looking for a change of scenery, confronting past relationships, finding a wealthy husband, and for one, no pleasure or enjoyment whatsoever but for a speedy hip replacement procedure. The latter is of course Maggie Smith.

Once they have arrived, the group struggle to learn to adjust to such a severe culture change as they go about exploring the sights as well as looking for love, happiness and some contentment in their lives. It’s a wonderful ensemble piece with some of Britain’s best delivering a nice mix of drama and comedy. 

FILM:

 

Maggie Smith is the elderly Muriel Donnelly, a racist and bigot who initially gives everyone a hard time and is only going to India for her operation and planning to go straight back home when it is over. But as the film progresses we learn of her loneliness and her heartbreak over losing her long-time job as a maid for a family she considered her own. She then discovers that coming to India may have been the best thing for her as she starts snooping into the hotel’s financial accounts. 

Here Maggie is doing her trademark British bitch role, but instead of the typical snooty upper society lady, her character is a lot more Cockney/working class. She has a few wonderful scenes and as usual she delivers some of the film’s best lines. It's wonderful to see such a nice supporting role at Maggie's age, her presence promises a few laughs.

MAGGIE METER:

 

(referring to a nearby black doctor washing his hands)
"He can wash all he likes, that colour's not coming out..."

# 8: Death on the Nile (1978)

Maggie Smith

as Miss Bowers

in

Death on the Nile (1978)

Screentime: 15 minutes and 55 seconds (12.0% of the film)*
* Includes the short flaskback sequences which is repeated footage.

Death on the Nile is the 1930s Agatha Christie mystery focusing on a group of mainly English tourists visiting Egypt. The story mainly focuses on the young English couple Simon and Linnet and the ex-girlfriend Jacqueline. While travelling down the Nile one night, Simon is shot and injured by Jacqueline and Linnet is shot and killed in her bedroom within a matter of minutes. The only problem is Jacqueline has an alibi and couldn’t have killed her and the detective Hercule Poirot starts looking at the other passengers on the steam boat as the possible suspects. As it turns out they all have a significant motive for murdering Linnet.

The film is a lot of fun despite lacking the classiness of Murder on the Orient Express and some of the acting performed by in particular Mia Farrow  and Lois Chiles is a little cringe-worthy and melodramatic. The outcome is incredibly over the top but still entertaining and it is fun to see the all star cast ensemble act their respective parts: Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury (who is hilarious in her part), David Niven, Jack Warden and others.

FILM:

Maggie Smith plays Miss Bowers, the nurse and “servant” of the American socialite Mrs. Van Schuyler (Bette Davis). Davis and Smith have wonderful chemistry together and the two quarrel and bicker and deliver some hilarious dialogue such as:

Mrs. Van Schuyler: Come, Bowers, it's time to go, this place is beginning to resemble a mortuary.
Miss Bowers: Thank God you'll be in one yourself before too long you bloody old fossil!

You pick up early on that there is such limited character development for about 80% of the characters in Agatha Christie stories, and unfortunately Miss Bowers is no exception. Alot of her screentime accounts for her just sitting on the side of the screen or in the background as well as the extended revelation sequence which she is silently featured. She really only has a handful of short scenes featuring dialogue and one interrogation scene, but as I have said, the is pure Agatha Christie (remember Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar for basically one scene and a bunch of reaction shots in Murder on the Orient Express). It was incredibly chic for an actor in the ‘70s to appear in a rather small part in the huge ensemble mysteries or disaster flick. It usually meant an easy good salary and high box office returns. Here Maggie is funny and excels in her part, even if she and many others in the cast were underused.

MAGGIE-METER:

 

"It has been my experience that men are least attracted to women who treat them well."

A little break. Will be back in a week.

Insanely busy at the moment hence the lack of updates/reviews. Will be back in about a week.

# 7: Capturing Mary (2007)

Maggie Smith

as Mary Gilbert

in

Capturing Mary (2007) (TV)

Screentime: 43 minutes and 29 seconds (44.8% of the film)

An orthodox choice I admit to pick so early, but Capturing Mary is the story of a young man named Joe letting in an older woman by the name of Mary into an empty and unoccupied house where she begins to tell her story and experiences many years earlier in the same residence. Here, the film juxtaposes between the present elderly and alcohol dependent Mary and the beautiful and up and coming journalist Mary in the 1950s. At a party, with guests such as Alfred Hitchcock in attendance, the young Mary meets a mysterious man named Grenville White that would change her life forever. Initially rather warm to Mary, he begins to act rather creepy and opens up to her and reveals horrible and shocking details about the lives of various famous people, and afterwards of all things offers a key to his house which she refuses and leaves and doesn’t speak to him again.

For reasons not exactly clear, despite only seeing him again at a few parties in the next 10 years, this encounter somehow affects the rest of Mary’s life up to the present causing psychological harm to her. His presence in her mind doesn't allow her to write new material in the ‘60s without leading back to that night, all her work with potential clients are cut short when Grenville goes behind her back and ruins her reputation and she starts drinking. The whole first half of the film was rather irritating and confusing, how could this man be so influential? Was I missing something? I mean 50 years on there is Mary still panicking at the ghost of him while she is at the park... The elements of the film didn’t click, I understand to a degree what the film was trying to get across about the different class systems of the 1950s, the longing influences people leave and how certain decisions can make an eternity of change but I honestly wasn’t a fan of the material. The performances, in particular, Maggie Smith (of course) and her younger self, Ruth Wilson were worth mentioning. For that I give the film, a generous:

 FILM:

Maggie Smith was her wonderful self and in thefilm she projects a Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement quality/vibe in her monologues and narration to the flashbacks, her fragility as she walks around an empty room or the way she glances and tears up as memories races through her head were brilliantly subtle. The final 20 minutes is her moment to shine, and although I mentioned before some aspects of the film is rather weak, Smith’s acting simply elevates the material. You want to give the woman a long hug for all the mental damage she has endured, and Smith portrays this in a heartbreaking and delicate manner.

MAGGIE-METER:

"This isn't a ghost story, no... this is worse than a ghost story. For me anyway"