Best Picture.
-
baker-9 — 15 years ago(November 21, 2010 03:15 PM)
Agree with most of your list OP. Bates and Parfitt were superb. I'm also glad to see Strathairn getting some respect here, as he took a one-note role in the novel and gave us a multi-dimensional character - abusive, mean, but also pathetic (sometimes almost comically so). His performance in that cringe-inducing flashback on the ferry was very brave (and he has said the scene was very hard to do. Ellen Muth as the young Selena is brave in this scene too, but the focus is more on Joe.). And who can forget the look on his face when Dolores confronts him right before the eclipse?
I'm not so keen on Leigh - she's a very mannered actress and tends to talk like she has marbles in her mouth (much like Mary Louise Parker). But she does hit the right notes in some scenes, particularly with Bates. Plummer's role is one he can do easily and was not, I think, a big challenge. -
AZGrooveGuy — 15 years ago(December 13, 2010 07:45 PM)
Judy Parfitt was a revelation, hands down one of the best performances I have ever seen. I watched this last night, had not seen it since it's original release, and it has gotten better with age. She and Bates were both extremely deserving of nominations.
I watched it last night with two friends who had neither read the book nor seen the film before and they loved it. -
netshopper-2 — 13 years ago(May 31, 2012 06:42 AM)
Wow, I thought the stand out performance in this film was Strathairn. Never saw this type of performance in him and he is always solid. Bates was also great as was Parfitt.
Leigh was truly bad in some scenes and goods in others. She has a tendency to overreach at times in this film and other.
Plummer was not good in this and I felt miscast.
The best scenes to me were the ones between Strathairn or Parfitt and Bates. -
brunolly-1 — 11 years ago(January 19, 2015 12:36 PM)
Totally agreed. This movie had everything it needed to score multiple noms from multiple panels, but got relatively nothing. It's one of the greatest film awards mysteries, I truly think. Perhaps one of if not the greatest snubs in history.
-
standrkm — 10 years ago(May 17, 2015 04:05 AM)
I just watched it today and I'm just dumbfounded that it didn't get any oscars let alone a single nomination! It's just one of those films that as soon as it starts you're like "ok this is something special, the oscars love these types of movies". The acting is fantastic, the story is great, the editing is done in an interesting way, you can literally feel the salty air on your skin.I don't know.
"how's a fella go about gettin' a holt of the police?" -Karl -
DrMiguel-DeLeon — 9 years ago(October 30, 2016 10:47 PM)
I just watched this movie after a few years, and seeing it anew just hammered home so many of its strengths: The editing cool colours in a present-day rundown house melding into bright summer colours in a well-kept 70s home, for example the acting (unsympathetic women at first), and a late subtext that could've brought more attention to teen sexual abuse, are all reasons it should've gotten more attention come awards season.