December is what's known as \Oscar bait"" season; for the rest of the month, theaters are going to be filled with movies that are just begging and screaming for an Academy Award. These films can just as easily run the gamut from deliciously exciting to ridiculously boring. However, this is the month to indulge your inner film elitist by seeing all those films that will have everyone scratching their heads on Feb. 29.
Directed by Alejandro Inarritu (""Amores Perros""), ""21 Grams"" stars Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. The title is derived from the myth that the human body loses 21 grams upon death (presumably as the soul leaves the body). The story revolves around three people brought together due to a car crash, and the tragic results. Inarritu plays with structure, bouncing back and forth in time. ""Perros"" was also centered around a car crash and played with temporal structure.
Early reviews have lauded the performances of the three stars. I'm a huge fan of Del Toro and Watts and heard great things about ""Perros."" Even more reassuring is the fact it's released by Focus Features; serving as the specialty films unit of Universal, Focus has put out some extremely impressive films this year. ""21 Grams"" looks to continue that trend.
Tim Burton appears to be on the right track once again. While 2005 should usher in his reimagination of ""Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"" (starring Johnny Depp), this winter brings ""Big Fish."" Edward Bloom (played by both Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney) is on his deathbed. His son, William (Billy Crudup), tries to piece together the truth about his father by going through the tall tales that Edward has always told.
The title itself speaks to how outrageous the tales will be, and given Burton's incredible imagination, ""Fish"" will probably be one of the most eccentrically wonderful movies of the year.
The Farrelly brothers' movies have always been very hit-and-miss. While I thoroughly enjoyed guilty-pleasures, ""Dumb and Dumber"" and ""Me, Myself and Irene,"" I cannot stand ""There's Something About Mary"" or ""Shallow Hal."" Their brand of humor is certainly lowbrow, and sometimes they just go too lowbrow for my tastes (as in ""Mary"") or fail to be funny at all (as in ""Hal"").
""Stuck on You,"" starring Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon as a pair of brothers conjoined at the torso. Since they share a liver, they've lived their entire lives as Siamese twins. Walt (Kinnear) decides to become an actor in Hollywood, and thus Bob (Damon) must follow. Naturally, hilarity is supposed to ensue. Judging by the trailers, ""Stuck on You"" will likely succeed or fail based on the performances of Damon and Kinnear-I found myself smiling a lot less because of what they were saying and more because of how they were saying it. If you're looking for something less serious during finals, ""Stuck on You"" might be a worthy diversion.
Frequently compared to a female version of ""Dead Poet's Society,"" Columbia's ""Mona Lisa Smile"" looks very uninspired. Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) is a Berkeley graduate and new teacher at the all-female Wellesley college. Taking place in 1953, Watson gets frustrated when she quickly realizes the school is mostly preparing the girls to marry great men rather than become the great women they may want to be.
The plot sounds predictable, and I've never been impressed by Roberts. In fact, her supporting cast (Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and especially Maggie Gyllenhaal) all seem capable of stealing the show. While it's possible that those three may prove interesting enough to make this watchable, it just seems like too much of a Roberts Oscar grab.
""House of Sand and Fog"" may be helmed by first-time director Vadim Perelman, but there's no shortage of talent to be seen. The film, based on Andre Dubus III's bestselling novel, stars Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley. It focuses on the struggle for a California bungalow between the original owner, alcoholic Kathy Nicolo (Connelly), and a former Iran colonel (Kingsley) who sees it as a perfect home.
Even more importantly is Perelman's off-screen talent in cinematographer Roger Deakins (""O Brother, Where Art Thou?,"" ""A Beautiful Mind"") and composer James Horner (""Braveheart,"" ""Aliens""). Not to downplay the abilities of Connelly and Kingsley, but the trailers are absolutely rife with great cinematography and clips that indicate a great score.
""Cold Mountain,"" yet another in a string of adaptations coming over break, is based on Charles Frazier's novel and tells the story of a soldier in the last days of the Civil War. Inman (Jude Law) rises from what was supposed to be his deathbed and tries to return to Cold Mountain, where Ada (Nicole Kidman) waits for him to return before she can no longer afford to stay on her farm.
The cast is actually pretty star-studded (it includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, and Donald Sutherland), but the trailer strongly revolves around the leads, especially Kidman. I hope this doesn't actually reflect the film, as the clips with Jude Law are far more impressive than those featuring Kidman or Zellweger-it's amazing how well Law can fade into a part and make it believable, and I think ""Mountain"" will illustrate that.
Although not likely to be considered for any Oscars, ""Paycheck"" is still an important film for many of those involved. John Woo returns after the disappointing ""Windtalkers."" Woo indisputably knows how to make an action movie but sometimes missteps. On the other hand, I'm not sure lead actor Ben Affleck's wounds are all healed from ""Gigli."" He needs ""Paycheck"" to succeed, lest he face another round of backlash. He stars as an engineer who, after two years of top-secret work, finds that his memory of the project has been erased. Apparently instead of receiving his check, he had previously arranged to receive a package of objects that he believes will lead him to find out what he's done.
""Paycheck"" is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, who also wrote short stories that were adapted into ""Blade Runner,"" ""Minority Report"" and ""Total Recall."" The film appears to follow allow similar lines as those in ""Report,"" as well as ""The Bourne Identity,"" both of which were decent enough as action movies, and certainly far better than Affleck's own ""Sum of All Fears."" What may push this one to be an enjoyable action flick is the supporting cast-it's stacked, featuring Uma Thurman, Paul Giamatti and Michael C. Hall.
wwtemby@wisc.edu.
