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jchensor's Best Picture Oscar Recap for 2001A funny thing happened on the way to the Oscars: I saw all five movies that are nominated for Best Picture. This is a first for me to have seen all five nominees before the Oscars broadcast. Thus, for the first time, I actually have a true, legitimate opinion on what I think should win. How can I waste this opportunity? Therefore, it's my goal to name why my pick for the Best Picture of the year should win the Oscars. And how am I going to accomplish this difficult task? Well, let's start off by asking a simple question: What makes a movie Best Picture caliber? I mean, isn't picking a "best" picture purely a judgement call? Can we actually qualify what counts as a "best" picture? I don't think it's really possible, but we can try our best to reason it out. So first of all, we need to figure out what pieces need to be put together to make a "best" picture.
For starters, the Best Picture should have the ability to create, weave, and develop a great story to keep its audience engrossed. If a movie does not successfully hold your attention for its full running time, that is already a strong weakness that may make it undeserving of the highly coveted Oscar. And perhaps that may be the greatest downfall of Gosford Park (jchensor's rating: 10/10). Many people I have spoken to do not view this movie in a very high regard, and often describe the movie as "boring." They claim the film's murder mystery plot was underdeveloped and not convincing at all. I personally loved the film. Gosford Park not only didn't lose my attention, it grabbed me and held onto to me for every second of the film. Gosford Park is a character-driven movie. All of its entertainment value comes from its ability to place numerous characters into one location and have all of their personalities bounce off each other. The fact that the murder mystery wasn't fully developed (with no Agatha Christie-type scenes with a detective piecing all the clues together while all the suspects sit in the room listening to him) really does nothing to damage the movie's entertainment value. That's because the characters are all so inherently interesting and, even better, their interactions are highly entertaining. It's amazing to watch the interplay between the many characters, and fascinating that every combination of two or three people yields different results. It's almost like a science experiment. And if you are a lover of human interaction, like I am, there is no better film to see. Watching characters like Henry Denton (Ryan Phillipe) making advances on various women isn't what makes his
And then, it took an incredible script (Julian Fellowes) and amazing directional skill (Robert Altman) to put such a movie together. Every scene is bursting with characters, all of whom we've seen before and who we'll see again whether they are pertinent to the particular scene or not. It's almost like a movie-version of "Where's Waldo" as you spot characters roaming the various rooms and interacting with each other all in the background! So not only did Altman have to make sure the main players of the scene were convincing, he had to make sure the characters in the background were convincing as well! This is less like directing and more like choreographing a big dance number. And the fact that Altman was able to pull it off so seamlessly and fluidly is a testament to the quality of this film. And that's why you watch this film. The interplay between classes and characters within the classes makes the murder mystery superfluous. It really doesn't even need to be there. I could have watched this movie for hours, just to see the interaction. But many people don't feel the same way as I do, and the fact that Gosford Park really doesn't actually have a solid storyline is probably it's greatest weakness in terms of its running for Best Picture. Most movies that have won Best Picture in the past have told incredible stories. This year, the other movies running for Best Picture all tell solid stories as well. A Beautiful Mind has a deftly told story (I'll expand on this later). The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring has the type of story that completely engrosses the viewers. Gosford Park, on the other hand, has a story that can be virtually ignored. Thus, Gosford Park does not deserve the Best Picture nod because it lacks the strength of a solid storyline that the other nominees possess. It's unfortunate, though, because it tells an infinite amount of very small stories, which I find to be just as admirable.
Page 2: jchensor's Oscar Recap
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character fascinating to watch. It's the varied reactions he gets, from those who patronize him, such as Elsie (Emily Watson), to those who actually accept and welcome his advances, like Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kirsten Scott Thomas). Seeing how Lady Constance (Maggie Smith) virtually ignores the downstairs denizens as though they don't exist or as if they aren't actual human beings is interesting in itself, but it's more fascinating to see how she even takes her cynicism and applies it to the other nobles as well. And watching Mary Machreachran (Kelly Macdonald) awkwardly struggle throughout the household for her first-time role as a maid during such a gathering creates a lot of sympathy for her character. However, it's not her learning the ropes that makes us follow her character so intently. What makes us so drawn to her character is watching how her determination to do everything correctly and to find out what is truly going on makes her so available and admirable to some and so distant and bothersome to others.