Compiled Oscar Nominations Prediction- Page 2

[PopAria]

Posted: 12/26/11 at 4:46pm

Has anyone seen W./E. ? I'm hoping that gets some recognition.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/26/11 at 4:47pm

It has Madonna's name on it, so no matter how good it is the critics will find some way to trash it (probably without even watching, since so many of them review her films that way)

[americanboy99]

Posted: 12/26/11 at 8:02pm

I couldn't buy Branagh as Olivier- big time miscasting in my opinion. Branagh completely lacked charm and bravura. What I got was just a hissy fit.

I would have loved to have seen Williams play Monroe in a film about Marilyn Monroe, not about the backlash of her presence and the fixation of one young man (no matter how good Redmayne is in the movie).

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 12/27/11 at 1:00pm

I liked Branagh's performance very much in spite of the fact that, unlike Williams, he failed to connect with an icon, let alone transcend the icon as Williams did by showing us a luminous impression of the human being.

However, I loved the fact that this was a contained story about a particular but very telling episode in Monroe's life. It distinguished it from other show biz bios. And while the story is Clark's, together the screenplay and Williams wonderfully captured the dynamic between Marilyn as an object of fascination to him, everyone else, and the woman herself. Focusing on one story in her life was a great way of portraying who she was. With a little trimming (the movie should have ended about 5 minutes before it did, in the screening room, as one example) this could have been a much better film than it was, but it's still a good one.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 12/27/11 at 10:20pm

I concur with henrikegerman. I enjoyed the film and especially Michelle WIlliams' portrayal (not impersonation) of Marilyn Monroe. However, I would've chosen Marilyn's brief and tumultuous marriage to baseball hero Joe DiMaggio to dramatize her insecurities and emotional struggles.

Their courtship/marriage/divorce occurred all in a year, but it featured some great moments: Marilyn and Joe's honeymoon/business trip to Japan where she was idolized as a movie star and he as a baseball god; her side visit to Korea to entertain the U.S. troops (imagine that performance recreated!); their return to America and the filming of "The Seven Year Itch," which features the iconic skirt-blowing scene. Joe was in attendance when this scene was filmed on Lexington Avenue in NYC in front of a large crowd of onlookers. He, being a traditional Catholic Italian, wasn't amused. There were reports that they had a heated argument in their hotel room afterward and that he may have hit her. This marked the beginning of the end of their marriage and they were divorced shortly thereafter. However, he did escort her to the premiere the following year (on her birthday), but later that night they had another big quarrel, which resulted in a period of estrangement.

The following would be told in an epilog (not exactly in these words): They became friends again during the last two years of her life (after her bitter divorce from Arthur Miller) and there are rumors that they may have had plans to remarry. After her death, DiMaggio continued to carry a torch for Marilyn and even sent fresh roses to her grave once a week for 20 years.

What intrigues me about this story is that I think they honestly loved each other; they just couldn't be together. DiMaggio wanted her to quit Hollywood and be a homemaker who would cook for him, keep house, and bear his children. But as Marilyn once mused, "I always had too much fantasy to be a housewife." Plus, as much as she detested the studio system and felt unappreciated by them, she enjoyed the fame and adulation; it was a love substitute. She couldn't give that up. And therein lay the paradox -- and the major conflict in this proposed movie.