Thursday, January 16, 2014

Robbed, i tell you, robbed!

I don't see many films in the theatre, i don't know why, really, as there are some good ones out there. Part of it may do with the fact that i have an extremely low threshhold for violence, so i do not watch violent films. That takes care of, what 75% or so of what's playing?

Two people i know who don't gush about things both sang the praises of Saving Mr. Banks. They did so separately, unaware that the other had said anything, so i thought i'd go have a look.

I'd seen the trailer so knew it was not necessarily a happy-go-lucky sort of story, but hadn't read any reviews. I didn't want to read any spoilers or claptrap that would spoil a perfectly good story, much the way my 9th grade English teacher marred perfectly fine stories by wanting us to rip them apart in search of symbolism.

And so, i went to see Saving Mr. Banks Tuesday evening. It was pouring buckets here, much of snow melting, and i arrived just as the last preview was playing. Just in time.

The acting was superb, and i realised with a start how familiar everything in the film looked. I remember when those things were nearly new, bouffy hairstyles, all things gelatin, the way tvs first showed that thin, horizontal line in the middle when turned on, and when switched off, that fluorescent, nearly lavender dot that stayed behind in the middle of the screen, as if loathe to leave. How people dressed up when travelling, and nearly every adult seemed to sip martinis.

Hard for me to believe that was 50 years ago, and i thought about the film Mary Poppins. I had seen that in the cinema when it first came out, and was enthralled. The year in the movie was around 1910 or nearly 50 years before the time i saw the movie, and 1910 looked foreign. I wondered if youngsters seeing Saving Mr. Banks would find the world of 1961 as foreign. I mean, we had cars and phones and TVs and electricity, but would it look as strange to a milennial child as 1910 did to me?

I expected to see some Oscar nominations for this film. Where to start? The actors gave amazing performances. Strong script, great storytelling, the Australian scenes were enchanting....

Nary a nod. Not even an honourable mention. For shame, Academy. I, who may see four films in the theatre a year at most, talking nearly nonstop about how great this is, and to overlook it entirely?

Robbed. Snubbed. Call it what you will, it's an egregious oversight.

Meantime, if you haven't seen it yet, go watch the film. It's worth the watch.

14 comments:

  1. Um. I've never even heard of it! I think the last time I was in a cinema was in Moçambique during the war. You'd have thought the locals would have seen enough of war but it was a war film showing.

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    1. Oh, dear, you see films in the cinema even less often than i do! This is a new movie, released in 1913 based on the true story of how Walt Disney did all he could to get P.L. Travers to allow him to shoot the film "Mary Poppins."

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    2. oops, should read "released in 2013." Wish we could edit our comments rather then just delete the entire thing.

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  2. Lovely to hear you waxing lyrically
    I will go and see it on your recommendations x

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    1. John, i shall say that i have never really drunk the Disney Kool-Aid. I remember seeing him on The Wonderful World of Disney when a child, and watching the Mickey Mouse Club, and enjoying both very much, but i never had any desire to go to DisneyLand or Disney World.

      I thought the story would be intriguing, and i've liked most of Tom Hanks's performances that i've seen as well as Emma Thompson's. I was not disappointed, as both were truly superb. If i had to give just one nomination for one of the actors (and the casting was brilliant throughout), i would give it to Emma Thompson. How she can portray such a prickly woman whom you don't hate and end up caring for very much is nothing short of amazing.

      I've used up my quota of superlatives here, exceeded it perhaps, but i think you'd have to go a long way to find something as well acted. The last time i got this jazzed about a movie was "The Artist."

      I'd be curious to hear your views once you've seen it.

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  3. I don't go to theaters (well, I go about once/year), but I shall put this movie in my Netflix queue. I think it's been receiving mixed reviews. I'm sorry you're unhappy about the Academy Award nominations. I haven't looked at them yet. I want Leonardo DiCaprio to be nominated for The Great Gatsby and I bet he isn't. I predicted he would be. How foolish of me. I jinxed the whole schlemiel for DiCaprio.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Don't you hate when you jinx something for someone?

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    2. DiCaprio is nominated for The Wolf of Wall Street, so I feel better. I found one nomination for Mr. Banks. I think it's musical score.

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    3. Yes, i saw that after i wrote this blog entry. I'm glad DiCaprio is in the running, so you didn't jinx him entirely.

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  4. I understand sex has replaced violence on the silver screen these days. Not often a solid little story comes along.

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    1. Precisely, Joanne. Well, i can watch sex on the silver screen as it doesn't give me nightmares the way violence does, and i'll admit i haven't seen any of the films that were nominated. Just seems a shame to me they couldn't make room for this one.

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  5. Like you, I don't find violence, car crashing, or even huge explosions, ENTERTAINING; so my range of movies etc is limited. I haven't seen this movie, so can't comment. Maybe it will come to France; maybe not.

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    1. Friends of mine who have seen very good films will say to me, "Oh, it was a good film, but too violent for you." Former neighbours were visiting and wanted to rent a movie i had no desire to watch. I stayed in the room, but focussed on my knitting, One of them said said afterwards, "Wow, you really have a low tolerance threshold for violence." Um, yes, this should not be news to her as it's been ever thus since she first met me in 1985.

      EuroDisney came to France, so the film might.

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