The Oscars are less than a month away, and this year I'm going to have seen ALL of the best picture nominees: THE AVIATOR, FINDING NEVERLAND, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, RAY, and SIDEWAYS. But I haven't seen them all quite yet. So here is my take on 2 of the nominated movies, with the rest to follow shortly.
I have some issues with MILLION DOLLAR BABY, not least my feeling that boxing is just a short step up from cockfighting. But I put that prejudice aside and jumped into this dark and sweaty story of a po' girl from the Ozarks of the Show-Me State who makes her way to the grimy side of LA in pursuit of a boxing career. Maggie (Oscar-nominated Hilary Swank) wears down the resistance of semi-retired boxing trainer Frankie (Oscar-nominated Clint Eastwood) and blossoms into a bit of a phenom, making her way out of LA onto the world women's boxing circuit. So far so good, right? Yeah, well, without giving anything away, I'm going to tell you that this movie isn't about Maggie's journey; it's about Frankie's redemption. As director, Eastwood relies heavily on a well-played voiceover by Frankie's old friend and colleague, Eddie (Morgan Freeman, yep, you guessed it, also nominated), who is sympathetic both to Maggie's determination and Frankie's actions. Eddie brings a sense of perspective to this little trio that Maggie and Frankie kind of lack. Anyway, after things take a turn for the worse, you're glad that Eddie's there (even if you're tiring of the voiceover, and if you're me, you were). Aside from the main plot, there are subplots about Frankie's priest, his estranged daughter, and the other regulars at Frankie's boxing gym; these serve to flesh out the characters and provide some color and interest. Ultimately, my problem with the movie revolves around the events of the last third: I didn't really believe the way they played out. I know it's a movie, but after hours of very realistic boxing, we slipped into a world where reality seemed to retreat in service to the plot. My advice to Maggie would've been, "girlie, join the Navy and see the world."
The first 15 minutes of SIDEWAYS crystallized for me everything I love and dislike about my adopted state. First, there's the drive up the coast from San Diego to Santa Ynez, the blue Pacific and snaky highways and tan-colored hills watching over dark green live oaks and rows of vines. Second, some of the wacky people who live here. (And to this second category, can I please add those people visiting Santa Maria right now to "support" Michael Jackson - especially the woman last night who said she QUIT her job to be there? Hello. And please go home.) The movie tells in excruciating detail the story of two 40-ish guys - one a mostly washed up actor, one a divorced never-successful writer - spending a week in the Santa Barbara wine country as a send off prior to the actor's (Oscar-nominated Thomas Hayden Church) wedding. The writer (surprisingly not nominated Paul Giamatti) is a wine snob and the actor is looking to get laid by a country girl. If this doesn't sound annoying to you, by all means go see this right away! Really, both have some success with their own and the other's goals. They stay at the cute (and real) Windmill Inn and drive past Andersen's Pea Soup in Buellton. They drink a lot of wine and visit a batch of beautiful wineries. They meet some nice local gals, though I never believed Maya (Lord, I'm tired of writing this, but, yes, Oscar-nominated Virginia Madsen), the earthy waitress/midlife grad student, would really fall for Miles the writer. They share the movie's best scene, set at night on a back porch in the vineyards, where they talk about why they love wine and its meaning to life. It is charming. Bottom line: once the movie got started, I hated the guys a little less. But mostly what this movie did was make me want to drive to Santa Ynez and drink. So it gets my vote for best scenery in a supporting role, but not best picture.