IFMA winners!

Film Score of the Year: John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon
Composer of the Year: Alexandre Desplat
Best Score for an Animated Film: John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon
Best Score for a Drama Film: Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech
Best Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: Alexandre Desplat, The Ghost Writer
Best Score for a Comedy Film: Pinar Toprak, The Lightkeepers.
Best Score to a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film: Daft Punk, TRON: Legacy
Best Score for a Documentary Film: Bruno Coulais, Oceans
Best Individual Composition: Danny Elfman, “Alice Theme” from Alice in Wonderland
Breakout Composer of the Year: Nuno Malo, Amalia

I have to say I like these winners. For the most part that is. I am a wee bit baffled as to how Danny Elfman's derivative "Alice" can be seen (or heard) as a more accomplished composition than John Powell's beautiful "Forbidden Friendship", but at least Powell took home the big prize for Best Film Score of the Year, a fitting consolation given that he stands little chance of winning the Oscar.

I'm thrilled to see Daft Punk get some due recognition for what is some of the year's most awesome music in TRON Legacy, and to see Alexandre Desplat actually win for his atmospheric Ghost Writer score, to go along with his expected win for King's Speech. It's looking like his year.

My Award nominations: Supporting Actress

BARBRA HERSHEY in Black Swan:
Mila Kunis may be getting more awards attention for her sexy confidence that triggers Nina's jealousy, but Barbra Hershey's performance as her over-protective mother lends us much more insight into Nina's psychological repression, and it fits perfectly with the film's creepy tone. Her arc from commanding to helpless is expertly realized.

LESLEY MANVILLE in Another Year:
Believe the hype. Manville's performance is possibly the best of the year in any category. It's a wonder to behold her as her witty disposition gradually fades over the course of the film into eventual resignation, culminating in a ruinous final cadence that feels so heartbreaking because the character feels so real. A masterstroke of acting.

ROONEY MARA in The Social Network:
I know, I know, she's probably got less than five minutes of screen time, but she makes the most of it. Her couple of scenes are enough to convince us of her character's insight, and in one aching reaction shot (pictured left) she hits home one of the film's cautionary messages about the Internet; it's capacity to hurt.

SISSY SPACEK in Get Low:
While it's Duvall's show in which to shine, Sissy Spacek provides a real warmth when the film needs it, as well as real heartbreak. What she conveys to us is that offering forgiveness can be as hard as asking for it. It's a graceful performance that never oversteps its bounds but leaves a fond, lasting impression.

OLIVIA WILLIAMS in The Ghost Writer:
As the icy love-starved wife of an ex British PM who she's adored and envied with equal measure all her married life, Olivia Williams sews a complex character out seemingly unconnected threads until the big reveal of the spider's web at the end. It's a subtle, intriguing, and memorably witchy performance.

Just missed: Amy Adams in The Fighter, Marion Cotillard in Inception,
Kierston Wareing in Fish Tank

ADG nominees!

The ADG's selections for the production design in feature films this year are:

Period Film
Get Low
The King’s Speech
Robin Hood
Shutter Island
True Grit

Fantasy Film
Alice in Wonderland
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
Inception
TRON Legacy

Contemporary Film
Black Swan
The Fighter
127 Hours
The Social Network
The Town

Not a bad lineup. I imagine Period will go to The King's Speech, Fantasy to either Alice or Inception, and Contemporary to... Black Swan? I'm kinda disappointed The Ghost Writer didn't pop up there. Same with The Wolfman in Period.

My Award nominations: Adapted Screenplay

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, Robert Harris):
The script, cowritten by Polanski and novelist Robert Harris, is smart and ironic. Their style is simple and unfettered by needless genre tropes. The characters are written consistently with economical and effective dialogue. All around, a chilling and intelligent exercise in constructing tension.

Never Let Me Go (Alex Garland):
The film as a whole may have gone down as an admirable miss, but Garland's adaptation of Kuzuo Ishiguro's book is an elegant study of character and theme; themes about mortality, the intangibility of love, and how in the grand scheme of things, the amount of time we spend on this earth cannot quantify the lives we lead.

Rabbit Hole (David Lindsay-Abaire):
Lindsay-Abaire opens up his Pulitzer-winning play for the screen so effectively that you never would have guessed that it was based on a play. Understated grief and tactful humour mix to form an interesting emotional flavour. A fine study of not only coping with loss, but coping with other people's coping.

The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin):
If the movie has to belong to anyone, it's Aaron Sorkin. His loose adaptation of
Ben Mezrick's book slices through the perceived glory of the Internet with a cynical but perspicacious edge, extrapolating from a small group of characters to make comment on broader societal virtues and faults. The dialogue is deliciously verbose.

True Grit (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen):
Despite the conspicuous absence of their usually idiosyncratic personality, the Coens' faithful retelling of Charles Portis' novel provides a rip-roaring adventure tale with smooth character arcs, well-appointed comic relief, and delighfuly antiquated dialogue. Impeccably paced to boot.

Just missed: The American, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Town, The Way Back

Review - The Ghost Writer

Flying under the radar this year is Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, a slow-burning political thriller with intrigue to spare.

Ewan McGregor plays an acerbic writer hired to ghost write the memoirs of a retired British PM (Pierce Brosnan) at his seaside home in America. After a few puzzling discoveries, he begins uncovering secrets that reveal an unsettling truth, naturally putting him in a position of peril.

The script cowritten by Polanski and the novelist Robert Harris is smart and ironic. Polanski's style is simple and unflourishy, calling basically on the fine performances (and occasionally Alexandre Desplat's stringy score) to ease tension out of this gradual film. McGregor and Brosnan are both strong, while Olivia Williams provides the best turn as the former PM's suspiciously icy wife. The setting and production design add nicely to the chilly atmosphere.

Unfortunately, having flown beneath the radar most of the year, I can't imagine The Ghost Writer will earn any Oscar recognition. Pity, as consideration for Best Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress (Williams) would be most welcome.

*** out of ****