Booooring....

Boring... That's my summary for the Golden Globe awards this year. And I'm not even convinced it was the lack of a real show that was so disappointing, or the annoying inane play-by-play, I think it was the winners themselves.

Maybe it's because I still haven't seen a few of the major nominees and winners. I meant to go see There Will be Blood this weekend, but didn't get there. Damages hasn't been shown on TV in Canada yet. Nor has Mad Men to my knowledge. Although I think I can get AMC, so maybe it was there and I just didn't know. Damages starts up here on Feb 18 on either Bravo or Showcase and I expect we'll get Mad Men, too.

A few comments about some winners in films you might not have seen...

Best director for Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Great film. Loved it. And I do think he probably deserves this award. It's a pretty challenging idea. The main character has "locked in syndrome" so the only part of this entire body the main character is able to move is his left eyelid. And the movie is in his POV. And it's a true story. So to turn that into a gripping film... Kudos to the director. Kudos too to Canadian actor Marie Josee Croze who plays his speech therapist. Because we're in his POV and only one eye works.. We see a lot of her face and hear a lot of her reciting the alphabet. And still. Gripping. And not sappy at all. This isn't my original thought, but one reviewer said something like "it could've degenerated into My Left Eyelid, but didn't" And that about sums it up for me. A tear jerker idea, but not tear jerker execution. A really great film.

Julie Christie in Away from Her. Again. A great film. A quiet film to be sure. (A Canadian film.) But well worth seeing and so romantic and sad. And the directorial debut of Sarah Polley. This must be coming out on DVD soon. Rent it.

Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose. This film was showing on the tiny screen (theatre 7) at my local 12 screen cinema for ages and finally I decided to check it out. And wow. This actress truly deserved to win something. But one piece of inane banter I did agree with, is that the movie is so not either a musical or a comedy... But there was tons of music in it and I suppose the producers thought she'd have a better chance in this category, especially since it was for a bio pic in French... But really powerful performance. I knew nothing about Edith Piaf going in and I was almost sobbing at the end. Very tragic life that woman lead. And while she wasn't entirely sympathetic, the actress at least made her very interesting.

A quick word on the supporting actress in a drama category. Cate totally deserved this in my opinion. But so did Amy Ryan and so did little Saoirse Ronan who I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of soon. (I heard she was cast in The Lovely Bones and was in at least one other film I saw at the festival this year, playing not only a completely different character, but using a different accent, and she was great in both.)
Also, Tilda Swinton deserved this. I still haven't seen Charlie Wilson's War, so I can't really comment on Julia Roberts, but this was certainly a talent packed list of nominees this year.

Okay. Enough commentary on a snoresville poor excuse for an awards show. Everyone involved, please, please figure out a way to give us the Oscars. I totally support the strike and can understand why actors wouldn't want to cross picket lines... but the Oscars. Please!

(Oh, and talking about actors and writers in the same sentence reminded me of another nice surprise. Tina Fey. Go, Tina. You Rock. (Pun intended.))