Bafta noms reveal The Road less enjoyed
Bafta noms reveal The Road less enjoyed
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Thursday, 21, Jan 2010 01:09
The unsurprising - and largely deserved - spate of nominations for The Hurt Locker, Avatar and An Education are probably the least remarkable facet of this year's Bafta nominations.
Yes, the Bafta voters are to be commended for their nods to In the Loop and Moon, with both films mostly ignored by other voting bodies. Yes, the directorial nomination for District 9's Neill Blomkamp is to be savoured, representing a willingness to celebrate the new rather than plump for well-made, unmistakeable Oscar bait such as Precious. And yes, it's with a sigh of relief that one can read the hugely justified nominations for the mighty British trio of Andy Serkis and Nowhere Boy's triple-barrelled duo Kristen Scott-Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff.
But, for this writer, the most notable aspect of the Bafta nominations list is the extent to which it mirrors the Golden Globes categories and, with depressingly likelihood, the Oscars' eventual shortlists, in all but entirely neglecting John Hillcoat's incredible The Road.
I'm at a loss as to why the Cormac McCarthy adaptation is receiving scant approval from awards panels, despite its almost universal critical acclaim and buzz that began as soon as the first trailer surfaced. Is it too bleak? Maybe, but Precious and The Hurt Locker are hardly heartwarming stories, yet both have received countless nominations. In its horribly evocative creation of a future we might be marching hopelessly towards, is The Road too prescient and relevant for awards voters to stomach? Well, possibly, but so much of the success of Up In The Air comes from the fortuitous coincidence of Jason Reitman's film being released as the economic meltdown claims jobs across the globe. Is the allegory of The Boy - the brilliant young Kodi Smit-McPhee could feel aggrieved at his lack of nominations too - as the saviour of mankind painted with too heavy a hand? I would argue Hillcoat doesn't hammer the home the point nearly as forcefully as McCarthy did in the source novel, but it's possible that voters may have been put off by the scene in which The Man (Viggo Mortensen) and The Boy encounter ageing, all-but-blind soothsayer Eli (Robert Duvall). But if we're shying away from allegory and subtext in this year's awards nominations, how the hell do you explain the overflowing trophy cabinet of Avatar? James Cameron's film is visually magnificent, a feast for the imagination and the eyes that could change film as we know it. As a story, however… We've all seen the snarky comparisons of the script to Pocahontas, Ferngully and Dances With Wolves, and Cameron could only make his point about US imperialism more blatantly if he ran it in Papyrus font subtitles across the screen. And while we're on the subject of Avatar - a film I greatly enjoyed, by the way - it's a fatuous point to say the production delays and shifted release date for The Road might have cost it dearly. How long have we waited for Avatar?
If The Hurt Locker or Up In The Air claims the best picture Oscar in March, I won't be too unhappy. I couldn't even argue a great deal with Avatar's triumph in the best drama category at the Golden Globes - it might be a genre film, but it's an outstanding creation and like Peter Jackson's The Return of the King, a film for which awards voters would be right to recognise as epochal. But having been greatly moved by my - at the time of writing - two miserable and life-affirming trips along The Road - I fervently hope that, come February 2nd and the Academy's revelation of the ten films shortlisted for the best picture Oscar, The Road takes its place alongside Avatar, The Hurt Locker and the other shoo-ins.
Lewis Bazley