2003 Fall Movie Preview
September 7, 2003
If there is one thing that summer is good at, it’s going too fast. The season comes and goes faster than you can say lake effect snowstorm and summer 2003 was no exception. It seemed like it rained for a good 75% of the time, leaving precious few nice days to get out and golf, or bike, or whatever. But, if the season is maddeningly quick, and wet, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as fall and winter bring their upsides as well. For one, school is back in session, good for residents content with a quiet neighborhood that is generally ruled by screaming rugrats during the dog days. Secondly, football is finally back, and anyone tired of endless (yet exciting in September) baseball pennant races and a much talked about Tiger slump can rejoice in the weekend rituals of great college ball and overpriced professionals smacking each other around in the NFL.
But besides football and neighborhood serenity, fall brings with it a change in attitude (and quality) to the nations cinema screens. The summer movie season is heavy on action and little on brains; which usually makes for okay escapism and big weekend numbers for studios looking to cash in on the availability of teenagers and matinees. This summer saw a few shining diamonds in the mainstream rough (“Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Finding Nemo”) and more than a handful of independent gems (“Whale Rider”, “Owning Mahowny”, “Winged Migration”) but true movie fans look forward to the beginning of September when all of the schlock is bagged for a year, the volume is turned down to seven, and the “prestige” pictures are rolled out in so much Oscar fervor. Yes, September officially kicks off that crazy period of six months known as the Oscar race, and this year looks like, from a very early standpoint anyway, it could be anybodies game.
This year we have previous winners returning with new pictures and some heavily touted newcomers who, like Rob Marshall last year with “Chicago”, could wow audiences and critics alike. In continuing a mini-2003 trend, Ron Howard, two years removed from a Best Director Oscar for “A Beautiful Mind” saddles up with a Western called “The Missing” (De. 10), with previous nominee Cate Blanchett starring as a single mother on the post-Civil War frontier whose life suddenly becomes much more complicated when her tyrannical wilderness father (Tommy Lee Jones) reappears after years of abandonment. Sounds interesting, and Howard, who passed on an opportunity to direct Dennis Quaid in the potential Oscar-bait “The Alamo” (Dec. 25), a remake of the flawed John Wayne epic, could find himself in the midst of a major post ‘Grinch comeback.
Howard’s two stars of “A Beautiful Mind” have high hopes this fall with two big studio releases. The lovely Jennifer Connelly gets the opportunity to lead a big picture with “House of Sand and Fog” (November), based on a novel by Andre Dubus III. Connelly stars opposite Ben Kingsley (always riveting) as a recovering alcoholic who has to put up with losing her house over some bad tax trouble that causes her to shame spiral. Purportedly a dark melodrama, this potential Best Picture nominee is directed by first timer Vadim Perelman with heavy expectations and will be Dreamworks’ golden chalice.
As for Russell Crowe, who seems to be nominated in everything he does lately, will be headlining Peter Weir’s epic boat picture “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” (Nov. 14). Despite an awkwardly long title, this film could coast on Crowe and Weir’s (his first film since “The Truman Show”) reputations alone, and with the current popularity of high seas adventures (see ‘Pirates and its $230 million plus gross) and a big box office it could possibly snatch away a Best Picture nomination from current frontrunner “Seabiscuit”, which will have trouble keeping up with a crowded field come late December.
Most would agree that a slow rollout in the late months of the year is best for a potential non-blockbuster, but two early fall releases from esteemed directors may covet some big time mainstream attention. Clint Eastwood was widely hailed at Cannes this year for his latest drama, “Mystic River” (Oct. 8), about the offshoot lives of three grown men (Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon) marred by the childhood nightmares of sexual molestation. Reportedly dark and acted to the fullest emotion (with a cast that also includes previous nominee Laura Linney and Best Supporting Actress Marcia Gay Harden) “Mystic River” could potentially put the 73-year-old director back in the limelight.
Ridley Scott tries to continue his hot streak of Best Director nominations (“Gladiator”, “Black Hawk Down”) with “Matchstick Men” (September 12), a quirky comedy starring Nicolas Cage in a classic Nicolas Cage performance as an obsessive compulsive conman and his relationship with his estranged 14-year-old daughter (Alison Lohman). Conman films are tricky to say the least, but with Cage and Scott in fine form, and based on early raves from Ebert & Roeper, this dramedy looks to be a sleeper hit.
Aside from the major Oscar-bait films, fall always brings new, anticipated offerings from more artistic minded auteurs. The prolific Robert Altman takes his usual zoom lens gaze at ballet (yes, ballet) with another great ensemble cast in “The Company” (Dec. 25), while the aging Woody Allen looks to regain some of his lost magic with “Anything Else” (September 19). A tale of two masters, Altman is still in top form, while Allen (whose last film “Hollywood Ending” was excruciatingly unfunny) could use a hit, and this film set in Manhattan (familiar Allen territory) starring Christina Ricci and Jimmy Fallon (of SNL fame) doesn’t necessarily look like it’s going to be it.
Some big names returning with potential masterpieces (I use that term very cautiously) are Errol Morris with his acclaimed documentary “Fog of War” about Kennedy Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Tim Burton with a literary adaptation of “Big Fish”, Gus Van Sant with his Palm D’or winner “Elephant”, a film both loved and hated for its depiction of a Columbine style school massacre, Quentin Tarantino with “Kill Bill”, a film reportedly so long Miramax is releasing it in two parts, Volume One is due in October, and John Woo, the action master, with a film starring Ben Affleck called “Paycheck”. Both Woo and Affleck could use a hit after such flops as “Wind Talkers” and the monumentally reviled “Gigli”.
It certainly looks like it’s going to be a good fall for directors, especially with new, highly anticipated films by Jane Campion (“In the Cut”, with an Oscar worthy, career defining Meg Ryan performance), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“21 Grahams”, the Mexican “Amores Perros” directors first American film), The Coen Brothers (with a swipe at the mainstream with the George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones comedy “Intolerable Cruelty”) and Canadian master Denys Arcand (with the Cannes favorite weepy “The Barbarian Invasions”). Also of note, and premiering along with most of these films at the Toronto Film Festival this week, will be Sofia Coppola’s second film “Lost in Translation” with Bill Murray as a washed up actor losing what dignity he has left in Japan doing lame television spots, until he meets a similarly bored American woman, played by “Ghost World” actress Scarlett Johansson. Murray, who usually shines in more serious minded fare, like his masterful performances in “Rushmore” and “Groundhog Day”, and Coppola, who has somehow stolen the reigns from her father as the families best director, look to give September an early art house hit.
In the almost surefire blockbuster department, the Wachowski Brothers’ license to print money expires with the final chapter of their sci-fi trilogy, “The Matrix Revolutions” (Nov. 5), which will hopefully be a bit less confusing and a lot more satisfying than “Matrix Reloaded”. Perhaps the most prestigious Christmas gift this year is “Cold Mountain”, written and directed by “The English Patient” Best Director Anthony Minghella, starring the likes of Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellweger. Based on the bestseller by Charles Frazier, this seemingly simple Civil War tale cost 83 million dollars to make, so you can bet Miramax will throw all of its Oscar campaign weight behind it.
Finally, the two films I’m most anticipating, two huge epics that, as best as we can predict, will be the two duking it out for Best Picture in February; Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai” (Dec. 5) and Peter Jackson’s conclusion to his masterpiece of a trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (Dec. 17). At the conclusion of this preview, I am overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, 14 stories high at the Sands hotel and casino in Atlantic City, so in a betting mood, I’d wager early money on ‘Return of the King to be rewarded Best Pic of 2003, half on its own merits, and half to hail the trilogy as a whole. But don’t count out Cruise and Ed Zwick (whose best film, “Glory” holds a place on my top 100 of all time list) with their massive Kurosawa homage; if buzz and previews mean anything, and they do, “The Last Samurai” could slice up the competition.
Right now it’s just too early to tell which of any of these films will live up to the hype, as the winds of change blow in unpredictable directions, but boy is it going to be fun to watch.
Endnote: This preview focused only on potential good films, so don’t get me wrong, with Eddie Murphy in “The Haunted Mansion” and Will Farrell in the funny, but quizzically creepy “Elf”, there should still be plenty of junk this holiday season, and I’m not talking about your Grandma’s Christmas fruitcake.
by Adam Suraf