By ALEX
FUNG
Last updated: 2002/01/31
Golden Globe Reactions
Two weeks after New Line's monster project The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring vaulted forwards in this year's unusually-heated Oscar race by winning the AFI Movie Of The Year honour, Universal's A Beautiful Mind struck back by knocking off Frodo and the gang to capture the Best Picture - Drama Golden Globe. Ron Howard's film was the big winner of the evening, racking up four trophies, while Fox's anachronistic musical Moulin Rouge followed closely with three Golden Globe wins including Best Picture - Comedy/Musical and asserted itself as a topflight contender for a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
Unlike the AFI Awards, the turnout for the Golden Globes award ceremony was characteristically strong, with numerous A-list celebrities jetting in from around the world (Nicole Kidman from a film shoot in Sweden; others arriving from the aftermath of the annual Sundance Film Festival) making appearances, and the NBC telecast knocked off its Sunday evening competition in drawing the largest audience for the Globes in three years.
The biggest angle to this year's Golden Globes was the strong showing by Australian talent -- nine Aussies were nominated for honours, with six of them netting trophies: Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge took the Best Picture - Comedy/Musical, with star Nicole Kidman and composer Craig Armstrong winning their respective categories, Russell Crowe won Best Actor - Drama for his work in A Beautiful Mind, terrific veteran actress Judy Davis scooped up yet another award for her portrayal of an icon in the TV-movie Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows, and Rachel Griffiths scored a Globe for her role in the HBO film Six Feet Under. National pride surely must've been swelling Down Under in the wake of the Aussie dominance on display at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and it's certainly possible that there may be more celebrations to come; Australian performers are poised to factor heavily into this year's slate of Oscar nominees.
The NBC telecast opened with the usual montage of star arrivals on the red carpet backed by a hideous musical theme which re-lyricized the equally-putrid Jennifer Lopez tune "Waiting For Tonight"; I was amused that the rewritten lyrics cited A Beautiful Mind's Hollywood A-list director Ron Howard as Opie: the man still gets no respect.
As in the Oscars, rather than presenting their awards in ostensibly-ascending order of magnitude, the Golden Globes typically kick off their ceremony by announcing the winners in the supporting categories. In a crowded (six nominees) field which contained Vanilla Sky's Cameron Diaz, Gosford Park co-stars Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith, In The Bedroom's Marisa Tomei, and Iris's younger incarnation Kate Winslet -- all of whom were in attendance -- Jennifer Connelly won the first Golden Globe statuette of the evening for her performance as a faithful long-suffering wife in A Beautiful Mind. On the basis of her earlier AFI Supporting Actress win, various honours from film critics groups and the overall middle-of-the-road popularity Ron Howard's film has achieved, Connelly's Globe win positions her as the probable frontrunner in the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award race; she's almost certain to rack up a nomination. It'll be particularly interesting to see which of the quintet of nominated actress who failed to beat out Connelly will similarly fail to make the final cut come mid-February -- these are arguably the six strongest contenders to score Oscar nominations, and it's unlikely that the apparent tie which permitted a field of the six for the Golden Globes will hold up for Academy Award nomination balloting. (As mentioned in Oscar Column #07, I've still yet to see Winslet in Iris, but I would not be terribly unhappy if Cameron Diaz was among those left out in the cold; I like her as an actress, but she was unremarkable in the Cameron Crowe film and has been far better elsewhere -- in Being John Malkovich, of course, but even in stuff like My Best Friend's Wedding. For what it's worth, despite Vanilla Sky being virtually a scene-for-scene remake, I found Alejandro Amenábar's original Open Your Eyes to be superior in virtually every single respect -- perhaps my biggest disappointment of the year. Nice one, Crowe.)
Continuing in the long-suffering spouse theme, the first major surprise of the night -- well, apparently a few people called it, but I hadn't expected this at all -- saw Jim Broadbent score the Golden Globe for his performance as John Bayley, the husband of British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch who tends to her through Alzheimer's disease, in Richard Eyre's biopic Iris. Broadbent, who's also a possibility (though an increasingly remote one) this year for Moulin Rouge, beat out a list of Golden Globe supporting candidates that included Ghost World's popular Steve Buscemi, Life As A House's Hayden Christensen, Sexy Beast's newly-knighted Ben Kingsley, the absent Jude Law of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and Angelina's papa, Jon Voight for Ali. Clearly flustered, Broadbent stammered out an awkward acceptance speech, amusingly qualifying his thanks to table-cheerleader Kate Winslet by adding that he didn't act opposite her in the film; he seemed thoroughly overwhelmed by the moment. Given the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's predilection for glamorous stars, I hadn't really counted on character actor Broadbent to factor into the Globes race; his win here would seem to make his Iris Supporting Actor Oscar bid to be his primary one over his performance in Moulin Rouge, although he's professed equal devotion to both films.
In a sign that's indicative of the HFPA's affection towards the film, Akiva Goldsman took the Screenplay Globe for his adaptation of Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind, beating out Gosford Park's Julian Fellowes, the Coen Brothers for The Man Wasn't There, AFI Screenwriter of the Year Christopher Nolan for Memento, and Mulholland Dr.'s David Lynch. As an aside -- everyone realizes that this is the same Akiva Goldsman that penned the scripts for Batman Forever ("Holy rusted metal!"), Batman And Robin ("BOMB!"), and A Time To Kill ("Turn 'im loose!"), right? Just checking. Okay, that was a cheap shot -- Goldsman's USC Scripter Award-winning screenplay for A Beautiful Mind is clearly superior to that terrible trio -- but I hardly consider it to be a script worth getting excited about, particularly when faced off against competition such as Nolan's unorthodox Memento, Lynch's original Mullholland Dr. or Fellowes' spritely effort. That being said, Goldsman's obviously en route to an Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination -- this can be engraved in stone -- and seems likely to fend off competition from the likes of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, In The Bedroom, The Shipping News, Legally Blonde (okay, just kidding), Shrek and others to win the Academy Award outright. As ever, it was great fun to watch the perpetually unamused expression on Russell Crowe's face as an excited Goldsman (who blurted that he'd never won an award before -- no way, get outta here) delivered his acceptance speech; and to think Ralph Fiennes was the one who was cracking jokes about never smiling.
Moulin Rouge composer Craig Armstrong beat out a field of eight -- the HFPA really ought to be a little more decisively selective when it comes to the Original Score category -- to win the Golden Globe for his music in the film. The HFPA are somewhat unreliable as Oscar predictors when it comes to scores -- only one of the last three Globe-winning composers has gone on to even receive an Oscar nomination -- but given that Armstrong's racked up three Score prizes during awards season to date -- in addition to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, he won over the AFI and took a Golden Satellite -- he seems like a viable possibility to score an Oscar nomination. [LATE NOTE: It has been pointed out to me that Armstrong's score is not eligible for Academy consideration. More on that in the next column.] (Interestingly, Armstrong failed to even get nominated by the Australian Film Institute for his work in the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film -- odd, that.) Among the non-winning Golden Globe nominees, I'm confident that James Horner's A Beautiful Mind score and Howard Shore's The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring music will be cited by the Academy in mid-February, and am hopeful that Angelo Badalamenti's ominous Mulholland Dr. score will succeed in making the cut.
Say, was my television fuzzy, or was Ewan McGregor wearing eyeliner? What was this, Velvet Goldmine II?
To little surprise, Nicole Kidman won her second career Best Actress - Musical/Comedy Golden Globe for her performance as the cabaret singer Satine in Moulin Rouge, beating out the likes of Ghost World's Thora Birch (a real internet favourite, by the sounds of it), chameleonistic Cate Blanchett of Bandits, the talented Reese Witherspoon of Legally Blonde (disappointing film, if you ask me), and probably her closest rival in Bridget Jones's Diary's Renée Zellweger, who took the Globe in this category last year for her work in Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty. The last time Kidman won a Golden Globe (in Gus Van Sant's To Die For), she failed to net a reciprocating Academy Award nomination for the Globe-winning performance, and it's entirely possible that she might duplicate the feat this year -- Kidman might instead be nominated for The Others, or fail to make the cut altogether. However, her Globe win for Moulin Rouge has given her Oscar prospects a real boost -- I hadn't anticipated that her hopes would receive such a charge in the wake of the Luhrmann film's strong overall showing at the HFPA event -- and it may very well be the case that her chances might be best should she ride Moulin Rouge over The Others as her chosen performance. (I continue to think that she was both stronger in the Amenábar film and that the general elements of her performance make that more Oscar nomination-friendly, but the Moulin Rouge performance has indeed, as several prophesied, picked up a barrelful of momentum.) Kidman's giddy acceptance speech was disappointingly unremarkable in content, predictably touching on her excitement at the opportunity to perform in a musical and doffing her hat to friend Baz Luhrmann.
With The Royal Tenenbaums's Gene Hackman snaring the Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical/Comedy, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association continued their string of honouring performances from different films -- at this point, actors from A Beautiful Mind, Moulin Rouge and Iris had already been cited. As with his AFI Best Featured Actor win, Hackman was not present to pick up his statuette -- he was the only no-show of the evening; it was explained that the actor missed his plane connection, which in itself was surprising since he customarily avoids award shows altogether -- and given his victories here and with the AFI and National Society of Film Critics (more on them in an upcoming column), he has to be strongly considered as a possible Best Actor Oscar nominee. To be honest, I'm a little surprised that the HFPA were able to digest The Royal Tenenbaums -- despite the A-list ladened cast, I didn't think the film was sufficiently accessible and mainstreamed for this crowd. Ewan McGregor's failure to win here probably spells the doom for his Oscar chances; I thought his work in Moulin Rouge was wildly charismatic, but concede that he was a major underdog from the get-go.
To my surprise, the Sting tune from the James Mangold romantic comedy Kate & Leopold, "Until...", won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. (Judging by his seat placement near the back of the room, the event organizers must've found Sting's win unexpected. And on that note, it was sort of fun to see A-list movie star Brad Pitt relegated to a spot near the middle of the room at the Friends table.) I still haven't listened to this song yet, but had expected any of the other four nominees -- the Oscar-ineligible "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge, "May It Be" from The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, "There You'll Be" from Pearl Harbor (Diane was in attendance!), or the McCartney title track to Vanilla Sky -- would stand a better shot at taking the Globe. An Oscar nomination seems near-certain, and with no dominant contender in the field, one would now tend to think that the Sting song has reasonable good shot at an Oscar win, although I'll note again that the HFPA's record with music is somewhat spotty.
In the first Best Picture Globe presentation of the evening, Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge won, beating out the DreamWorks blockbuster Shrek (and Gosford Park, Bridget, etc.) In terms of the scope of the Oscar race, this was probably a pretty major development -- had Shrek won, its prospects for netting both Animated Feature and the much-coveted Best Picture Oscar nominations would've been aided significantly; as it stands, it continues to face an uphill battle on the latter goal. A Gosford Park win would've boded most promisingly for an eventual Best Picture Oscar nomination. Instead, it's Moulin Rouge that reaps the benefit of the Golden Globe victory, and this high-visibility win has succeeded in energizing the Fox campaign and getting the film back onto the lips of those in the media; momentum is now clearly on its side and its candidacy for an Oscar nomination has been solidified. Moulin Rouge is by no means a lock for an Academy Award nomination -- if you ask me, there's only one film whose potential absence from the short list would be an absolute jaw-dropper -- but it has vaulted into the upper echelon of the seven or eight features vying for the five spots in the Best Picture stack.
Gosford Park struck with its first (and only) award of the evening via Robert Altman's win of the Best Director Golden Globe; while A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge had performed strongly with the HFPA, their respective directors Ron Howard and Baz Luhrmann were left on the sidelines. (Although Howard didn't win, his evening was hardly a wash given the salubrious praise he received from his Globe-winning collaborators.) Unlike the AFI Awards, the veteran filmmaker was in attendance and took to the podium to deliver a somewhat awkward speech (though I appreciated his acknowledgement of his famous irascibility when he noted that mentioning USA Films was doing right by Gosford meant a lot coming from him); his quip about the Brit-heavy content aspect of his film only drew a requisite courtesy chuckle. Nevertheless, Altman's twin killings at the AFI and Globes mark him as a probable Best Director Oscar nominee in spite of his shutout with the Directors Guild of America (more on those in a later column); I figure he'll receive a nomination.
Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren were probably seated too close to each other.
If you believe the gossip columnists, according to Liz Smith's January 22nd column, during the evening Crowe gave nineteen-year-old Ghost World star Thora Birch "an intense twice-over". At last year's Golden Globe ceremony, Crowe reportedly went after (and was spurned by) then-eighteen-year-old Leelee Sobieski. Perhaps the HFPA is putting something in all that free booze. Parents, lock up your starlets.
A listless Ben Affleck (tapped to take over the Jack Ryan series) took the stage to present the Cecil B. DeMille Award to notoriously reclusive Harrison Ford. (The series of expressionless shots of Ford during the tribute as he watched the various clips from his filmography being screened was hilarious; I would've thought that he might've shown some reaction to the clips from The Mosquito Coast, which was apparently close to his heart.) Greeted with the obligatory standing ovation, Ford was particularly effusive this year, attempting to crack a joke and uttering multiple sentences in his acceptance speech.
Sissy Spacek continued her dominance in this year's award season, taking home the Best Actress - Drama Golden Globe for her performance in Todd Field's In The Bedroom. Clearly a mortal lock for an Oscar nomination, the Academy Award winner for Coal Miner's Daughter beat out strong competition in the form of Monster's Ball star Halle Berry, Iris' Judi Dench, Globe-winner Nicole Kidman, this time for The Others, and The Deep End's Tilda Swinton to win the HFPA prize. Spacek has been exceptionally active in campaigning for an Oscar nomination -- she's been on just about every TV program and, along with co-star Marisa Tomei has made appearances at all the to-be-seen events -- and this is clearly paying dividends. While some pundits have opined that should Nicole Kidman receive an Oscar nomination (for either of her performances), she'd be the leading contender, Spacek's string of successes with various film groups and critics' organizations would seem to make her the probable actress to beat in this year's Oscar race.
Russell Crowe netted A Beautiful Mind its second acting Globe of the night by winning his first Golden Globe for his portrayal of troubled mathematician John Nash, beating out Ali's Will Smith, Kevin Spacey of The Shipping News, The Man Who Wasn't There's Billy Bob Thornton, and AFI winner Denzel Washington for Training Day. Given his strong record with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- he'd been previously nominated twice without winning the statuette -- and the film's solid reception by the group, Crowe's win was fully expected, and he's both a lock to score his third consecutive Best Actor Oscar nomination come mid-February and in a solid position to become the first performer since Tom Hanks to score consecutive Academy Award wins. I'm constantly impressed that Crowe can appear so dour and unapproachable during awards shows but then can fire off solid, amiable acceptance speeches.
That Johnnie Cochrane-like "YES!" which you might've heard off in the distance during the Globes telecast was probably me in reaction to No Man's Land beating out Miramax's heavily-hyped and -favoured Amélie to net the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Once considered a lock for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, Amélie's shoo-in standing in that Oscar category now seems in jeopardy, and its aspirations for a Best Picture Oscar nomination now seem all but dead -- that it could not win the Foreign Film Golden Globe does not reflect well upon it. (I will grant that Audrey Tautou's heavily-accented award presentation in another category earlier in the night was charming.) As for No Man's Land, it seems en route for an Academy Award nomination in the Foreign Language Film field and may very well stir up more trouble for the Gallic pixie in the future.
Finally, A Beautiful Mind completed its dominance over rival The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring by capping off the evening with the Best Picture - Drama Golden Globe. Longtime partners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard were clearly thrilled with their film's victory and issued an excited acceptance speech. The film is a lock for an Oscar nomination, and is undoubtedly one of the very top contenders to ultimately win the year's Best Picture Academy Award; its pedigree is complete -- mainstream, accessible, popular hit (it'll crack $100 million domestic any day now), amiable director, award-winning performers, ostensibly tackles a serious, weighty topic.
I fared horribly with my Golden Globe winner predictions, going a laughable 4 for 13 (although I hasten to add that I did predict Harrison Ford would win); within hours of the ceremony's wrap, I'd already received my first trash-talking e-mail. In all cases where I was torn (Moulin Rouge vs. Shrek, Akiva Goldsman vs. Christopher Nolan) or decided to defy common wisdom to go out on a limb (Ewan McGregor over Gene Hackman), it backfired, but at least only Jim Broadbent and Sting's Golden Globe wins struck me as thoroughly unexpected. Ah, the perils of trying to predict winners in a year filled with such close races -- I won't be surprised if I fare similarly with this year's Oscar winners. (Hopefully I'll do a wee bit better with the nominations, though I expect it's clear that the purpose of these columns are to examine the various Oscar races and disseminate information -- I sure hope reader[s] are reading, considering, and either accepting or rejecting what I have to say, not following it blindly.) In any case, I wish I could feel more mortified about my poor showing with the Globe winners, but truth be told, I'm mostly concerned that there won't be any nominated performances or films I can fully get behind.
Next column: either the guild awards, the major critics' awards, or a hodgepodge of other developments in the Oscar race. Or maybe a big piece touching on all of them.
Feedback or inquiries are welcome and may be reproduced (and edited where necessary) in subsequent columns -- e-mail me. (Please indicate if you wish to remain anonymous; pseudonyms are also acceptable.)
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca)
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