Ray and Walk the Lineare unusually similar in plot construction (traumatizing early experience; the death of a brother haunts genius musician as he rises to fame, falls to addiction, and is rescued by the love of a good woman) and general genre and subject matter (rock-star biopic). So why did I like the Johnny Cash pic so much more than the Ray Charles pic --especially when I'm partial to the Ray music? There's a few reasons but they mostly end up dovetailing quite neatly into this one: Great chemistry. It's a rare commodity. Reese & Joaquin have it. More movies could use it. Romantic dramas (another genre to which Walk the Line belongs) live and die by it.
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I don't use the word "stupid" that often to describe a movie of seeming intelligence, but Ray was indeed stupid. Just utterly dumb. That final half hour was some of the worst cinematic plotting I've ever witnessed. And then he sold a bunch of albums - we know this because of a bad powerpoint presentation.
Blech.
-Glenn
...I took my girlfriend to Ray last year, and we both checked our watches every five minutes after the first ninety. And yet she told her mother yesterday that it's one of the best films she's seen in a long time. Ugh.
Anyway, Nathaniel, I think you're definitely on to something. Maybe Ray's problem was that it was simply TOO MUCH Ray (and, subsequently, TOO MUCH Jamie Foxx). Walk the Line adds to the mix a developed heroine, and that keeps the movie balanced.
Do you think both of them are headed for wins? Judging from the weakness of the category, I think Witherspoon has a real chance of going on to win Best Actress, seeing as Judi Dench has already been Oscared.
I am getting surer and surer of Witherspoon's golden globe win in M/C. That will put her in good stead for the oscar, since her main competitors (Allen, Dench) are also in the M/C category. It will be hard for either of them to gain momentum over Reese if she beats them early on at the globes.
It seems that Knightley will actually be in comedy according to most, so then WHO on earth could win the drama globe? Maybe that is good news for Natasha.
Focus are going to kill P&P if they go M&C. The Academy will not allow more than three Musical/Comedy nominees from the Globes into their throes.
ugh. Plus, seriously. IT'S A DRAMATIC MOVIE!!! God, don't they even watch their own product. The whole "comedy of manners" thing is overdone. It's a dramatic movie.
On the subject of Ray, it seems like it's one of thise movies that some people (as in, people I know - i can't talk about others) say they really like because it seems important, and it's one of those movies that people can say they like as much as the Academy. Same goes for Finding Neverland
-Glenn
Well this is mainly from David Poland. I don't know. He has Keira in M/C. I don't really trust him, though.
It's worth noting that the HFPA, not the studios, has the final say as to category placement for the Globes.
Nice. I was not clear on that, but that's what I thought. Now hopefully the HFPA will put P&P in drama. I think they will; they probably want to give Keira that trophy.
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