Oscar Nominations?

Sorry for being snappy joshua...I was having a bad day. I actually have high hopes for this movie. I read the book and the story was riviting. I can usually predict what's coming in a novel, but this tale kept surprising me. Patrick McGrath is awesome that way. When I first heard they were making this into a movie with Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson I was really excited. Even though I was dissapointed to hear that Liam had to back out, I'm still really excited about the project. It seems like a really great cast.
Regarding any OSCAR buzz...hmmm...I'm not so sure. Unfortunately, this kind of movie about a woman's psychological journey, probably won't have big box-office appeal on its side. I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. It's a facinating story. But look at what happened to Spider, another movie made from a Patrick McGrath novel, just over a year ago. Ralph Fiennes turned in a spell-binding performance, and David Cronenberg's direction was dead-on perfect. Not to mention Miranda Richardson's phenomenal portrayal of three diffrent characters. But, Not one nomination. Nada. Nothing. It's a shame.
But then again, maybe I'm just partial to twisted psychological tales. Others seemed to be more entertained by lighter fare.

I saw the movie at the Berlin film festival this year. I do not think this movie is geting any nominations. Even though it is a very good movie, it does not have oscar-type of qualities. I think Ian's character is way to odd, and the rest of the cast is good, but not oscar-material. But, as I said, the movie is very good. But there are many good movies which are not even close to oscar-nominations.

I am not about to dis the Oscars--I love them truly, although agree with their choices far less than half the time.

That being said...I saw this film yesterday and I would hasten to add that it will need serious critical consideration (year end Top 10 lists and critic's circle awards) to have any kind of chance for Oscar nominations. It has been a notoriously poor year thus far, which actually acts in the film's favor. Against it: the subject matter (not the prurience--the unrelieved grimness of it all), a production credit outside the USA, little machinery in the publicity department, etc. It's also a subtly nasty little piece of period irony, which also tends to fly under the radar of Hollywood's award givers.

Ian KcKellan may well be nominated; he is, as always, quite good, but we have seen this from him before and it's not the best supporting work in the film. I was actually astonished at how good Hugh Bonneville is--not because he isn't a already fine, established actor in his own right, but because his character is an absolute prick right from the start--and we somehow see something else at the end; he lets it seep through the cracks beautifully. It's a narrowly written and conceived role, but an altogether impressive performance. Richardson needed at least one scene with a real "letting go" to earn a nomination--she's very effective and brave but, again, the character is kept on too-tight a leash, so to speak, to get recognition come awards time.

By the way, I love Judy Parfitt and found her 3-word response to Richardson's excuse for being disheveled in the doorway the single best line reading in a movie in years. I cheered her in the cinema.

"Thank you, thank you--you're most kind. In fact you're every kind."

How is Marton Csokas in real life???
Is he nice/??