If I Picked the Winners: Best Adapted Screenplay 2008

    To get the idea behind this column, click here

  
     Before I get started on dissecting 2008's Best Adapted Screenplay race, I need to make an announcement about this column. I will be temporarily suspending this column either after this edition, or maybe next week's edition. Over the last week, I have been working hard on composing my own "100 Greatest Movies" list, and once it is done, I plan on releasing ten movies at a time each week, starting with 100-91. Since this will require a bit of time, I didn't want to attempt to do ten write-ups of some of my favorite movies and continue to rank different categories in Oscar history, which is why "If I Picked the Winners" will be going on a ten week hiatus while I count down my favorite movies.

     Now to the real point of this article: 2008. 2008 was an extremely disappointing year for me in terms of the Oscars (and the Super Bowl for that matter, but that discussion is better left for another blog).  The main reason for my dissatisfaction with the Academy Awards in 2008 was their sinful omission of "The Dark Knight", one the decade's greatest films, in the writing, directing, and picture categories. How on earth they managed to nominate typical "Oscar bait" films like "The Reader", "Frost/Nixon", "Milk", "Slumdog Millionaire", and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", but failed to nominate one of the most memorable movies in recent history is beyond me. In fact, I was so angered a movie that was so well received by the public and critics alike failed to live up to the Academy's "high-class" sensibilities, I considered boycotting the Oscars, but at the last minute I couldn't help but watch. The good part of this terrible snub was it lead the Academy to make some changes. Immediately, by the next year they expanded their Best Picture nominees to ten. The Academy felt this would make room for more movies from a variety of genres, such as action/drama films, which, with the very small sampling data of one year, has seemed to work so far.

     There were more problems though with the 2008 nominees than just "The Dark Knight". A number of other good films were mostly ignored by the Academy in favor of the stereo-typical films mentioned above. For instance,"Tropic Thunder" was one of the best comedies of the last decade in my book, but since the Academy has a perpetual bias against movies that make you laugh, it was not too surprising it did not get a Best Picture nomination. What was more surprising, was that three really good dramatic films, "Gran Torino", "Doubt", and "The Wrestler", failed to secure a Best Picture nomination, but garbage like "Frost/Nixon" did. What can I say, that's the Academy for you. Oh well, on to ranking the nominees.

     5. Peter Morgan for "Frost/Nixon"

      By now I'm sure you have picked up that I am no fan of Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon", and a big part of that has to do with the script of Peter Morgan. Peter Morgan has made a career out of writing these sort of "bio-pic" films that try to analyze real life historic figures in a "fair and balanced" way. The prime example of this is his script for 2006's "The Queen", a film which I have much more admiration for. This time around though, the attempt to look at the situation with unemotional objective eyes is fairly half-hearted. Now to be fair to Morgan, the queen never broke the law or ordered break-ins of her opponents headquarters (at least that I'm aware of), and making a narcissistic, paranoid old-man like Richard Nixon appear sympathetic is probably a tougher task than making an audience empathize with the queen. Even if the film did not want us to sympathize at all with Nixon (which I don't think is the case), I would have at least liked to have gotten a better understanding of who the man was. Instead, the script highlights emotional quirks of Nixon that are already widely known (mostly his hatred of the elite, who he felt always looked down on him). There is also nothing of real interest that we learn about Frost, a reporter of sorts, either, as the film settles for large themes instead nuanced details. At this point, it may be impossible to make an interesting film about Richard Nixon, but this movie sure didn't give it a very good an effort.

4. Eric Roth for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

     I actually liked this movie a bit more than the next two films, but the one thing that held back "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" from being the great movie it could have been was the writing. The script was written by Eric Roth, who is most famous for writing the screenplay of "Forrest Gump", and while I like "Forrest Gump" as much as the next person, the "Gump touch" is exactly what this film did not need. The screenplay is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (of "The Great Gatsby" fame), and while I have not read Fitzgerald's story, I'm pretty sure it did not include anything about hurricane Katrina or any of the Baby-Boomer's pop culture. These things don't play a big part in the film, but it annoyed me that they decided to put the story in modern day terms (probably because of the populace's extreme distaste for history about anything before they were born). Putting the generational shift aside though, the script still has some pretty big flaws, especially in the fact that none of the characters are very interesting. Think about it, we have a man who has the very bizarre case of living through life with a reversed aging process, and he really is nothing but a complete simpleton. No interesting perspective, no profound thoughts, not even anger at the isolation from the rest of humanity caused by his affliction. Nope. He is just a regular man, maybe slightly sadder than you're average human being. Wasted opportunity!

3. Simon Beaufoy for "Slumdog Millionaire"

  
     Simon Beaufoy's script for "Slumdog Millionaire" was the winner in this category, just like everything else attached to "Slumdog Millionaire". The movie was not only popular with the Academy though, as it also did pretty well at the box office. Unfortunately, I can not quite jump on the "Slumdog Millionaire" bandwagon that so many other people seemed to. I don't dislike the film, as it is a decent film, but there are some things that bother me about the movie that mostly have to do with the writing and directing. The film's script and direction rely heavily on obvious manipulation. When you're suppose to laugh, it's obvious you are suppose to laugh. When you're suppose to cry, it is obvious you are suppose to cry. When you're suppose to feel sad at character's betrayals, the film hits you over the head with the fact that a grand betrayal is occurring. The script paints in broad strokes, almost like a fairy tale. In fact, the film really does feel like a more adult version of a Disney film. If that sounds like a good thing to you (which it must for a good number of people judging by the box office returns), than you will probably love this film, if it sounds a little boring to you, than like me, you will probably end up feeling a little let down by the movie.

2. David Hare for "The Reader"

     I have to say, I am a little shocked that I ended up putting this at the number two spot. Overall, I am not a fan of "The Reader", but when I thought about it more, my reasons for disliking the film had more to do with directorial decisions than anything else. It is true there are some weaknesses in the story (which may have more to do with the book than David Hare's screenplay), but there are portions of the script that are stronger than anything else in the three previous screenplays. The weakest part of the movie is the first half of the film, which is totally obsessed with showing a teenage boy (David Kross) and an older ex-Nazi woman (Kate Winslett) having sex. I don't know if it was suppose to be shocking, but it was more boring than anything else, and it never really developed a meaningful and believable relationship between the two characters. The second half of the movie is much more interesting though, and is the reason I have it at the number two spot. The latter half of the film deals with the German people's responsibility during the war, and whether all ex-Nazi soldiers should be considered war criminals, or just soldiers caught up in yet another war. It is very well written and almost saves the movie from the pointless first half. It is an interesting debate, and for most part, the movie just presents the story without taking either side, which is why I give high marks to David Hare's script and put it above the script's of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Slumdog Millionaire", even though I liked those films better.

1.  John Patrick Shanley for "Doubt"

     My favorite screenplay out of the five nominee's is unsurprisingly the script from my favorite movie of the five, "Doubt". "Doubt" is based on a play by John Patrick Shanley (of Irish decent I'm guessing), who also wrote and directed this movie version. The story is about a catholic priest, played excellently by Philip Seymour Hoffman, with a shady past who comes to teach at a catholic school. The hard-nosed, disciplinarian head nun who runs the school (Meryl Streep), clashes with Hoffman's character who is a much more free-spirited person against the strict discipline of Streep and her ilk. Streep though begins to suspect Hoffman of sexually abusing one of the boys, while Hoffman claims Streep is just doing what she can to get rid of him because of their ideological differences, but he is also very wary of anyone digging into the past. Meanwhile, the sweet young nun (Amy Adams) is caught in between the two. One of the great parts of the screenplay is it never reveals whether or not Hoffman actually abused the boy (it never really even tips it's hand, putting clues on both sides of the argument), essentially giving the audience the perspective of Amy Adam's character. The only glaring weakness of the film is a terrible last line that is stereo-typical and over dramatic, but overall the story makes for a very compelling drama, and in my mind, is the clear choice out of the five nominees.

     As always, if you have any opinions on these five films or my ranking of the five films, let me know in the comment section down below.