OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2009)
The Nominees Were...
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, and Tony Roche, In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
My Thoughts: We
now (finally) move into the Big 8 of 2009, the categories people actually seem
to care about (though, if we’re being fair, does the average Oscar viewer care
about anything other than Picture, the acting winners and the dresses-sad but
fair thought). Thanks to this
being the first of the “expanded” Best Picture years, we have almost an
entirely Best Picture-nominated lineup, so to give some credit to the film the
producers skipped, let’s start with In
the Loop.
At the time, I knew very little of In the Loop, and had never seen the original television series from
which it was spun off entitled The Thick
of It. I feel like if I had
seen it, I would have been a much bigger fan. The movie has twists and turns a plenty, reading almost like
a play, and it’s easy to see why AMPAS signed on as a fan-the script is clearly
the star in a way that none of the actors could be. However, the overall plotting of the film leans a bit too
heavy on the quirky British humor without lending itself to the script, and
most importantly, I feel like you miss out on parts of the movie if you aren’t
familiar with the original television series. Overall, not a bad decision by the Academy, exactly, but definitely
an odd one and not one I would have made.
A more unusual nomination would have to be for District 9, which I was quite stunned
was included. Science
fiction/fantasy films, even ones that get nominated for Best Picture, don’t
always factor into the writing races (look at Avatar or Gravity for
proof). This isn’t because the
script is bad-it’s actually quite fetching and keeps the action up in an
obvious way, but this is genre in a category that likes theatrical adaptations
and bringing giant novels to life.
District 9’s story is more of
a star than the actual dialogue, which gets a bit blasé toward the end (we’re
judging on a curve here, naturally, since this is the “best” adapted screenplay
we’re going for). Like In the Loop, I found District 9 in the middle in terms of
quality-strong in parts, weak in others, and is otherwise quite solid but not
spectacular.
Far more up-AMPAS’s speed in terms of giant novels is Precious (the elongated title, for those
who don’t remember, was because a separate film called Push starring Chris Evans was released at the same time). The novel was a huge hit in the
mid-1990’s for Sapphire, and it’s an impressive story to tell. I loved the way that the story only
gives us doses of Mary Jones throughout the film, alternating between the
growing changes in Precious’s life and the way that Mary Jones brings her back
to her hellish reality. The script
probably didn’t need her movements into fantasy (the daydreaming about her
imaginary boyfriend and life on MTV seemed out-of-place in the script), but
rarely has a film found such richness in such sparse dialogue. Think of the way that Mary Jones talks
in the scene where she justifies her actions. There is very little traditional “big moment” monologue
sentences. Instead, we get only a
brief explanation from her. I love
the way that the dialogue gets more relaxed behind closed doors as well-as if
we’re peering in on the different versions of Precious and Mary Jones. A strong triumph from a writer who was
making his screen debut.
I find that it’s odd in hindsight which films were
considered upsets and which ones weren’t for a win. Now it seems certain that Precious, which has had a far greater staying power in the public
consciousness, was the victor here, but at the time most pundits (including
myself) thought that Up in the Air would
be the victor, considering that its never-honored director wrote the film and
that it starred can-do-no-wrong George Clooney. The script for that film, like all of Reitman’s films, is
taut and clever. You see the dance
that Clooney’s Ryan Bingham can weave, and I love the way that Anna Kendrick’s
firing scene proceeds, with her straying only slightly from the planned script
for the scene. What’s nice about
this film in comparison to Reitman’s works with Diablo Cody is that it’s still
grounded in reality. No one in
real life talks like Juno, but unfortunately you find Ryan Bingham’s every
day. The film is probably
Reitman’s best for this reason (though admittedly Juno has grown exponentially on me through the years).
Finally, we have a film that I loved more than most: An Education. Perhaps because this film is adapted by the most
accomplished of the screenwriters, we find that there is no sparkle in the
words and phrases. Certain key moments
in the film echo throughout the rest of the film not only because of Carey
Mulligan’s delivery (“I feel old, but not very wise”) but because of the
crispness of the dialogue. Like
nearly every film that doesn’t have a Casablanca
style mentality, the film luxuriates too often on European streets and not
enough on keeping the pace up, but overall this is a movie that more people
should investigate, as it’s far better than you’d expect considering the
cursory reception it received.
Other Precursor
Contenders: It’s always hard to tell in hindsight which films the WGA
deemed eligible or not, but they did find room for two of these five (Up in the Air, which won their trophy,
and Precious). Also included was Star Trek, Julie and Julia, and Crazy
Heart. The Globes don’t break
out Best Adapted and Original, so we have to instead look at if any nominations
were adapted, and from the looks of things two were: Up in the Air (the victor) and District
9. Finally, there are the
BAFTA’s, where once again Reitman took the trophy in this case over a carbon
copy of the Oscar race. As far as
a sixth place, I’m actually going to speculate that the fifth nominee was none
of these films (Julie and Julia being
your best bet considering Nora Ephron’s past successes) and instead guess that The Blind Side, which grabbed a stunning
Best Picture nomination, was in fact the sixth place.
Films I Would Have
Nominated: I will admit up-front that I wasn’t super wild about either of
the writing categories that year, and so I’m not going to disparage the Academy
too heartily for their choices, none of which is an outright bad decision
(like, say, nominating The Blind Side or
Crazy Heart would have been). I probably would have found room for A Single Man, though, as the sparse and
stylish screenplay was overly saturated but still dreamy.
Oscar’s Choice: In
the only upset in a major category in 2009, Precious
beat out Up in the Air despite
the latter sweeping the precursor awards.
My Choice: I
genuinely don’t know. I thought
this would sort itself out as I was writing, and I just am not there yet so I
shall eliminate backwards. In the Loop is an easy fifth place, and District 9 a principled choice for
fourth. When it comes to story and
pacing vs. dialogue, Precious and An Education can each claim a top spot
but Up in the Air cannot so I’ll give
that the bronze. I guess I will go
with An Education at the end of the
day-it’s more a product of its screenplay than Precious is, and while Precious
has great dialogue, the “who was going to love me?” scene aside, it doesn’t
ring in your ear quite like An Education. A very tight race, however.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Did you also choose An Education, or did you go with
Oscar-winner Precious (or perhaps
frontrunner Up in the Air)? Who do you think was in sixth
place? And what film had the best
adapted screenplay of 2009? Share
in the comments!
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