OVP: Best Original Screenplay (2004)
The Nominees Were...
John Logan, The Aviator
Charlie Kaufman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Keir Pearson & Terry George, Hotel Rwanda
Brad Bird, The Incredibles
Mike Leigh, Vera Drake
My Thoughts: We move today into the second of the two writing categories, as we continue to track the films of 2004 (we are now destined to finish this up before Memorial Day, and will have a different year to follow all summer long). The 2004 original screenplays are, for my money, better than the adapted screenplays (which is weird because when we get to my actual choices for 2004, the adapted field is much more my favorite). Part of this is that Oscar picked some of the best-known screenwriters in the industry here. While the era of the celebrity screenwriter has largely subsided (mostly because the better-known ones are also film directors), here we have at least a few that are well-known in the industry & even to casual film fans.
This description fits no one better than Charlie Kaufman, who wrote (but did not direct) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie that was instantly recognized by a certain sector of film fans for its genius, but whose reputation has grown exponentially in the years since as a genius movie. This is a well-earned evaluation, as Eternal Sunshine is a beautifully-told story about the things we understand about the people we love, the things we look past & what we cannot. With terrific dialogue & a tough, dense central romance, Kaufman's work has never been so elegant and well-captured. In the years since, especially in his directorial efforts, I've felt that he couldn't capture the cinematic joy he did here, but that doesn't dim the luster of this breathtaking picture.
Sunshine isn't the only film here that's breaking the mold, though. The Incredibles is a perfectly-told story, and might be the best-plotted superhero movie ever made. Full of wry humor (god bless Edna Mode & her litany of one-liners) and a look at the reality of superheroes ("they're just like us...even if they're gods among men"), the film is confidently told from beginning to end. The sequel didn't match up, in the same way that Kaufman's later work didn't, but that doesn't mean that this wasn't gemlike-a perfect emblem of Pixar's renaissance phase.
These scripts are so good it'd be easy to fall short, which is a bummer because there are other scripts in this bunch worth celebrating. Mike Leigh is perhaps my favorite living screenwriter, a man who can mine the souls of men & come out on the other side, even with an understanding that is harsh to reality. Taking on Vera Drake, he doesn't have the same sort of leeway he'd have with later scripts like Another Year and Mr. Turner, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have moments of great clarity in his work. The way that he unfolds Vera, unknowable & determined, her politics taking a second place to her sense of moral duty, it's beautiful, and gives Imelda Staunton a template to behold. The smaller roles aren't as well-developed as his different pictures, but this is only getting picky in the light of Eternal Sunshine and Incredibles-this is a solid movie.
The same can be said for The Aviator, John Logan's second of three (to date) Oscar nominations for screenwriting. Of the bunch, this is his best work, giving us a rich, detailed history of Howard Hughes' life, successes, and personal demons. Logan's work has sparkling wordplay from Hughes (and the rest of the high-profile names, particularly Blanchett's Kate Hepburn), and while it doesn't break-the-mold of the biopic, it plays to its best strengths, giving us scenes of Hughes' life that run coherently together, feeling like we're not just getting a lecture about a famous person, but an insight into who he was as a man.
The only letdown of this bunch, for my money, is Hotel Rwanda. A film that was a pretty big deal in 2004, more than it is remembered for (it is almost certainly the sixth place finisher in the Best Picture field), I distinctly remember not liking the movie. While the story itself is intriguing, it's a case of a fascinating tale from real life not translating in the movies, with not enough focus on expanding the story of the main character beyond the actions on the screen. This is one of my biggest issues with very serious true-to-life pictures like Hotel Rwanda-they oftentimes skew toward historic accuracy at the risk of leaving their main characters a blank canvass.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine adapted and original into one category, and they only kept two (losing) original scripts in their nominee pool: The Aviator and Eternal Sunshine. BAFTA splits out theirs, with Eternal Sunshine winning over The Aviator, Collateral, Ray, and Vera Drake (it's worth noting that due to release date changes, Hotel Rwanda was nominated but did not win for the BAFTA Awards in 2005). The WGA went with Eternal Sunshine as their winner as well, besting The Aviator, Garden State (there is a very specific subset of 1980's-born Millennials who worshiped this movie if you've never heard of it...I was not one of them, for the record), Hotel Rwanda, and Kinsey. My money in terms of predictions would be on Kinsey above Ray due to musicals' general underperformance in the writing fields, though the latter's Best Picture nomination obviously is a big point in its favor.
Films I Would Have Nominated: As I said before, most of my favorite films of 2004 tended to be adapted rather than original, but I do question why, just a few years after he won a writing trophy, Pedro Almodovar couldn't make the cut for his brilliant ode to film noir in Bad Education.
Oscar’s Choice: Eternal Sunshine, in apparently an easier win than I remembered at the time (Aviator was surely in second place, John Logan's closest brush with an actual trophy).
My Choice: I'm going to go with Eternal Sunshine in a close race over Incredibles (spoiler alert for the "My Ballot" that is to come...I will be nominating both pictures in this category), as it's so original & influential in the years that followed, but either would've made a fine winner. Follow that with The Aviator, Vera Drake, and Hotel Rwanda in the rear.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Is everyone kind of onboard with the Eternal Sunshine sweep, or does someone want to meet outside of Montauk? Why do you think it was so easy for Eternal Sunshine to dismantle a major Best Picture frontrunner like The Aviator? And do we think it was Ray or Kinsey that was coming in sixth here? Share your thoughts below!
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