No Globe? No SAG? No Problem!

America Ferrera at last year's Oscars

Hey-you miss me? 😉 I want to stress, particularly after how much I ballyhooed my leave from the blog, that I am not actually back.  I have really enjoyed having my spare time in the past two months back, as I not only cut out the blog, but also a few other things in my life (including largely lifting Instagram & TikTok out of my life, though Twitter I have fallen into still regularly posting on despite hopes I could kick that more cleanly) and have been able to focus more on things I want to be part of my 2025 resolutions.  I'm reading more, watching more movies (without a cell phone in front of me!), and have actually made progress on my To Do lists.

So why am I back?  Well, for starters I have missed this terribly.  This was something I loved doing every day of my life for 12 years, and it's been hard to have ideas and not put them on the blog.  I quit because I didn't have time for it and time to do other things in my life I wanted to accomplish in the back half of my life after turning 40 last year (think of part of this quitting as a self-identified midlife crisis).  Secondly, I am going to start creative writing a novel on Sunday (and working on it regularly after that), and I am genuinely terrified of whether or not I can do this.  After two months completely off from writing, consider this a warm-up exercise.

And third, and most importantly-there were parts of my life on this blog that were traditions I've done for so many years that I couldn't help but want to return to them...to do without would feel like not putting up a Christmas tree or not giving away candy on Halloween.  Most of them happen in January, and so I'm going to do five articles over the next week and then return to my hibernation.  I am now prepared to say these won't be the only blog articles I'll write (I intend to return on occasion once this band-aid has been ripped off-my brother, who is my most ardent reader & one of the main reasons I kept writing TMROJ for so long, encouraged me, as well as specifically requested today's article as part of a brief sojourn back into the blog), but it is the only ones I'm promising.  This will never return to a daily blog, and I also will not vow to maintain a balance of movies, politics, and other thoughts (quite frankly, after the Trump victory in November, I don't know that I have the stomach for politics outside of an academic setting, anymore), but I will occasionally sneak on here if it's something I can't help but write.

All that said, we're going to do five articles over the coming days before I feel (hopefully more confident) returning to creative writing, and they will all be long-time series we've done before (three movie-related, one book-related, and one related to politics) as we head into next Friday's Oscar nominations announcement.  Today's is going to be our annual "No Globe? No SAG? No Problem!" article, where I talk about a weird phenomenon with the Oscars.  Despite an increasing stagnation in terms of the nominations (there was far more variety in the 1980's between the "precursors" and the Academy Awards), since 2006 (and most years before that) every single year we've had at least one actor who did not receive a nomination for a Golden Globe or a SAG Award that still won an Academy Award nomination.  Yesterday we got our 2024 SAG nominations, and so it is time.  Here's a sampling from the past 10 years of people who pulled off this achievement:

2023: America Ferrera

2022: Brian Tyree Henry, Andrea Riseborough, Judd Hirsch, & Paul Mescal

2021: Penelope Cruz, Jesse Plemons, JK Simmons, Judi Dench, & Jessie Buckley

2020: Paul Raci & LaKeith Stanfield

2019: Florence Pugh

2018: Marina de Tavira & Yalitza Aparicio

2017: Lesley Manville

2016: Michael Shannon

2015: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Hardy, & Mark Ruffalo

2014: Bradley Cooper, Marion Cotillard, & Laura Dern

Most of these nominations stem from two camps.  One camp is former nominees (like Penelope Cruz in 2021) who are on the Academy's radar already because (as a former nominee) they like them, and so they're able to work the Acting Branch more easily & get their showcase work in front of the Oscars.  The second is someone who (like America Ferrara last year or Jessie Buckley in 2021), is a prominent supporting player in a movie they're already seeing, either a major Best Picture contender or someone who is in a film sure to be nominated for an acting nomination.

I worry every year that this trend will end, and indeed, it looks likelier than most this year.  Not only are we in our second year of the Globes having six nominees in each category (which is stupid-you already have Comedy vs. Drama...why do you need even more actors nominated?), but most of the fields we've heard a lot of the names already.  Supporting Actress, for example, had a pretty robust difference between the Globes & the SAG Awards (only Ariana Grande & Zoe Saldana got in for both), making some names that I had earmarked for this list (like Jamie Lee Curtis in The Last Showgirl) null-and-void.  With all of that preamble done, here are the 10 contenders I think are most plausible to score with Oscar despite the Globes & SAG Awards ignoring them.

Honorable Mention: This list is lacking quite a bit already, thanks to so many already-mentioned contenders, and honestly as Oscar punditry becomes more of a polished industry (where they seem to not value surprises), you see less creativity from Oscar voters who just see the SAG nominations and say "sure, that's about right."  A few names that I think are worth mentioning are standouts in films that aren't really getting much Oscar love such as Bill Skarsgard (Nosferatu), Joan Chen (Didi), or former nominees Brian Tyree Henry (The Fire Inside), Samuel L. Jackson (The Piano Lesson), & Paul Mescal (Gladiator II).  There's also the possibility that someone from a Best Picture nominee sneaks in (Jonathan Bailey, who like Curtis I had earmarked for this list until he got a SAG nomination, would've been a good example of this).  John Lithgow & Sergio Castellito (Conclave), Michelle Yeoh & Jeff Goldblum (Wicked), and Vache Tovmasyan (Anora) are all names that might be on a few ballots if you really love those movies.  But if there's a new name (and like I said above I do wonder if there will be one), it'll more likely be one of the below ten.

10. Adam Pearson (A Different Man)

For Him: Pearson's role in A Different Man is apparently a scene-stealer (I am doing relatively well with keeping up with 2024, but have not caught this movie yet), and Supporting Actor has the biggest opening, in my opinion, for a surprise given how certain Kieran Culkin is to win the Oscar (half of this Top 10 is geared toward Supporting Actor for a reason).  If Stan is in, and he's in the running, it's hard not to see people also adding in Pearson in supporting.

Against Him: Is Stan going to make it?  Sebastian Stan probably would have a better shot at Best Actor if he wasn't splitting the vote with himself (he's also in the running for The Apprentice), and with the Best Actor race looking increasingly locked into the same five names, it has to be noted that one of those names is not Stan despite his recent Golden Globe win.

9. Josh O'Connor (Challengers)

For Him: O'Connor is one of those up-and-coming actors who is inevitably (at some point) going to be nominated for an Oscar.  Challengers recently did well at the Golden Globes, getting nominated for Best Picture & Actress, and winning Best Score, and has its champions who will likely include it on their Best Picture ballot even if it's not an obvious Top 10 contender.  O'Connor would probably be a decent contender to get nominated given that combination (it worked for someone like Brian Tyree Henry in recent years who had the aura of "future Oscar nominee" and the Academy just decided to go for it for a little seen picture in Breakaway).

Against Him: The problem for O'Connor is similar to Stan, except instead of two films, he's competing in two categories.  O'Connor is campaigning for supporting, even though he's clearly one of the films leads (Mike Faist probably should've been campaigned solo for supporting as he has a smaller part in the film), and with a low-key campaign, it's possible people won't be consistent in giving him a nomination in the same category, cutting down on his already smallish chances.

8. Saoirse Ronan (Blitz or The Outrun)

For Her: Ronan is one of the most recognized young actresses by Oscar, having already accrued four nominations before she turned thirty.  This year she has two showy contenders in Blitz and The Outrun, and unlike Sebastian Stan, there's no category confusion here-though she's a prominent part of Blitz, she's plausibly supporting in it (I wouldn't even call that campaign fraud as it's her son in the film that is the more notable lead), and she's at the main in The Outrun.  Despite neither film being a major player in other categories, a four-time nominee should be able to get into the conversation on her own. 

Against Her: I think Ronan's biggest problem appears to be that no one is really interested in her this year.  Both of these are showy, campaigned roles, but a lack of a Golden Globe or SAG nomination makes me think that people aren't seeing this or she isn't clicking with voters.  This happens on occasion where former favorites fall out-of-favor or just have an off-year...is that happening to Ronan?

7. Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown)

For Her: Fanning is part of an acting family, and Oscar is weirdly kind to acting families (it's a town run on nepotism) when it comes to nominations-neither Elle nor Dakota have ever been nominated for an Academy Award, and this is the first really obvious opportunity to do so since Dakota just missed for 2001's I Am Sam.  Fanning is also playing one of Oscar's favorite roles (the long-neglected girlfriend of the Best Actor-assured lead), which could help.  The DGA nomination for A Complete Unknown proves that this is a movie the industry is enjoying.

Against Her: The biggest thing against Fanning is her costar Monica Barbaro.  Barbaro was one of the surprise contenders yesterday for the SAG Awards.  I had, in advance of the SAG Awards, assumed that one of the A Complete Unknown supporting actresses was being underestimated, and if neither made it with SAG, they probably would've been combined to be #1 or #2 on this list.  But with Barbaro already name-checked, Oscar voters could get lazy and assume she's the only contender from her movie, hurting Fanning.

6. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Nickel Boys)

For Her: Ellis-Taylor is a former nominee (always helps) and is the showiest/most-cited role in a late-breaking Best Picture nominee.  That's usually one of the best signs for getting No Globe/No SAG, getting into a movie that is having its moment too late for the Globes & SAG nominations to catch it (keep in mind that Oscar voters tend to vote very close to nominations announcement, oftentimes after both Globe & SAG nominations have already been announced).  If Nickel Boys is one of the final screeners, she will be fresh-in-mind.

Against Her: I do wonder about how strong, exactly, Nickel Boys support is.  Most people are putting this in their Best Picture Top 10's (and it did get a Globe citation for Best Picture), but right now it has no real conversation other than "it's good-you'll like it" (it's not an obvious contender for Best Director or for actually winning Best Picture, for example).  How much will people really go for it?

5. Dennis Quaid (The Substance)

For Him: This list is ranked with #1 being the likeliest, and at this point we're shifting from "could happen" to "COULD happen" and I think maybe the most obvious "duh, of course!" contender from this list if it happens would be Dennis Quaid in The Substance.  The reception at the Globes to The Substance was resounding-they loved the comedy bit between Demi Moore & Margaret Qualley (which you'll only understand if you've seen the film), and Moore solidified her position as the one-to-beat in Best Actress.  Quaid is a longtime Hollywood vet who has never been nominated for an Oscar (which many expected him to for 2002's Far from Heaven, and as we discussed, I thought he should've been).  He has a showy, attention-grabbing role in this movie...could this be his time?

Against Him: Quaid's politics might get in the way here.  Openly Republican, Quaid spent a chunk of the fall campaigning for Donald Trump, which while he may have won the presidential election, did not win the acting branch of the Academy.  Will Oscar want to go there?

4. Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing)

For Him: Maclin's a unique situation of an actor who most expected to not be on this list because he was dominating the year.  Sing Sing is a heavy contender for Best Picture, and if this movie is a favorite of yours for that category, it's hard not to picture Maclin on your ballot-he's the emotional center of the picture, and essential to the acting duet with Colman Domingo.

Against Him: If he wasn't going to get in with SAG, specifically, one wonders if people care that much.  Oscar has a terrible attention span, and Sing Sing opened in the spring.  It's a movie that it's possible people forgot about, and are just name-checking for Picture & Actor because that's where it's scoring in precursors.  Maclin, unlike Colman Domingo, is not a former Oscar nominee & is a name you have to learn...are they not learning it long enough to put him on their ballots?

3. Adriana Paz (Emilia Perez)

For Her: Paz is honestly better-positioned than you'd think.  Though her costars are getting most of the Emilia Perez love, Paz co-won the Cannes Best Actress prize with Saldana, Gascon, & Gomez, and was also longlisted for the BAFTA.  She's arguably the most grounded of the four performers in the film, and coming late into the movie, is maybe the heart of the picture?  There is a lot of love for this movie, which could easily take Best Picture at this rate...surprise acting nominations happen all the time for Best Picture frontrunners.

Against Her: Gomez & Saldana are already big names in this category, and honestly I do wonder how devoted Perez voters will be after already listing three women for the movie.  Also, if you're a detractor of the film (which I am), you're not going to want to give it any love even if you think Paz is the best part of the picture.

2. Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths)

For Her: Best Actress seems to have come down to four names (Gascon, Erivo, Moore, & Madison) that are all expected-but-not-guaranteed (none of them, even Moore, are set-in-stone though I'll be predicting all four in my final predictions next week); a surprise is more-likely than people are considering (it's not rock solid like Best Actor) but we have leaders for four slots.  The fifth slot has a lot of options, but while some have scored in precursors (Kate Winslet, Pamela Anderson, Nicole Kidman), I think it's probably down to either Fernanda Torres or Marianne Jean-Baptiste.  Torres took the Globe, but Jean-Baptiste has clobbered with critics prizes, taking NYFCC, LAFCA, & the National Society of Film Critics, something that generally guarantees an Oscar nomination.  She's also a former nominee, and her film is opening late but given Mike Leigh's reputation with the Academy, is the kind of film that could make it to the top of the pile.

Against Her: The film doesn't have heat in many other categories, and longtime Oscar watchers will remember a different actress (Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky) who dominated critics prizes but couldn't get in for a Mike Leigh movie.  Could history be repeating?

1. Stanley Tucci (Conclave)

For Him: He has everything.  Showy role in a Best Picture frontrunner?  Check.  Longtime supporting actor who has worked with everyone?  Check.  Former nominee so the Oscars already have gone there?  Check!  Tucci also doesn't have internal competition like Fanning or Paz, as the only other actors in Conclave with heat are in other categories.  Tucci is also pimping this film hard, having showed up for the Golden Globes even without a nomination to support the film-people in the industry notice that.

Against Him: On paper, honestly nothing.  Tucci's biggest concern is he hasn't already been a part of the conversation as he's clearly a logical nominee.  Sometimes obvious contenders just don't click, but in keeping with the tradition of this article, I'll probably predict either he or Jean-Baptiste when I finally check in next week as both are very logical last-minute decisions by Oscar.

OVP: Emma (2020)

Film: Emma (2020)
Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Bill Nighy, Josh O'Connor, Callum Turner
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

We're going to conclude our look at 2020 movies with Emma.  We're going to be moving into a different theme for the entire month of October on Thursday (more to come then!), though going forward I'll be publishing the 2020 reviews as soon as I have them done in case you (like me) are benefiting from discussion of under-discussed or "should I see it" titles from this year as you try to make a somewhat reputable list of films from this year for your end-of-season lists (it's never too early to start planning lists).  We're going to end the 2020 films with a modest hit from earlier this spring, one that hit theaters before Covid quarantine's commenced in many places in the USA and Europe: Emma.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is an adaptation of one of Jane Austen's most beloved works, that has been filmed many times (including both the Gwyneth Paltrow version in 1996 and the loosely-inpsired Clueless a year earlier), so the plot is probably known to most of you, but I'll give a quick refresher.  Emma Woodhouse (Taylor-Joy) is a wealthy & beautiful young woman whose governess has recently taken a husband.  Emma fancies herself now a matchmaker, and is intent on doing so for her new friend Harriet (Goth).  Harriet has her sites set on a farmer, but Emma thinks him beneath her new friend (even though we know little of her parentage, and she is not wealthy), and wants to set him up with the clergyman Mr. Elton (O'Connor), a sniveling man.  Emma has a flirtation with George Knightley (Flynn), but insists she must stay with her hypochondriac father (Nighy).  As the film continues, much shenanigans happen, including the introduction of a brief love interest for Emma in Frank Churchill (Turner), but in the end Harriet ends up with her farmer, and Emma with George...arguably the happiest of endings for any Austen novel (literally no one is the ill for it, even Mr. Elton who has found his perfect, snobby match).

If you were a filmgoer in the mid-90's you know the Austen phenomenon that happened with not just Emma and Clueless, but also the BBC Pride & Prejudice (yes, the one with Colin Firth) and the Oscar-winning Sense & Sensibility.  It's weird to compare these films to the Nolan Batman movies, but they were such a well-constructed look at the heroines of this era that it feels weird revisiting them, knowing we already have perfectly-good "definitive" versions.  However, Emma was the one I hadn't seen in the longest time, and as a result I was charmed by this movie.

Taylor-Joy isn't quite Paltrow, but she's a delight as Emma, and perhaps finds a naughtier wickedness in her that Paltrow didn't quite capture initially.  The supporting cast is all delightful.  Johnny Flynn, a musician (he even wrote an original song for the film), is great & haughty as George, and actor-of-the-moment O'Connor sinks his teeth into Mr. Elton.  I have no complaints about the cast, and particularly jolly good to one of my favorite character actors, Miranda Hart, who finds the ridiculous in Miss Bates, as well as the tragedy of such a character (she is poor, and without any venues to gain back a fortune, and thus must live on the charity of others-she was meant as a cautionary tale to Emma, as well as perhaps a window into how Austen viewed herself).

I'm torn here in a similar way to how I was with And Then We Danced between a four & a five star ranking, longing to give a five because I haven't yet this year, but it's not quite there.  This is jolly good fun, featherweight, and that can occasionally warrant a five-star, but it's not quite as sparkly as it could be, and I think I'm a bit overcome by its charms so as to ignore its faults.  But this is worth the rental, and I might change my mind come year's end.

Hope Gap (2020)

Film: Hope Gap (2020)
Stars: Annette Bening, Bill Nighy, Josh O'Connor
Director: William Nicholson
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Like many of you, I've been in quarantine for many months now, and during that time I've tried to accomplish some things, including watching a lot of movies, particularly focused on our Saturdays with the Stars and Oscar Viewing Project titles.  I've forgotten, therefore, that I used to go to the theater all the time, not with necessarily a purpose, but instead just because I love going to new movies, and exploring what artists have to say about the cinema at large.  It's difficult to get to a theater safely right now (I'm currently waging when and if I'll be able to get there, though I have hopes to do this week unless that fear gets to me), but I don't want to deprive myself of this pleasure of seeing new movies, and I think the thing that will help me get back into it (and hopefully you too) is discussion about new movies, and what 2020 titles are out there that we should be catching.  We're going to be doing a special series in October that will supersede our traditional weekday themes, but for the next week-and-a-half I thought it would be fun to talk about eight titles that were released this year (either digitally or in theaters or in one case simply domestically) and see what's worth watching that's on our streaming platforms or through a rental (or perhaps in person if you're so able!).  We're going to start that conversation with Hope Gap, a movie that just missed me seeing it in person earlier this year.

(Spoilers Ahead) Though the film has other characters, it's almost completely a three-person play, a family of mother Grace (Bening), father Edward (Nighy), and son Jamie (O'Connor).  Grace & Edward live a normal life, which Grace finds unfortunate (she'd prefer more spontaneity), while Edward is happy teaching & updating Wikipedia articles.  When their son Jamie unexpectedly comes home, we initially assume that he's about to drop something seismic on the tempestuous (but routine) fights between Grace & Edward, but it turns out that Edward asked Jamie to be there because he's going to leave Grace for another woman.  This shock, coming from a mild-mannered Englishman, reverberates across all three characters, Grace especially as she must combine her complicated Catholic faith (which neither her son nor her husband take as seriously) with the realization that she will have to start a chapter in her life that she didn't want to, nor did she expect.

Hope Gap would work better as an actual staged production than it does onscreen-it might make the monologuing a bit more succinct, and would have trimmed some of the fat from the film.  It is, in fact, based on a play by William Nicholson called The Retreat from Moscow that won several high-profile Tony nominations, including for Eileen Atkins (as Grace) and Ben Chaplin (as Jamie).  Onscreen it doesn't flesh out the story enough, which is a problem when you move staged stories to the larger venue of cinema, and so Hope Gap doesn't alway feel authentic in the narrative it's driving.

That said, the acting is very good.  Bening has developed a brilliant late act in her career playing complicated, aging women who don't conform to what society expects of a woman her age, but more importantly she doesn't conform to how a woman in this situation is supposed to feel.  In other movies, we'd have Bening's character dating a younger man or finding solace in her work, which she does...but that doesn't mean that Bening hides the pain.  There's a terrific moment late in the film where Edward's new girlfriend says that she "saw three unhappy people, and now there's only one," and it's a bitter, real moment for Grace as she realizes that what was stolen from her was not a loving marriage, but instead the foundation she found from the routine she seemed to verbally abhor.  Coupled with strong turns from O'Connor (who fleshes out a part that feels underwritten as best he can-he's really a great up-and-coming actor) and Nighy, Hope Gap is not flawless, but it's a quiet, meditative film that's worth your time.

God's Own Country (2017)

Film: God's Own Country (2017)
Stars: Josh O'Connor, Alec Secarneau, Ian Hart, Gemma Jones
Director: Francis Lee
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Few films affect me quite as much as Brokeback Mountain.  It's still one of the best movies ever made, in my opinion-a classic love story that is, yes, perhaps the first and best example of a gay prestige film.  While films like Carol and Moonlight have come after it, I'd argue that few movies have actually followed in its footsteps...that is, until God's Own Country.  The film, centered around a young man in Yorkshire struggling with his sexuality is hard to imagine existing without Brokeback-its story beats are too familiar.  And yet, when it does take its moments to strike out on its own, giving us unique characters in the film's two male leads, as well as some story beats not available to the period drama of Brokeback, it does so with terrific clarity and power, proving that while it might not exist without its cowboy predecessor, by the movie's end it can stand aside it as a masterful look at forbidden romance.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers upon Johnny (O'Connor), a farmer's son who spends most of his day arguing with his father (Hart) and grandmother (Jones), and his nights are filled with excessive drinking (to the point where it's a recurring theme of him waking up throwing up in a toilet), and when the opportunity arises, having casual sex with young men that are passing through the village (who all look like background players in The Book of Mormon, in perhaps a bit of a nod to gay cliche).  Johnny has no designs on a better life for himself, and assumes this is about as good as it's going to get; even the sex he enjoys with these young men is rough, impersonal, and brief, performed in bathroom stalls without even the exchange of names or the anticipation of it happening more than once.  That is, this is his worldview until Johnny's father submits for a temporary farmhand to help with the lambing season, and he meets Georghe (Secarneau), a Romanian man who is passing through town and needs the work.

The love story that blossoms between them is one that requires you to realize that movies don't need to spell out everything a character is thinking.  It's rare that a movie can make a romantic drama about two introverts work without it seeming boring or uninterested.  The intimacies that spring out from the story are perhaps the best aspects of the film.  Josh O'Connor is so wonderful first as someone totally detached from this man, seeing him at best as a weeklong source of sex, and nothing more.  Instead, Georghe shows Johnny that sex can be intimate, and perhaps for the first time in Johnny's life he experiences something akin to tenderness.  There's a beautiful scene where the two are eating with his grandmother, and she leaves the room, and Johnny hugs Georghe from behind, completely over-eager but with the glee of a man having a boyfriend for the first time.  I thought it was so specific and true-the way that the performance informs first love with a man who wasn't allowed to experience this at the same time as heterosexual man of his age would have shows a deeper understanding of what the closet deprives LGBT people of experiencing.  This level of intimacy wasn't available to the same degree in Brokeback due to the period of that film (in the timeline of the movie) and the sex scenes weren't as graphic (in this case, more to do with when the actual film was lensed in real-life).

The movie is hard not to love if you invest in this romantic couple, which I did.  The side characters are a small list, but here Lee takes great care.  Ian Hart is terrific as a man who is hard and slowly watching his years of strength leave his body, and comes to terms that he will need to rely upon the man he's viewed as a child all of his life to be his breadwinner and caretaker.  There's a great moment late in the film where Hart has to be bathed after a stroke, and he thanks Johnny for taking care of him; it's a tricky moment, because in most films this would ring hollow for the character or seem saccharine, but Lee frames it well by only having Hart have his thank you, with Johnny too shocked to make it a "music swelling" sort of scene.  Rounding out the cast is Gemma Jones, playing Johnny's knowing grandmother.  Again, the quiet moments are where we find this character, like when she finds a condom on the floor of the bed (though does that mean they were having safe sex when they were with the lambs, because that feels really inconsistent...perhaps the biggest inconsistency in the entire film, at least from my gay man's eyes)-she flushes it down the toilet without a word.  Not a confrontation, not a knowing glance, but just confirming something we assume that she's long-suspected about Johnny.  If this is the "you don't go up there to fish" scene, it's informed by reality: Alma knew that she could find another life and another man, but Gemma's Deidre is aware that this life, this grandson, is all she has in the world and there are no other options but to accept him.

I could go on and on (the power dynamic shifting from old to young is nearly as interesting as the love story itself), but I think I'll stop there.  If you get a chance, this is well worth the ticket price-I highly recommend catching it (or adding it promptly to the Netflix queue).