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Gruesome Globes in store
10/01/2008 12:15 - (SA)
Beverly Hills, California - The winners and losers of a strike-hit Golden Globes are announced here on Sunday with romantic drama Atonement facing stiff competition from a crop of blood-soaked rivals.
Despite the traditional film awards show being cancelled and a scaled down event that will be stripped of celebrities, the Globes are nevertheless regarded as a key indicator of likely contenders at the Oscars on February 24.
Atonement leads the field for the 65th edition of the Globes with seven nominations including best drama, best director and acting nods for British stars James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.
But the acclaimed adaptation of author Ian McEwan's best-selling novel about the tragic consequences of a child's lie, must overcome strong challenges from several other films notable for their graphic violence.
Awards season pundits believe that No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen's masterful thriller about a drug deal gone wrong and the forces it unleashes, is the narrow favourite to take the best drama picture prize.
The film, a faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name, trails Atonement with four nominations and has built up awards season momentum thanks to a series of honours from US critics groups.
Industry favourite
Tom O'Neil, a pundit with the Los Angeles Times' theenvelope.com, said the Globes best picture prize could hinge on whether voters embrace the Coens' bleak modern noir over the epic sweep of Atonement.
No Country has been sweeping all the early awards among the critics, so it seems to be the industry favourite," O'Neil said. "But it's not typical of the kind of films the Golden Globes have honoured in the past.
"They tend to like movies like Atonement, O'Neil added, citing last year's awards where the moving cross-cultural drama Babel beat Martin Scorsese's bloody gangster film The Departed for the top prize.
Lew Harris, the editorial director of the Movies.com website, said he expected No Country and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, about a ruthless oil prospector in early 20th century California, to vie for the best drama film prize, which unusually has seen seven nominees this year.
"I think those two are the front runners for best picture," Harris said.
Other nominees in the best picture race include Ridley Scott's gritty cop drama American Gangster, David Cronenberg's Russian mafia thriller Eastern Promises, legal drama Michael Clayton and Denzel Washington's uplifting The Great Debaters.
Grim, bloody movies
"It's been a ho-hum year full of violent pictures," Harris said of the Globes field. "Normally the awards season features a load of warm and fuzzy films that people are cheering for. That hasn't happened this year.
"We've got a whole load of grim, bloody movies."
The violent themes of this year's drama field could also be mirrored in the Globes best musical/comedy category, where Tim Burton's blood-spattered Sweeney Todd, featuring Johnny Depp as the cut-throat barber of Fleet Street, is favoured to mop up.
Harris said however that the film's awards aspirations could be threatened by quirky comedy Juno, about a pregnant teenager's attempts to find adoptive parents for her baby.
"Juno could be the sleeper hit of the Globes," Harris said. "It's done very well at the box office and it's been building momentum slowly but surely. Everyone seems to like it."
Although the Globes are viewed as a form guide for the Oscars, with 24 of 44 drama picture winners going on to scoop the best picture, in recent years the awards have thrown up false leads.
For the past three years, none of the Golden Globes' best movie drama winners have gone on to win the best picture Oscar.
- AFP
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South Africa
