August 30, 2005

While this is the season of dumping in the movie theaters, it is the season of sneak peeks and raised expectations for me and my big city media brethren. The raw meat hits the party table on Wednesday in Venice, Italy and then for those of us with a lower tolerance for the smell of sewage, kickoff is on Friday in Telluride, Colorado. Less than a week later, we dive into the Deepa Water with Toronto's opening night. 18 days into this frenzy and a whole lot of the future of the quality films of this fall and next year becomes much, much clearer.

My job right now is to se movies, sometimes 2 or 3 or 4 a day and, in most cases, not to tell you what I think. It's kind of a mind fuck, since communicating with you relentlessly is what I endeavor to do the other 49 weeks of the year.

Monday was uniquely odd. I saw a movie that I'm not really writing about yet for a second time. I have had so many private conversations about the film already that I feel as though I have written the book on it. But apart from a few hints here and there, I have not.

The film is Walk The Line. And I'm not going to write about it in any depth now. To be completely frank, I think I agreed to hold my review until the film premieres in Toronto. In this case, most critics in New York and L.A. that you know of have seen it. There was a big, wet smooch from Richard Corliss in Time Magazine. Etc, etc, etc.

To focus my comments on the Oscar race, my feeling coming out of the film was that Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon were the first true locks in the acting categories this year and that the movie really could use some work if it wanted to be a serious Best Picture candidate. My issue was that the film had, in it's first hour, a very Ray feel to it… not that there's anything wrong with that… except that they gave Ray a Best Picture nomination last year and here we are with another dead legend with a biopic focused on his younger years and Jamie Foxx is a spectacular salesman and, though I don't believe that Academy members engage in the groupthink that many of those who would suggest they have deep insight into what voters are thinking, I do think that it's hard to sell the same bar of even the best soap two seasons in a row.

Phew…

I told this to Fox. I'm sure others told this to Fox. Don't get me wrong. James Mangold does what is probably his career best work here, though he has always been best as an actor's director. The early years of J.R. Cash were well conceived, well written and well acted. But unlike going blind and being a little responsible for his brother's death, Johnny Cash's journey in this film is not really about overcoming his youth. The ghosts are there. But the heart of this movie is about a man who only seems to live fully on a stage and the slow churning relationship with the only woman who belonged there by his side.

Like The Constant Gardener, Walk The Line is a love story first and everything else second.

Anyway… I went back to see the movie again and I just kept scratching my head. It wasn't head lice, but rather a filmic experience that was subtly but distinctly different than the one I experienced a few scant weeks ago.

I return to movies that I think are worth the effort, to see whether a mood on the day I saw the film or a distraction in the room or not enough sleep or whatever had an effect on me, positive or negative. I may be arrogant, but I am only human. I am susceptible.

So I am sitting there, wondering how I could have thought the front 40 minutes was way too long or why I was so preoccupied by "another Ray moment," since I was not having that feeling this time. Was I that wrong the first time?

By the time I came out of the theater, I was still a big fan of the work of Ms. Witherspoon and even more so of Mr. Phoenix. I was also more taken with Ginnifer Goodwin's work than I had been the first time, which was comforting since I have been screaming Goodwin's praises since before she arrived on the scene in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. (She is apparently one of three wives of Bill Paxton on an upcoming HBO sitcom, according to a promo after Rome on Sunday night.)

But I was also a lot closer to being convinced that Walk The Line is one of the very serious Best Picture contenders. This made me feel a little faulty. So I expressed this to someone at Fox and I found out a little later… the movie has been edited further since the last screening I saw. Mangold went in and made the movie better… at least, better from the perspective of putting it up against Ray's memory. I think it is better overall.

And isn't this the way it is supposed to work?

The studio invited people whose opinions it is interested in hearing to see the film… they listened… they made the movie better…

Another studio, which will remain nameless, is making some significant adjustments to an Oscar chasing movie. (Don't ask… I won't tell.) The movie has been seen by a couple of writers, though the studio swears otherwise. But mostly, it has test screened. And decisions on improvements have been made.

Isn't that the right thing? Should the studio really have to read about their test screenings on the internet? Should they really have to be afraid to show the film in process to professionals who understand that movies require process?

For that studio, the idea of me or anyone else writing about the changes is extremely anxiety producing. And I do understand that. Somehow, mentioning it… even if it is as likely a good sign as a bad sign… makes it a topic for discussion, distracting from the movie itself when it is finally delivered.

But in the case of Walk The Line, the system worked. And I think it will work really well for this movie's future. Little arrogance… a little time to make small, but oh so important adjustments… answering the key question to almost every film, "What is the soul of this movie?"

Of course, this means that some of us will have to return to Walk The Line to really see what Fox and James Mangold are offering. I probably will go back a third time… seeing the movie with a crowd has got to be a very different experience than seeing it with less than 20 people in a hatbox.

And in a few days… no one will be able to shut me up… you're going to be so sick of reading about movies…

Speaking of which, buy your tickets for The Constant Gardener now. It is still the very best movie of 2005 and even if you disagree, you need to decide for yourself. (This is not a paid announcement… even if Focus is advertising on our site this week.)

E-ME.