Streep Throat
The Reader is supposed to be about the power of literature, but it only ends up demonstrating the futility of literature. The Nazi concentration camp guard spends twenty years in prison hearing and reading the great works of western literature, but she is not moved to look back on her own life and consider that she has been an instrument of evil. Literature has even abetted her denial by providing her with an easy means of escape. Or is Stephen Daldry’s film really saying, ‘You’re never too old to learn to read’?
Kate Winslet is the frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar, and she’s the best thing about this confused movie, but all my friends fervently wish that Meryl Streep snatches the trophy (and that includes people who loved The Reader and people who loathed Mamma Mia). Sure, it’s Kate’s turn, and she has a splendid body of work (from Heavenly Creatures to Little Children), but it’s been a quarter-century since Sophie’s Choice and Meryl is so routinely brilliant we hardly even remark on it anymore.
True, Doubt was badly-directed: John Patrick Shanley, who adapted his own play, tried to make it more visual by using the weather to comment on the action. But it brought its arguments home. The Reader brings up the Holocaust only to use it as a complicating element for a love story. One might say that The Reader is Kate Winslet’s Sophie’s Choice: It’s about the Holocaust, she gets naked, and she uses an accent.
Telly Monster was not impressed. “Kung si Meryl yan, hindi lang accent, German ang dialogue! Magkaka-subtitles!” (If that were Meryl, she wouldn’t have been content with just an accent, she would’ve done the role in German.)
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 20th, 2009 at 01:42
I haven’t seen Doubt yet but based on the trailer, I feel that Meryl is overacting.
I’m rooting for Anne Hathaway. She rocked the character Kym in Rachel Getting Married. She moved me to tears. I felt her pain even if I haven’t been to rehab nor have I ever gotten so high that I caused the death of someone close to me.
Of course, Anne Hathaway won’t win. The same way There Will Be Blood didn’t win Best Picture last year.
Kate Winslet’s areolae might win, though.
February 20th, 2009 at 05:11
All I am hoping is that Slumdog Millionaire wins best picture. Have you seen it?
Oh, that and Heath Ledger for best supporting actor.
Cheers.
February 20th, 2009 at 08:50
Kate Winslet is doing a harvey weinstein. showing up in all the talk shows. but she hasnt done letterman yet. so…she just might get the oscar.
Meryl Streep may be a bridesmaid again. I liked Mamma Mia. Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgard singing. That was the best.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:24
Doubt has plenty of metaphors, it’s distracting, while The Reader I think just lacked the moral core. Meryl might be overdue for another Oscar, and I think she’s quite good in Doubt (Viola Davis was even more phenomenal), but thinking of how Kate saved The Reader from being a total irreparable disaster, I’d give her the Oscar. Her character April Wheeler in Revo Road was the one I think resonated more with such a devastatingly powerful performance (I think her best). Anne Hathaway’s nomination is a kind of an Oscar tradition itself, a sort of “recognition” of her “arrival” as a top-notch actress. She was very spot-on as Kym. Melissa Leo is a breath of fresh air; you should see her in 21 Grams.
The biggest crime though was the Sally Hawkins snub in favor of Angie’s screamfest in Changeling. One of the best performances last year was Michelle Williams in Wendy and Lucy; it just lack backing and promotions (Oscar-whoring), which really what the Oscar campaign is all about.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:40
I’m surrounded by Americans who had Catholic elementary education in the U.S. Midwest. All of them say that Meryl Streep in “Doubt” was exactly like the nunzilla they had for a teacher in 4th grade.
Meryl Streep was completely cloistered in her Sr. Aloysius character.
She is the clear Oscar winner this year. The Sisters of Charity in New York, the nuns who worked with Meryl as she was getting into the role, will certainly approve.
February 21st, 2009 at 13:46
I feel that Kate Winslet’s performance in Revolutionary Road was better than in The Reader (a movie of questionable merit) but Meryl Streep’s performance in Doubt trumps everyone else’s.
I’m rooting against Slumdog the same way that in school, for example, I root against the nice and popular average-brained rote learners from getting the top honors because I’d much prefer the real deal geniuses to get it.
The Dark Knight should win Best Picture this year… Oh, I forgot! It didn’t get a bloody best pic nom! This year’s Oscars = a glamorous joke wreathed in many strings of Swarovski!
February 21st, 2009 at 20:27
I loved The Reader, Lena Olin humiliating Ralph Fiennes totally delivered the film’s, erm, message? Kate should’ve won for Eternal Sunshine, Meryl for Music of the Heart. I mean, Hilary Swank? Two Oscars! Really!!
February 22nd, 2009 at 11:39
I agree, Kate should have won already for Eternal Sunshine. That’s why she’ll probably win this year, the Oscars are infamous for awarding based on past performances, making ammends ba.
The Dark Knight should have been nominated for Best Picture, but really, the Best Picture of 2008 is Wall-E, it should have been nominated for Best Picture, not just Best Animated Feature.
February 24th, 2009 at 17:17
I love Meryl (1st name basis kami) but her acting in “Doubt” was like a rehash of her “…Prada” role ….parang mother superior channeling ana wintour ang result! My vote goes to kate….she was incandescent in revo road. Nevertheless I
cant wait to see “julia and julia” …..im a Streep groupie…rem her way back in Julia? ill watch anything she comes out in….im also a closet woody allen groupie….hihi
March 13th, 2009 at 02:24
While I am just as much of a Streep fan as most everyone here, between her Doubt and Winslet’s Revolutionary Road, the Oscar is deservedly Kate’s. What a breathtaking performance, at once controlled and explosive. And she totally lost the British accent! I sat there thinking Sam Mendes, Leo, the writer, and the film– all robbed of a nomination. Reminiscent of American Beauty, Revolutionary Road packs more of an emotional and cerebral wallop: the downward spiral of a marriage made more devastating against the sun-dappled, cheerful yellow color palette of 50s suburbia, with its neat lawns and impeccably dressed (desperate) housewives and the mentally unbalanced character who pierces the phoniness with scary ease. If Sam Mendes and Leo get Oscar recognition again in the future, I shall look back to this film, if added proof were needed that they deserve it as much as Kate.