Trailer: Amelia
By Craig Kennedy - June 26th, 2009; 8:23 am
I love the smell of Oscar bait in the morning. Smells like…Amelia.
Spoiler: She doesn’t make it.
Mira Nair’s Amelia starring Hillary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor and Mia Wasikowska opens October 23, 2009.
Source: Yahoo
Filed under: Trailers
Tags: Amelia, Ewan McGregor, Hillary Swank, Mia Wasikowska, Mira Nair, Richard Gere
Spoiler: She doesn’t make it.
ROFL. You know, there are going to be people out there who don’t know her story and will be all pissy about people ruining the ending when the reviews, etc. start coming out.
Wow, Mia Wasikowska is really taking off, it seems. Between In Treatment, That Evening Sun and now this and the upcoming Alice in Wonderland she really may be the next young actress on the verge of a real breakthrough. I haven’t seen her in anything yet, but jennybee really talked her up in one of the Watercooler threads and I’ve heard great things about her from other people.
I know a lot of people hate Hilary Swank, especially for winning that 2nd Oscar for Clint’s film, but she really is a solid actress in my opinion.
Nothing specifically against the film because I like Mira Nair and the cast is great, but that has to be the most cliched trailer I’ve seen this year. Seriously, every beat, every sound effect, every edit, all the music queues, the actor credits…this is the dictionary definition of an Oscar-bait biopic trailer. There must be a blueprint they follow at this point for these things.
I’m not sure Mia was even in that trailer (not a name brand yet, so it works against the Oscar bait trailer unless she has a tearjerking and/or uplifting 3-second clip to include). Anyway, snark aside she was awesome in the first season of In Treatment. I’ll just keep beating that drum until you all watch it.
Alison, I’ve got news for them about that Titanic movie too…
I gotta learn to start spelling Wasikowska without looking. She IS turning up everywhere.
I’ve got no beef with The Swank.
One hopes Joel that they’re doing the movie a disservice with this trailer. You’re right it’s a total cliche and if the movie is the same way it’s going to be painful.
It’s entirely possible the trailer and the movie are two different things entirely as this trailer is obviously made to achieve a certain end and as we all know by now, trailers lie lie lie about the movies they market.
But the way that trailer is composed and presented is just plain awful.
See, so now this film is probably guaranteed to be nominated, given its Oscar “baitiness” and the ten slots for Best Picture.
I figured Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island would probably not be nominated, but now with the new rule, the Academy can go four-for-four with Scorsese in the ’00s.
The same goes for Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela drama.
And if Avatar makes a boatload of money…
This has made predicting the nominees all the easier, unless I’m wildly off the mark.
Joel: I completely agree about the trailer. From the terse, ostensibly pat catchphrases (“I’m going to fly around the world”/”It can’t be done”/”Well, let’s change that,”; and, “There’s more to life than being a passenger”) to the imperious title cards and down to the shot of little children of a “dark” race running around–perhaps this is her landing in the Sudan? Or possibly Dutch Guinea? Most Hollywood Oscar films must have the shot of African children running around–nothing against African children frollicking, but whenever I take a safari trip I’ll be expecting a loving horde of children running alongside the landing plane. :-)
It looks like Richard Gere is playing George Putnam–I look forward to the whole performance, though the trailer makes it look a little like he’s reprising his Chicago lawyer role, ha.
As always, though, follow Craig’s advice–don’t count trailers one way or the other in determining the true identity of a film. Swank is quite well-cast here, and I’m looking forward to the film despite my light thrashing of the trailer.
We can agree: bad trailer, but the movie still has potential.
“Most Hollywood Oscar films must have the shot of African children running around–nothing against African children frollicking, but whenever I take a safari trip I’ll be expecting a loving horde of children running alongside the landing plane.” ahahaha….my Alexander. Are you sure you weren’t replaced with a slightly more cynical clone during your long absence? :)
I’d love to give the Academy the benefit of a doubt about the 10 from 5 change, but they’ve done nothing in the past to earn it and this is so obviously just a gimmick to get higher ratings for the TV show.
If Summer Hours and Tokyo Sonata or The Girlfriend Experience or The Limits of Control turn up as Oscar nominees, I’ll apologize, but I really don’t think that’s why they’re doing this. We’re more likely to see The Hangover and Star Trek.
If that’s the case, it’ll be one step closer to the People’s Choice Awards and I won’t be watching.
Haha, Craig. :)
The clones become restless and cynical when it becomes hot. I’m going to Sacramento Saturday and Sunday and it will be well into the 100s! Whichever clone I am today, I am fearful.
A wonderful summation, Craig, of why the ten-slot change is probably a mistake. Though I think the first films to be guaranteed positions are treacly Oscar-bait previously considered too mediocre to muscle in. So instead of having, say, The Lives of Others among the nominees, we would probably have had The Pursuit of Happiness, Flags of Our Fathers, Blood Diamond and Dreamgirls.
Okay, sorry for hijacking the thread. This also occurs more often in the summer. :)
“Nothing specifically against the film because I like Mira Nair and the cast is great, but that has to be the most cliched trailer I’ve seen this year. Seriously, every beat, every sound effect, every edit, all the music queues, the actor credits…this is the dictionary definition of an Oscar-bait biopic trailer. There must be a blueprint they follow at this point for these things.”
Yeah, and this actually reminded of Baz Luhrmann’s AUSTRALIA, which last year had the buzz of great Oscar chances until the actual film came out (how people weren’t able to see through that film’s shallow marketing is beyond me). There’s definitely a marketing formula to attract “Oscar-bait” attention, no matter the quality of the actual movie, and films like AUSTRALIA and AMELIA seem like good examples.
If you have at least a couple of award winners, some classic romance, some period piece setting, and inspirational true story behind the material, you’ve got some buzz.
Oh.
Well.
I don’t know, I’ll give it a shot, don’t want to judge it all by the trailer (which I feel like I’ve seen a million times before).