Golden Globe nominations: A whole lot of 'Whaaat?'

By Sarah Sluis

So maybe this hasn't been the strongest year for movies. But does that really justify the Hollywood Foreign Press nominating the flop The Tourist in three categories? When I outlined the film's dismal box-office prospects the Friday it opened, I wondered if Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp would be enough to save the film. Well, it earned just $17 million opening weekend, but the star wattage of Jolie and Depp was enough to blind the Foreign Press Association to its negative reception stateside. I imagine the dialogue going something like this--"We need Depp and Jolie on the red carpet--we can't disappoint the people running E!'s Red Carpet show!" How big of a joke were The Tourist's nominations? They "drew audible laughter from the crowd of press and publicists assembled at the Beverly Hilton for the pre-dawn announcement," according to THR.

The other big "What" came from the HFPA's total shut-out of The Coen Brothers' True Grit. I don't see the movie until tomorrow, but it's currently tracking at 93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. The Tourist? 20%.

Another big shut-out, but one that will receive less attention, was Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, which received zero nominations. Perhaps they didn't like the movie's jabs at press conferences and foreign awards shows? Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning both turned in solid performances, but at the very least a writing or directing nomination was deserved. Never Let Me Go didn't receive any nominations (though it was better than many nominated films), but that's less of a surprise as its early, October release shows that Fox Searchlight wasn't putting too much faith in it for awards season.

The Hollywood Foreign Press did make a couple of good decisions. It nominated Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, one of the best movies I've seen all year. Jennifer Lawrence also got a nod for Winter's Bone, an Ozarks drama that's quietly powerful. But really, a lot of these nominations are a joke. The silver lining? The star power will make for an entertaining broadcast, and smart people betting on winners in awards pools may just get lucky.

'The Fighter' has a knockout performance in a big week for little films

By Sarah Sluis

The holiday season usually brings a mix of delightful popcorn fare and heavy-hitting awards films. This week, at least, was a good week for tiny releases and a thoroughly mediocre one for wide releases.

Paramount's The Fighter debuted to $80,000 per screen in four theatres, the highest per-screen average of the week. With a starry cast list that includes Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo, this movie could do extremely well as it moves into wide release next week--the blue-collar subject could expand the audience beyond the rarefied world of Oscar films, and Adams should appeal to female audiences less excited about the boxing subject.

Black Swan has also proved itself to be a film with significant commercial potential. With only 90 theatres showing the ballet drama, the movie managed a sixth-place finish thanks to its $37,000 per-screen average. The Natalie Portman starrer has been called a horror film and drawn comparisons to Showgirls, and its arty melodrama has been a winning formula so far.

The King's Speech, which released a week before Black Swan, has been expanding more deliberately. Its per-screen average of $31,000 was close to Swan's, but only 19 theatres (up from 6) screened the historical, lightly comedic tale of King George's attempt to cure his stutter.

The Tempest had a stormy debut, earning $9,000 per screen on five screens. With Disney selling Miramax, this film appears to have been just as disconnected from marketing and publicity efforts as Prospera's island.

Both the wide releases this week underperformed. The bombastic Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader came in below expectations, with $24.5 million when a $30 million+ figure was expected. The family action film's broad strokes make it more comprehensible to foreign audiences, however, and the film earned three times more abroad than it did at home.

Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp's beautiful, empty romantic thriller The Tourist racked up $17 million its opening weekend, a number that was also on the low side. International prospects for this film, set in Venice, are also considered to be rosier than its domestic outlook.

This Friday, Disney revives a cult sci-fi film with Tron: Legacy, CG/live-action mix Yogi Bear will entice family audiences, and James L. Brooks' rom-com How Do You Know will make its debut. Oscar-seeking Rabbit Hole will join the list of specialty releases, and The Fighter plans to fast expand its rollout, moving into a 2,000+ theatre release.

'The Tourist' sets out against 'Dawn Treader'

By Sarah Sluis

Just two weeks after Disney's Tangled hit theatres, another family-friendly film joins the slate of end-of-the-year films. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will open in 3,555 theatres. 56% of them (1,989 theatres) will screen the picture in 3D, a fairly low percentage that reflects the crowded 3D marketplace right now (Tangled and Megamind are still commanding a sizeable percentage of 3D screens). Given the price of 3D tickets, however, it's expected that many families will be happy saving money and catching the 2D version. The third film in the Narnia series is the first to be produced by Fox. Disney abandoned the series after the second film underperformed, but not flopped, at the box office. But don't get your hopes up. "The magic is over, folks," critic Ethan Alter proclaims. The unimaginative sequel "feels like the last gasp of a franchise rather than a creative rebirth" and the movie's reduced budget gives the generic feeling of a "Renaissance fair" rather than Narnia.

Can a movie succeed solely based on the charged pairing of Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp? Signs point to no. Just 16% of Rotten Tomato critics gave The Tourist (2,756 theatres) their stamp of approval. "Angelina Jolie glides serenely through her scenes, confident in her ability to ignore obstacles like dialogue and plotting," critic Daniel Eagan snipes. The talented director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) devotes his attention in the film to such "material details" as clothing and makeup, as he revealed in a New York Times article. "We spent a few days just doing camera tests on different types of lipstick and white silk to be sure we could find the right combination and see how it would translate onto film," he said. "Even filmgoers expecting a bit more plot and action can't help but be seduced by so polished an entertainment," Eagan concedes.

Boston accents and dated, teased hairstyles are just comedic accessories in The Fighter (4 theatres), which stars Mark Wahlberg as an up-and-coming boxers and Christian Bale as his older brother and trainer, a former boxer and crack addict. Both Amy Adams (Wahlberg's girlfriend) and Melissa Leo (the mother) turn in dynamo performances, but "it's not a total knockout," according to Alter. Still, it's a "loud, rowdy and often very funny movie," and one that has critics talking about Oscar nominations.

Director Julie Taymor has been in the news in recent weeks mostly for the accidents and other travails of her Spider-Man Broadway musical, but she has a film coming out too--her adaptation of the Shakespeare play The Tempest (5 theatres). Critic David Noh called it a "singular disappointment," and given her colorful work on other projects, "surprisingly uninteresting visually." This movie is a bit of an orphan, a Miramax project now being released by "Disney-Touchstone-Miramax," and I doubt it will receive a concerted marketing effort or awards campaign.

On Monday, we'll see if Chronicles of the Dawn Treader earned its expected $30 million, and if The Tourist was able to open above $20 million. Last week's per-screen average winner, Black Swan, expands to 80 theatres, and many eyes will be watching the opening weekend of The Fighter.