Okay, Big Game, here we go!
We’re
looking at all the Best Original Screenplay Nominees. And first up is the year
1992. Why? Because you choose it! Here’s the list:
Husbands
and Wives
Lorenzo’s Oil
Passion Fish
Unforgiven
The Crying Game.
And since we’re tackling it
alphabetically, with the winner last, we’re kicking it off with a personal
favorite of mine – Mr. Woody Allen. We’ll be looking at Woody a lot over the
course of this thing. Dude practically owns this category. He didn’t win every
time, but he certainly could have. And having just rewatched Husbands and
Wives, I’d argue this year certainly falls into a “could have” year. But he’s
Woody Allen. Can’t win ‘em all. Plus, this movie came out during a particularly…strange…time
for him.
I know we
wanna keep this chat about the screenplays, but there’s some real world stuff
in this movie that’s pretty tough to ignore. We know Mia and Woody break it off
in real life soon after this film, and you gotta wonder about some of these
conversations. They certainly feel real. Like Woody’s got some serious source
material to draw from. But we don’t need to speculate. Cause his personal life
isn’t the script’s business. Just thought it was interesting.
Let’s get
it started! This movie has some kinda pseudo-documentary vibe going for it.
Like, yes, we’re supposed to believe it’s a documentary, but we aren’t supposed
to believe there’s an actual camera crew. Unless the crew was doing
reenactments? Which, actually, man, that would have been a sweet ending. Or,
maybe not. Anyway, it’s a strange approach.
One that, for me, took a while to
fall into, especially given how prolific this style has been the last decade or
so. It has rules now! Or, at least solid conventions that most people adhere
to. Not so much with Woody’s script. At
first, I found it a little off-putting. I liked the fly-on-the-wall business
during the scenes, but didn’t much care for the talking heads. As it rolls on,
however, those talking heads start to illuminate the scenes, and they’re able
to bring in characters we might not have otherwise met.
Speaking of the characters, man,
are they all hilariously pretentious. We’ve got an art critic, a writer, some
kind of architect – if it’s an artistically fulfilling, well-paid dream job,
someone has it in this movie. There’s a party scene later and I guarantee there
was a conductor, a film director and a jazz pianist in attendance. It’s strange
though, I think in most other films, it’d be a knock against the writing – to
be so outrageously pretentious – but here, Woody just builds it into the fabric
of the world. These people are ALL smart, ALL well spoken intellectuals. That’s
the universe they live in. And, sometimes, it makes them seem like assholes. At
that same party, when Jack pulls his aerobics instructor away, I’m fully on her
side. She punctures the sealed-off world these people live in just enough for
us to realize there’s another part of Woody’s New York, we just aren’t seeing
it. And I’m fine with that.
And I think that sealed off concept
applies to our main characters basic desires too. There’s a line later in the
movie that, for me, sums the whole thing up. Just after sleeping together,
Sally turns to Liam (and I’m not calling him anything but Liam!) and says they
had a “separate, nice experience”. I feel like that’s what all the characters
are looking for, even if they don’t know it. They all claim they want
connection, trust, honesty, a partner, but what they really want is to be
individually satisfied. To be made whole, on their own terms, using the pieces
of another person, but never fully accepting them. It’s why Jack can’t stay
with his aerobics instructor (I might have made that one work). It’s why Sally
can’t stay with Liam. And why Woody and Mia eventually break up too. By the end
of the movie, Jack and Sally do compromise. They end up together. But, based on
their closing interview, I’m not so sure the movie advocates for compromise.
Brief interlude – there’s one
scene, late in the film, I want to point out that seems to serve as a
counterpoint to all of this. At Rain’s party, Woody gives us a moment with
Rain’s parents. It isn’t much, but it does show that two people can be in love.
The wife mentions they’re coming up on twenty-five years together and they seem
absolutely smitten. It’s nice.
But compromise doesn’t breed comedy, and this
movie is very funny. Watching this again reminds me just how excited I am for
that Woody Allen sitcom we’ve got coming up. He’s a master of the form. We’ve
got that killer opening, with Jack and Sally bluntly announcing their divorce.
That wonderful scene with the aerobics instructor discussing the Zodiac, to
Jack’s increasing embarrassment. Jack, Sally and their two, new lovers
collected in the same house. All of these scenes were written for maximum
conflict. And they’re so, so effective. And hilarious.
Okay, so, why? Why was this
nominated? It’s all about character here. Each one is deep, flawed and so very
human. This movie is digging for a certain truth regarding marriage, and, on it’s
own terms, finds it. I feel like it’s pretty even-handed about the whole thing
too. Marriage is about the perfect balance of, well, everything – truth,
honesty, love, sex, shame, lust, desire, passion, camaraderie, as one character
says “a buffer against loneliness”, compromise and about a million other things
– and if any of these components aren’t working, sure, you can try and make up
for them in different areas. Or not. And that’s up to you. And the characters
make their choices, and, by the end, find themselves in very different places.
For better or worse, till death or some tiny grievance do them part.
Man, I hope doing this makes us
more organized writers. Gives me a new respect for the folks that churn out
five reviews every Friday. And I already had a lot of respect for them. Anyway,
there were some thing I loved, but couldn’t work into the actual writing. Here
goes:
I love Woody’s credits. They make
me so happy.
I love the way they talk about sex
– it’s so abstract. “Too cold in bed”, “Inhibited”, “Make love”. When Woody
delivers that monologue about Harriet Harmon, it has to be one of the least sexy
things ever. I love it.
These characters must have constant
access to a thesaurus.
Look out, it’s Liam Neeson!
Remember when it wasn’t funny to see him in movies? I’ll watch him kick ass all
day, but dude used to be an actor!
It’s so wonderful that Judy views
Liam’s weeping over poetry as a positive trait.
“Life doesn’t imitate art, it
imitates bad television” – Woody’s the best.
Change equals death! Never change!
--
Finally, I’m going to keep a
running rank of these movies as we go. So, by default –
1. Husbands and Wives
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