evanston_dad

The Academy has a long history of giving actors Oscars for undeserving performances as a consolation for NOT giving them Oscars when they should have. The practice goes back to at least 1935, apparently.

The year before, Bette Davis had stunned audiences with her performance in "Of Human Bondage," but because Warner Bros. Was mad at her for being difficult, they rigged the system against her getting a nomination. So the Academy threw her a bone the following year for this instantly forgettable film about a bad girl who sees the error of her ways and has a change of heart. Davis is fine, but the best performance in the movie comes from Franchot Tone, who also received a nomination in 1935, albeit not for this movie (he was one of a trio of actors nominated for "Mutiny on the Bounty").

Throw a dart and you will hit any number of other Davis films and performances that are better than this one, but who's going to begrudge Bette her due?

Grade: C.

At last year's Oscar ceremony (from the time that I'm writing this comment) "I'm Still Here" became the first Brazilian movie to win in the International Feature Film category. In that movie, Fernanda Montenegro has a small role toward the end playing an older version of the film's main character, Eunice, played in the rest of the movie by Fernanda Torres, who also happens to be Montenegro's real-life daughter. The Academy had the chance to honor both Brazil and Montenegro before, in 1998, but they botched things royally by awarding instead the maudlin "Life Is Beautiful" and the woefully undeserving Gwyneth Paltrow for her performance in "Shakespeare in Love."

No matter. No one needs the Academy to validate their opinions about what is truly best. "Central Station" is a beautiful gut punch of a movie, one I can't believe took me as long to see as it did, but that I'm glad I got around to. Montenegro gives a wonderful performance, and by the time it was over the movie had taken my breath away and reduced me to tears.

Grade: A.

A little boy sent off to live with his extended family becomes the messenger between two people carrying on a forbidden affair.

He doesn't understand the situation he's unwittingly assisting, but he starts to, and it prompts curiosity and questions about sex. In that way, the film is partly a coming of age/sexual awakening story as well as a bit of hot and bothered costume drama.

The impetus for my seeking this movie out was the Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination received by Margaret Leighton, who is barely in the movie for the first three fourths of it but then has a doozy of a role to play in its last scenes. She had some stiff competition that year going up against the ladies from "The Last Picture Show," but she makes quite an impression.

As for the rest of the movie, it's entertaining enough if nothing overly special or memorable.

Grade: B+