Golden Globes: “Atonement” Not Dead!
And the evening’s big winner was: “Longford“! Never heard of it? Didn’t even see it when it was broadcast on HBO? You’re in good company. Despite its low profile, this TV movie about prison reformer the Earl of Longford picked up three awards tonight at the Golden Globe Awards, which were reduced to a televised reading of the winners, because the writers’ strike had put the kabosh on the usual glamorous funfest. And “Mad Men,” AMC’s series about bibulous, horny advertising men in the late 1950s, picked up two Globes on the TV side. (Here’s a complete list of winners.) The juicier half of the Globes, however, was in the movie awards; they provide a few more clues about the upcoming Oscars. And what happened there? Well, “Atonement” won two awards (including the big one: Best Drama), which proves that all those people who last week left it for dead look a little like those pollsters who a week ago left Hillary for carrion in New Hampshire. “Atonement” is most definitely still in the running, because it connects emotionally. Another emotional favorite the past month with audiences has been “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” which won Best Foreign Film and a slightly surprising Best Director award for Julian Schnabel. Having loved “Atonement” and “Diving Bell,” I was pretty happy with the Globes. I could almost overlook the Best Musical/Comedy win for “Sweeney Todd” and a prize for its lead, Johnny Depp. “No Country for Old Men,” which won the bulk of the critics’ awards for Best Picture of 2007, took home Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem.
Did anyone notice that of the six acting winners only one, Depp, is an American, and he still has to be counted the Oscar underdog to Daniel Day-Lewis, who won Best Actor/Drama. The Globes show us again the likelihood that the acting Oscars may all go to non-Americans: Day-Lewis; Bardem; Christie or Marion Cotillard, who won Best Actress/Musical or Comedy for “La Vie En Rose”; and Cate Blanchett, who won for her Dylan impersonation in “I’m Not There.”
And how did LemonWade’s prognosticator, Rex Okpodu, do with his movie choices? If you go by his predicted winners, he was six for 14. But if you include his alternate winners, he was 11 for 14, which is very respectable. Both Rex and my biggest mistake was thinking that “There Will Be Blood” or “No Country for Old Men” would win Best Drama.
