My best picture ballot

When voters vote for best picture, they actually don't just vote, they rank their favorites. If I were a voter, this would be my ranking.

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3, Black Swan
4. The Fighter
5. The Kids Are All Right
6. True Grit
7. The King's Speech
8. Toy Story 3
9. Winter's Bone
10. 127 Hours

As for the top five, they were all in my ten best list, and the explanations can be found on my list.

I had True Grit and The King's Speech, they were both in my 11-20 list, which is not ranked. I rank True Grit slightly higher, which I found more emotinally satisfying. I respect The King's Speech, a very well made movie, but a bit emotionally distant for my taste.

As for Toy Story 3, it was the first Pixar film where I felt the gears moving a bit. But the characters shine through. It was one of the four or five films I knocked out of my final 20 in my final debate with myself over what would be in my final 20.

As for the two not in the debate, Winter's Bone is a good film, but with the typical rough edges of low budget filmmaking. As is normal for the Oscars, when one element is truly outstanding, the film itself tends to be overrated. Jennifer Lawrence is outstanding in the lead, and deserves her Best Actress nomination. The film is very good, but I cannot ascribe greatness.

And I still reccommend my lowest ranked film, 127 Hours. Once again, one great element: James Franco's performance. The film is basically a one man show, but the reasons why I should care are missing, and for me the film paled to another one man show, Buried, which I thought was more intense and more important, even though it is fiction.

Oscar nomination predictions and votes

I've already posted my analysis of the three shorts races, with mini reviews of all of them as I have seen all of the nominated shorts this year. I've done the same for animated feature and documentary feature. Here's predictions and opinions for the feature nominations:

PICTURE

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

With True Grit as a dark horse, I think this is mostly between The Social Network and The King's Speech. Usually when one film takes an edgy approach and one a more traditional approach, the traditional approach wins. For example, Forrest Gump beating Pulp Fiction, or Dances with Wolves beating Goodfellas. Both contenders are well made, but I'll take the traditional approach: The King's Speech.

My vote: Inception. It topped my end of the year list, and I haven't changed my mind.

ACTOR

Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)

Colin Firth has been the frontrunner all season. That remains unchanged. He'll win.

My vote: Eisenberg. It's hard to make a character standoffish and intriguing at the same time, but he did it.

ACTRESS

Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)

Natalie Portman has been the frontrunner all season. That remains unchanged. She'll win.

My vote: Portman. She does heavy emotion, complicated dancing, and keeps us involved through some rather outlandish plot twists. The best acting this year in any category.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale (The Fighter)
John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Christian Bale has been the frontrunner all season. That remains unchanged. He'll win.

My vote: I have a lot of affection for Ruffalo's live-in performance, but I cannot deny the overall impressiveness of Bale. So I vote for Bale.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Melissa Leo has been the frontrunner all season. That remains unchanged. But... she has waged a personal campaign in the Hollywood papers which has turned some people off, and I think her lead has slipped. I can literally come up with a scenario where any of the five could win. I think the toughest contender is Steinfeld, who absolutely carries a film which received 10 nominations. I think this is close, but I think Leo will still pull out a close win.

My choice: Steinfeld. She should have been up for lead , as she carries the film, but as for the question of which performance I like the best of these five, it is her.

ART DIRECTION

Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, PArt 1
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Alice in Wonderful are the most eye popping, but my bet is the film which had a hotel set that had to spin to create the illusion of being on the ceiling. That would be Inception.

My choise: Inception, for that reason.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

This year's ridiculously overdue winner is Roger Deakins, who should have wone previously. Multiple times. He shot True Grit.

My choise: Black Swan. Matthew Libatique put me in the main character's head, and pulled off some logistical nightmares with all those reflections.

COSTUMES

Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King's Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

Sandy Powell (The Tempest) and Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland) are generally the two most respected in the business, but more people saw Atwood's work. So I'm going with Alice.

My choice: vacant. I have not seen I am Love or The Tempest, and I usually love Powell's work. Of the three I have seen, I would be fine with any of the three.

DIRECTOR

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O Russell (The Fighter)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
Darren Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

Hoper won the Director's Guild award. But that had a lot of TV directors voting, and Hooper (John Adams) has a TV background. The movie director, and the former nominee who hasn't won yet, is Fincher, and somehow he made computer nerds visually arresting with great acting. I go with Fincher.

My choice: Fincher. He;s due, and this is his best film to date.

EDITING

Black Swan
The Fighter
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

When in doubt, take the Best Picture winner in this category. I'm very unsure, but will take The King's Speech.

My choice: Inception. And since that isn't nominated, The Social Network, for going back and forth in time effortlessly.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Biutiful
Dogtooth
In a Better World
Incendies
Outside the Law

The voters have to watch all five films, so Biutiful's supposedly front-runner status I believe is inaccurate. I believe In a Better World has the approach the voters will endorse.

My choice: vacant. I haven't seen any of them.

MAKEUP

Barney's Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

This category most years should be most makeup. This year, that's The Wolfman.

My choice: I haven't seen any of them.

MUSIC: ORIGINAL SCORE

How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

Remember this category is voted by the whole academy. Usually when a non-traditional composer gets nominated, he can win. That would be Trent Reznor (and Atticus Ross)for The Social Network.

My choice: I love The Social Network, but love Hans Zimmer's work for Inception anymore. The last five minutes of the movie is my favorite piece of music this year.

MUSIC: ORIGINAL SONG

"Coming Home" (Country Strong)
"I See The Light" (Tangled)
"If I Rise" (127 Hours)
"We Belong Together" (Toy Story 3)

The last time the list was so underwhelming, the voters figured they would just vote for Randy Newman. I guessing they do it again, for "We Belong Together".

My choice: The only song of the four I remembered was "I See The Light", used during Tangled's best scene, when the lanterns are lit.

SOUND EDITING

Inception
Toy STory 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

The sound design that stunned the most this year was Inception.

My choise: The sound design that stunned the most this year was Inception.

SOUND MIXING

Inception
The King's Speech
Salt
The Social Netwrok
True Grit

Closer than the other sound race, but I think Inception still impresses.

My choice: Inception still impresses.

VISUAL EFFECTS

Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

Lots of amazing subtle effects, and a couple of jaw dropping ones, make Inception the choice.

My choice: Inception. Easiest choice on the entire list.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech

A great backstory for the writer, coupled with great dialogue, makes The King's Speech the easy prediction.

My Choise: For creating a dream within a dream within a dream, and getting it to make sense, Inception is an easy choise for me.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) has been the frontrunner all season. That remains unchanged. He'll win.

My choise: Sorkin created my favorite TV show of all time, Sports Night. Of course I am rooting for him.

Oscar nominated features: Animated

I've seen all these are well. So I'm not repeating the introduction again.

How to Train Your Dragon

A charming film with wonderful sequences of the main character training and caring for an injured dragon, great flight sequences, and supporting characters that blended together too much for me. Grade A-

The Illusionist

A charming, beautifully drawn film which bored the hell out of me. Pretty much the same reaction I had to The Triplets of Bellvue. Great looking film, but the director doesn't understand plot and pacing. The Minions got screwed. Grade C

Toy Story 3

I thought the story telling was a little forced, but Dragon's big flaw is Toy Story's big strength: well drawn characters. And even lower level Pixar is better than almost everyone else.

Oscar prediction: Never bet against Pixar. Toy Story 3 in a walk.

My choice: If you don't know who the Minions are, see Despicable Me stat. But since they aren't nominated, go with Pixar.

Oscar nominated features: Documentary

I have seen all the films in this category, so I'll offer short reviews of each followed by my prediction in the category.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Well gee, how to describe this one? It's about guerrilla street art, a topic I don't care about. But as Roger Ebert has said, a film is not what it is about, but how it is about it. And this film's goofball approach, as the subject because the filmmaker and the filmmaker becomes the subject, is tremendously entertaining. What is real and what is not? Don't really know, which is part of the fun. But the spirit of guerrilla art is captured. Grade: A

Gasland

And boy is this film getting the full court press from the natural gas industry. The director sets out to learn more about gas drilling after an offer to pay him to drill on this family's property. The more he talks to people, the more worried he gets. The film is technically a bit amateurish, but that gives it an appeal, as the anger of the film isn't as much at the practice, but the fact that the industry is not even regulated by the US government. Grade: A-

Inside Job

Director Charles Ferguson approached as a journalist, trying to understand how the financial crisis of 2008 occurred and how we could avoid repeating the mistakes. His breakdown is enraging. And the lessons don't seem to have been learned. This is the essential document of how greed run amok is destroying our economy. Grade: A+

Restrepo

This look at a year in the life of a group of soldiers in Afganistan, focusing on the establishment of Outpost Restrepo, named for a comrade who was killed. The film does a good job of getting the feel of the service, but fails to do a good job of getting a sense of who these soldiers are as people. And that failure makes this the weekest of the nominees. But as a document of what the Afganistan fighting has been like, the film is invaluable. Grade: B+

Wasteland

A second documetary involving art, a second movie I really didn't care to see, and a second movie which was a pleasant surprise. This film documents an artist using materials from Rio's primary garbage dump to make art. He meets the pickers, who sort through the trash and get recyclable materials, and becomes wrapped up in their plight. The way several of the pickers, who at the beginning seem to have lost hope and how their outlook on life is changed, is truly inspiring. Grade: A

Oscar chances: I've seen a lot of predictors saying Exit Through the Gift Shop. I think some of them forget that the documentary branch chooses the winner, and when the top two contenders include a rule breaker and a rule follower, the rule breaker ususally doesn't win. And Exit Through the Gift Shop is definitely a rule breaker. Charles Ferguson lost last time he was nominated with No End in Sight, his excellent look at the causes of the Iraq War. Inside Job is even better, and he's due. I think Inside Job wins.

My choice: Inside Job.

Oscar nominated shorts: Animated

I have seen all the films in this category, so I'll offer short reviews of each followed by my prediction in the category.

Day & Night

This is the short seen more than all the rest combined, as this is the short which played in front of Toy Story 3. Pixar strikes again. It's a rare combination of inventive animation and inspired storytelling, with a logic that is hard to describe but very entertaining. Grade: A+

The Gruffalo

The longest short at about half an hour, this is a straight forward telling of a children's book, with great voice work. Helena Bonham Carter voices the mother squirrel telling the story. It's cute, but not exactly groundbreaking. Grade A-

Let's Pollute

A very funny contrarian short, advising people of all the ways they can wreck the atmosphere. The animation is king of standard, though. Grade: A-

The Lost Thing

A quirky Australian short about a boy who finds a creature who doesn't fit in and tries to find a place where it does. Lots of great details in the animation, I want to see this again to catch it all (and maybe freeze some frames) A true delight. Grade: A

Madagascar, carnet de voyage

Probably the most inventive use of animation, which many switching styles, but the story is a standard travelogue. I'm glad I saw it for the animation, but eligible short The Cow who Wanted to Be a Hamburger would have been a more deserving nominee. Grade: B+

Oscar chances: It's hard to bet against Pixar. So I won't. I see the race going to Night & Day. I would also believe it is the best of the five nominees.

Oscar nominated shorts: Live Action

I have seen all the films in this category, so I'll offer short reviews of each followed by my prediction in the category.

The Confession

A perfect example of a film with a promising beginning, and then runs off the rails. The child at the center of the film is uncomfortable with confession because he thinks he has nothing to confess. This leads to, uh, people dying. Is the point that confession causes children to sin? Because that's what it felt like, even though I don't think it was point. I sure hope not. Grade: D+
The Crush

A young boy, with a crush on his teacher, becomes insanely jealous when he finds out the teacher has just become engaged. He sets out to battle the new fiance for the teacher's hand. Without revealing what happens, let me say I thought the film had painted itself in a corner, but the resolution was genuinely amusing. Grade: A=

God of Love

A crooner who throws darts (bullseyes) while he sings desires his drummer, while she in turn desires the guitar player, while the guitar player decline her hints because of his friendship with the crooner. Then the crooner is delivered some magical darts which cause the target to fall in love for six hours. That's just the set-up, but the cliche "hilarity ensues" actually correctly applies here. Grade: A

Na Wewe

The film's heart is in the right place, really it is, but its message about Rwanda, and the futility of killing those based only by their tribe, is a bit heavy handed, not to mention about 15 years late. Grade: C+

Wish 143

In which a teenage boy dying of cancer gives his dying wish: to have sex. Behind that premise is the ultimate discovery that there is a girl he wants but has lost. The film's strength is in the way it recognizes the pain of a child cancer ward but the dark humor of the character. I especially liked the portrayal of the priest on the ward, the only person who seems to understand the teen's loneliness. Grade A+

Oscar race: Sometimes in a race a film stands out partially because it is different. God of Love is that film. It is genuinely witty and inventive, and I believe will grab the voters' attention. Though I would vote for Wsh 143.

Oscar nominated shorts: Documentary

I have seen all the films in this category, so I'll offer short reviews of each followed by my prediction in the category.

Killing in the Name

The main focus of this documentary is a Moslem man whose wedding reception was at a hotel that was a target of a suicide bomber. The bomg killed his father, new father-in-law, and 25 other guests at the reception. He has devoted his life to convincing Moslems that terrorism is wrong. The film gains access to a terrorist recruiter, a father of a suicide bomber, and a school where two suicide bombers are celebrated. Some amazing and emotional footage was gathered with impressive access, with this man is its center. A very deserving nominee. Grade: A+

Poster Girl

This is basically a biography of a young woman who while in Iraq was photographed with two other female soldiers which became a recruiting poster for the US Army. Today, she is an emotional mess. Unfortunately, the film is a mess. What might have made a portrait of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome does not have focus, probably because the filmmaker got too close to the subject. Several graphic flashbacks of Iraq seem to rub our noses in the violene, but for what reason? The Iraq War was bad? That point has been made better by other documentaries. Heck, the Matt Damon film Green Zone did a better job. Grade: C-

Strangers No More

An emotional portrait of a school in Israel which specializes in welcoming children of all nationalities smartly focuses on a few students and their progress over one year. It is heartwarming, it is entertaining, but one question is not even attempted by this film which leaves it just short of the universal message it seems to be striving for: How is this school put together and how could its success be repeated in other schools? Still, what is in the film is always gripping. Grade: A

Sun Come Up

This is a portarit of a tribe in the South Pacific which has to leave its island home because the sea is rising, and its search for a new home. By smartly spending the first few minutes profiling the tribe and its home before detailing the search, we get to know these people and are invested in the struggle. The message about the effects of global warming smartly stays in the background, and the film is all the better for it. Grade: A+

The Warriors of Qiugang

This is a frustrating film, and not because of its subject matter, a Chinese town fighting pollution from a chemical company. The local farmer who heads the fight is as intiguing a person as in any of these shorts. But after a gripping half hour of the fight, a year is then skipped, and the ending is rushed. This has all the feel of a project which lost its funding, and that's too bad, because it results in a film which feels like a three act play where only the first act was filmed. Grade: B

As for the Oscar race, this category frequently is decided as much because of the subject matter as for the execution. So while I personally would vote for Sun Comes Up, I am predicting the other A+ film in my book, Killing in the Name Of, which has current relevance and is expertly made. Although if the voters vote for heartwarming, which has been known to happen, then Strangers No More definitely could pull the upset.

Top Ten of 2010: the 10 films

10. The Kids Are All Right. If this were just a tract showing that family values includes families headed by lesbians too, tis wouldn't be notable. But all five of the primary ensemble nail the performaces, and the dialogue is so point perfect (watch the kids squirm when their moms tell how they met) and surprisingly funny so that a political statment becomes more of a human statement,

9, Exit Through the Gift Shop. Easily the most entertaining documentary of the last several years, this look at street art (a subject I have no general interest in) is given life and an energy I never imagined. Then it turns at the halfway point and becomes something else entirely, becoming, I think, an indictment of those who want to make corporate and mainstream an art form that is subversive in its nature. But remaining entertaining throughout.

8. Flipped. The film that slipped through the cracks this year. Director Rob Reiner brought us a fond look at a childhood crush through the alternating point of view of the crusher and the crushee. Madeline Carroll's performance as the girl who has the crush embodies an eighth grader as few have before her.

7. The Fighter. Christian Bale and Michelle Leo are getting the most publicity for their performances in the movie. And they are great, as is Amy Adams. Bt the heart of this movie is Mark Wahlberg. His emotion at not quite being able to get to the level that deep down he believes he belongs gives life to everything else in the movie, as does shooting the film in the Massachusetts neighborhood where it actually happened.

6. Buried. Or Claustrophobia: The Movie. I had more of a physical reaction to this film than any this year. Set simply in a coffin, there's no way this can work at feature length. But it can. With Ryan Reynolds' career-best performance, and more adept camerwork than I thought possible, I felt like the walls of the theater were closing in on me. And for days afterword.

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander is one of the most interesting characters I've found in a long time, brought to life by a fierce performance by Noomi Rapace. The central mystery is an interesting, but I was even more fascinated by the developing relationship between the two investigators.

4. Black Swan. The tru mess with your mind film of the Christmas season, assembled as only a master as Darren Aronfsky could do it. And Natalie Portman gives the performance of the year.

3. Inside Job. Charles Ferguson shows he may be the best documentarian alive, as he explains how the financial crisis of 2008 was not only inevitable, but will happen again if things are not changed. If this didn't make your blood boil, you must be one of the bankers profiled.

2. The Social Network. Aaron Sorkin has been the best writer on television for the past decade, but this film not only captured the magic of his dialogue, but came with a visual and technical flourish you expect from David Fincher.

1. Inception. Nothing captured my imagination, nothing showed me things I've never seen before like Inception. Great visual wit, ingenous plotting, I'm still stunned six months later. Simply put, nothing captured me quite like a dream within a dream within a dream.

Top Ten of 2010: Runners-Up

As I sat down to sift through the films of the past year, I was shocked to find how many films I had really enjoyed. I had thought it was a bad year. But I look at what films did not make my top 20, and I was stunned by some that had not made it. A year ago, I had said Crazy Heart would make my top ten. It isn't in my 20. Neither is The Ghost Writer or Easy A, both of which I give high marks to. To say nothing of animation: I annually have animation high on my list, but Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Secret of Kells ended up on the outside looking in.

A note about eligibility: The film are eligible in the period they play my area, west central Ohio. Two films I have seen of this writing, Blue Valentine and Rabbit Hole, did not play until 2011. They will be considered for next year's list. Same with Biutiful, Country Strong, and Somewhere. Meanwhile 2009 films that did not get here until 2009 are eligible for 2010, such as The White Ribbon, The Lovely Bones, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, and the afore-mentioned Crazy Heart. But I judged none of them as good as the 20 movies that follow.

Also, in the past, I have restricted myself to the Dayton-Springfield area for eligibility. I have decided to include Columbus in my eligibility period this year, as a surprising amount of films played there and did not get to Dayton. Included in that group are The Secret of Kells, Enter the Void, Red Riding, Waking Sleeping Beauty, and Buried. I'm not sure if The Tillman Story played Dayton, but it played Columbus, so it is also eligible.

Not eligible are movies made for television. I've seen HBO movies specifically make reviewers lists in the past. But if I allowed them, Temple Grandin would definitely made my list. As a father of an autistic child, I appreciated this look into the autistic mind that was like nothing I've ever seen. It would have ranked in the top ten if eligible.

Without further ado, the ten runners-up, in alphabetical order:

Best Worst Movie. Anyone who loves bad movies owes it to themselves to see this. No film has captured the allure of awesomely terrible films than this documentary of the rise and fall of Troll 2 years after its making. The funniest thing about the film is how most of the cast seems to know they made a disaster, while most of technical crew seems to think they made a masterpiece. (And yes, Troll 2 is as bad as advertised.)

The Girl that Kicked the Hornet's Nest. The conclusion of the Milennium trilogy rewards those who have watched the previous two films. It is not a mystery, but a fine example of the old standby of the courtroom drama, and puts the trilogy back on solid ground after some of the stumbles towards the end of the second chapter.

The King's Speech. I don't care about royals, and the desciption of the film sounded like nothing for me. But it is so well acted, and so well put together, that it is termendouly entertaining.

Let Me In. Unnerving, simply unnerving. Most films about vampires have vampires which involve romanticizing of the cold blooded characters. The stakes seem real here. The atmosphere is so thick, using the issue of bullying to show how a loner child could be attracted to a vampire in the first place.

Red Riding. Three films, each with different main characters, blend together to tell the story of how local corruption rots the system and is responsible for destoying many souls.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Life as a video game. One the true pure entertainments of the year, even though some of the criticisms of the main character in the source material are clearly missing, to the detriment of the film. A film not so eager to make the main character too bland and likable would have made my top ten instead of the runners-up.

Shutter Island. The true mess with your mind film of the spring, assembled as only a master like Martin Scorsese could do it.

The Tillman Story. Rather than just tell the story of a hero, this film dug more and gave us much more a sense of what was lost when Pat Tillman was killed in action, as well as an indictment of a system so deperate for a hero that the facts were brushed aside.

True Grit. Yes, the Coen brothers land in my top 20 again. But this feels less like one of their films and more like a pure western the way it was, with a star-making performance in the lead by Hailee Steinfeld.

Waking Sleeping Beauty. Yes, the story of Disney's animation renaissance in the 1980s is well-known (especially by me) but this telling of the story, with behind the scenes footage, priceless caricatures and drawings from the artists and even handed direction from Don Hahn (who produced Beauty and the Beast, so he knows the story well) is the most fun I've had hearing the story.

Burlesque (2009)

I believe it was Jean Luc Godard who said the best way to criticize a film is to make another film. In the case of Burlesque, that film has already been made, so I only have to point in the direction of Moulin Rouge.

Moulin Rouge earned an Oscar nomination for director Baz Lahrmann. And that's the biggest difference, Because Burlesque has Steve Antin and its writer-director, and he's in over his head.

And that's the basic problem with Burlesque. It has moments of great entertainment, and dialogue that inspires groans. What it lacks is someone with a unifying vision, a grand sense of the film.

For example, the film's opening is some bar in Iowa, and then we see the main character move to LA, look for a job, get a cheap hotel room, and exactly none of this is compelling. The film should have opened with her entrance into the burlesque hall where most of the film takes place, because that is when the film gets going. But by then 7-8 minutes have been wasted. A better director would have known that.

And the film has some elements. Christina Aguilera is OK as an actress, but she is a performer with few peers -- especially that voice. Her performances inspire awe. Her dialogue scenes have the audience wanting another performance, not really caring what happens to her character.

Cher is, well, Cher. She is an icon. But even she doesn't really know what to do with the worn plot of her about to lose the club due to high bills, and if she would only take the nice offer the rich man is making. I would have cut the subplot out entirely, including the ex-husband played by Peter Gallagher, who spends the entire film whining about bills, and nothing else.

Antin also doesn't seem to know what to do with his virtues. Stanley Tucci does get plenty of screen time of Cher's oldest and dearest friend, and he's priceless. But he also has Alan Cumming, and barely in the film. Dude, it's a musical! It's Alan Cumming! How do you not give him at least one big number.

I love musicals. Probably more than most people. I was expecting a glorious guilty pleasure. But the film's a mess. Frustrating, because there was enough good elements for a really enjoyable picture, Leaving the picture, I felt the frustration more than the entertainment. That's not the way I want to leave the theater,

Grade: C