Thursday, February 25, 2010

'The Special Relationship': Confined to HBO

It's impossible to guess what will be nominated for the Best Picture race a year in advance. It remains clouded in uncertainty whether or not the number of nominations will be reduced to five. That will ultimately depend on how many people watch the broadcast of the awards. Another factor to take into account is that most of the films that make it in are independantly released, so we likely haven't heard of them yet. However, this morning I stumbled upon one such film that may have what it takes to break into the pivotal category.

The film in question is The Special Relationship, the third installment of Peter Morgan's Tony Blair trilogy of films. Starting seven years ago (The Deal) and continuing three years later with the Oscar-nominated film The Queen, the series stars Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and each film deals with a significant time in the Prime Minister's life. The Special Relationship is specifically about Blair's dealings with U.S. president Bill Clinton, depicted by Dennis Quaid. I'm not at all a fan of Dennis, but it seems to me that Peter Morgan has intent on showing Clinton in a negative light so if that's the case then perfect casting.

The same people who brought us The Queen coming together for a final film seems to have quite a bit of Academy Award potential. The main problem is that while it will be released in theatres overseas, the film is to be broadcast on television in the U.S. by HBO. I know that at this point there probably isn't anything that can be done about it, but I personally don't care. I'd like to try to raise awareness of this film and get it the domestic theatrical release that it rightly deserves. I don't know how I'm going to do that seeing as only about 10 people read my blog per week, but please let me know what you think. Does this film merit a release in theatres? Is it too much praise to give a film that has yet to be released?

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