The first Oscar screener sent out this season was Summit’s A Better Life, which quietly hit theaters back in late June and while it only took home $1.7 million from the box-office, it was loved by critics and now the studio is hoping to get a little additional love by being the first out of the gate with a screener and boy were they early.
Just as I was heading out to Toronto to cover the film festival I received two copies of the DVD and a copy of the Blu-ray. I was locked and loaded and ready to see a film I missed earlier in the year due to scheduling conflicts. So finally last night I settled in to see what was what and to very little surprise, director Chris Weitz has crafted a moving story that is essentially a remake of Vittorio de Sica‘s 1948 Oscar-winning film Bicycle Thieves, updated, of course, to reflect current societal issues.
The film centers on Carlos (Demian Bichir), a Mexican gardener living illegally in California with his teenage son, who borrows $12,000 to buy a truck and go into business for himself with the dream of a better life for him and his son. However, when the truck is almost immediately stolen he’s forced to set out in search of the thief to reclaim what’s his. And while I can’t say I am 100% on board with the decision to take the story in this direction, it does offer a way to delve into the Carlos’ life and predicament without going down cliched and traditional alleyways.
The performance from Demian Bichir as Carlos stands out and it’s a tough performance for an actor to pull off — because it’s an honest performance. The script, as written by Eric Eason, does enough for the story that Bichir doesn’t need to give in to embellishment. He can act naturally and let the story do the rest. I wouldn’t say this film packs as much of a punch as Bicycle Thieves, primarily because the theft of a bike is far easier to accept than the idea Carlos would leave his keys in his brand new truck where anyone could run off with it, but the resulting drama is nonetheless effective.
That all said, this film is going to have to gain A LOT of support if it’s going to find itself in Oscar play. If anything I would say its best chances are in the original score department with a moving score provided by Alexandre Desplat (The Tree of Life) who’s been nominated four times and never won and for Javier Aguirresarobe‘s cinematography where he utilizes natural light in very much the same way he did on Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. However, I think there’s any easy cinematography comparison to be made with Phedon Papamichael‘s work on Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, which may hurt both their chances. I won’t even begin comparing either to the work Emmanuel Lubezki put in on Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, that’s for another day.
I get the feeling the hope here is for some Best Actor attention for Bichir and you wouldn’t hear a complaint from me if there was some more heat surrounding his performance, but a few more of those Oscar pundits out there are going to need to speak up if this thing is going to start gaining any additional traction.
