At one stage, 2011 threatened to be the year of Rachel Weisz, with no fewer than five films set for release and several potential awards contenders among them. But things haven’t quite turned out as planned; she picked up good reviews for “The Whistleblower,” but the film didn’t get much traction, while both “Page Eight” and “360” got pretty poor reviews at Toronto, and “Dream House“… well, I mean, you’ve seen the trailer, right?
Fortunately, there’s one shining light in there: “The Deep Blue Sea,” the much anticipated return of director Terence Davies with an adaptation of Terence Rattigan‘s classic 1950s drama of sex, adultery and guilt. Our own Kevin Jagernauth raved about it at TIFF, calling it “beautiful, woozy and heartbreaking,” and finding Weisz’s performance extraordinary, and most of the other reviews agreed. Whether it plays into the awards season is yet to be seen — the picture’s been picked up by Music Box Films but they haven’t yet set a date for it — but the film will be closing the BFI London Film Festival next month ahead of its U.K. release in November, and Love Film have now premiered the first British trailer for the film.
Like the “Wuthering Heights” trailer from the other day, it’s a fairly brief teaser, but already displays much of what seems to be the film’s strengths: Davies’ trademark sepia-tinted time-gone-by look, supporting turns by “Thor” star Tom Hiddleston and the great Simon Russell Beale, and, of course, Weisz at the very center of it all. Between this and the advance word, we’re very, very excited to see how it turns out. The film hits the U.K. on November 25th, and we’re almost certain that Music Box will schedule some kind of Oscar-qualifying U.S. run before the end of 2011. Watch the trailer below.
Yes, that piece of music features pretty prominently in the film.
Oh boy, I can\’t wait. I love Terence Davies\’ films and over here in London, these three actors have time and again proved themselves so incredible in stage performances. Great to see Simon Russell Beale get a leading role in a movie for once, and the world has yet to see how great Tom Hiddleston is too – Loki not remotely doing him justice.
The music is the second movement of Barber\’s exquisite Violin Concerto. I suspect it\’ll feature in the film as Davies\’ movies usually do have an eclectic mix of classical music and jazz in them.
Does anyone know where the music used in the trailer is from?
Whistleblower was in a very small number of theaters, so don\’t count out a wider release to capitalise on what Music Box is going to do to promote Rachel Weisz \’s performance in Deep Blue Sea. Especially when Weisz\’s performance in Whistleblower is just as acclaimed and has it\’s supporters.
As for 360, everybody who has seen it said that Weisz is hardly in the film at all, so even if that got great notices, Weisz would not have gotten a nomination.
If Whistleblower gets a wide release of any kind after making the whopping total of $964,000 in six weeks in theaters, I\’m a monkey\’s uncle. No way it\’s going anywhere near the Oscars. That\’s not a comment on the quality of the film, it\’s just not happening.
And no, Page Eight was never going to be in the awards race, bar the Emmys. But if 360 had worked, which by all accounts it doesn\’t, you bet they\’d have pushed her for Supporting Actress.
I don\’t know where you guys got the idea that Rachel Weisz was going to get award contention for \”Page Eight\” or \”360\”. Considering the major fact that \”Page Eight\” is a made for TV movie for the BBC and PBS and the fact that Rachel only has a few scenes in \”360\” in which Rachel herself said in a video interview on this site was a very, very small role.
As for \”Dream House\”, yea, that does look bad but there were reports of problems with the production since the beginning and its being reported that Rachel does not like the film at all. So much so that she\’s not doing press for it.
December or January is where Music Box is releasing the film and don\’t count out \” The Whistleblower\” yet for Oscar contention. Word is that it could be opening wider in the coming months for a huge Oscar push for Weisz\’s performance.