What I did on my holidays

Did you know that the Oscars are barely six weeks away? Funny how things catch up with you quicker as you get older. I have spent the past few weeks catching up on award season contenders and my initial impression is that for the first time in a long time there may be some genuine competition this year. Generally by this time we have one film which has been annointed sometime before Xmas as the darling of the critics/chattering classes and it then processes regally amassing armfuls of baubles until Oscar night itself. Not so this year; there are a lot of worthy contenders and it is hard to make a strong case for any one film to the exception of others.

Doubt, for example, is not a great film but it has at least four Oscar-worthy performances. Similarly The Wrestler per se may not be worth a Best Picture nod but Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei will take a bit of beating. I think you might also say the same about Frank Langella and Michael Sheen in Frost/Nixon.

Revolutionary Road is the sort of film that makes it worth enduring the intellect-free expanse of the summer months to spend two hours of your time with this in the winter. A stunning piece of work that suggests Kate Winslet may not be overlooked for long. Ironically her greatest competition is herself in that she is also likely to be nominated for The Reader. Again this is an exceptional piece of work but the film haunts me for all the wrong reasons.

The acting is superb, the direction is marvelous, and although I watched it three weeks ago I can't stop thinking about it. There is a fatal flaw at the heart of this film; there is a moral equivalency between Nazism and the subject matter which seems entirely unbalanced - I can't give more details without spoiling it but would love to talk to you guys about it once you've seen it. And yet, and yet, and yet...this film will not leave me alone.

Defiance is another that has me thinking, not in any deep intellectual way, but simply that every time I see the trailer I remember more things I liked about it. It's unashamedly heroic which is rare in these cynical times.

Biggest disappoinments? Definitely Milk which is overly-romanticised hagiography and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which for all its technological marvels is overlong, flabby, and failed to engage me at almost any point.

As for hidden gems, I finally came across Brideshead Revisited which, despite the obvious problems of adapting such a monster of a book, still emerges quietly triumphant especially in the performances of the two leads.

Naturally all will be revealed on Oscar night and by that time you will have had the chance to put your money where your mouth is with the grand DFTV Oscar sweepstake. Watch this space!