So Whatever Happened to Awards Darling Carey Mulligan?
One of the most bittersweet moments of last night's Golden Globes occurred during the deployment of the Best Actress - Drama prize. Requisite shots of each nominee accompanied Mickey Rourke's reading of their names: Emily Blunt, grinning in rather extreme close-up; Sandra Bullock, the favorite, perched and ready to rise; Helen Mirren, the distinguished elder; Gabourey Sidibe, the gleeful neophyte... and just prior to Sidibe, Carey Mulligan, the one-time favorite for this prize and perhaps every other in 2009, meekly clapping, dwarfed in the back of the room, all but invisible with the tiny entourage from her breakthrough An Education. The viewer knew just as well as Mulligan did: She didn't have a chance. But why?
After all, it was almost a year ago when An Education's Sundance premiere sparked instant Oscar chatter for Mulligan, not to mention a lightning-quick, seven-figure distribution deal with awards-savvy distributors Sony Pictures Classics. The 24-year-old ingenue's performance as Jenny Miller -- faltering at the fork in the road leading to either bohemian early-'60s living or a conservative Oxford education -- yielded just the right class, brass and vulnerability to dazzle critics and Oscar voters. Assuming Sony Classics could strategically cultivate Mulligan's It-Girl status in the months to come, the general public would fall in line behind them. Apart from Mo'Nique's own towering performance in Precious, she was the closest thing to an Oscar lock Sundance had.
That remained the conventional wisdom throughout spring and early summer, when SPC and Lionsgate (which had bought Precious after a bit of saber-rattling with Harvey Weinstein) each clamped down on their stars' and their movies' visibility, carefully controlling against overexposure. But while Lionsgate secured a Cannes berth, a Toronto Film Festival gala and a prestigious centerpiece slot at the New York Film Festival for Precious, SPC went only so far as to drop An Education into Berlin and Toronto. It seemed a perfect fit for the NYFF's opening-night selection (the programmers instead went for Alain Resnais's Wild Grass, another SPC release), but Mulligan and her film remained hidden almost entirely from view as its Oct. 9 release date approached.
While that approach never stopped An Education from remaining near the front of the Oscar pack for much of 2009, you don't need hindsight to conclude it was an overreaction against peaking too soon. That might work if you're Mo'Nique, a brilliantly self-promoting, pay-to-play diva with whom Mulligan once shared an almost equivalent level of Oscar certitude. It isn't working so well for Team Mulligan, however, which utterly failed to build any public image or brand for their awards hopeful. Any number of unknowable internal factors contributed to this, from Mulligan's personal reluctance to play the game (especially after she started dating Shia LaBeouf) to SPC's institutional thriftiness to simply taking an awards nod for granted, thus planning to regroup in February -- after the Oscar nominations are announced -- for a legitimate campaign.
All of those dynamics may have been workable four or five years ago, before the Oscars started drawing fire (and crummy ratings) for its seeming insularity. But in 2009, Team Mulligan most severely miscalculated where her real competition would come from. While Gabourey Sidibe was dancing with Ellen DeGeneres, for example, Mulligan wowed exactly no one on The Late Show with David Letterman (just one day before An Education opened in New York and Los Angeles, by the way). While Meryl Streep was dominating August as Julia Child, Mulligan was dolled up in the NYT talking about the "insane" people she encounters in Los Angeles while riding the bus to meetings. And while Sandra Bullock scored the biggest hit -- and the most awards traction by far -- of her career in The Blind Side, Mulligan idled inconspicuously the art house, where An Education never expanded beyond 317 theaters. On the one hand, sure: You don't want it to turn out like Nine, overextended and flailing in medium-wide release. On the other, at least the Weinstein Company would wheedle and pester their actresses to nominations -- or die trying, maybe even literally.
The consequences will come in waves. We witnessed the first in that sad scene at the Globes, with its lone shot of Muliigan as neither an underdog nor even a dark horse but -- Heaven forbid -- a slouching, cheek-biting also-ran. The next will arrive this week during Sundance, when some other budding actress will be coronated "this year's Carey Mulligan," possibly restoring a bit of late, insider luster to Mulligan's awards-season standing. The last wave will come Feb. 2, when the Oscar nominations could snub her entirely in favor of a Weinstein special (Marion Cotillard, Melanie Laurent) or a late-coming ingenue (Blunt, Abbie Cornish -- both of whom have Cotillard's one-time Oscar guru Bob Berney working their cases behind the scenes). Despite myself, as one who was in that first Sundance audience and enjoyed the rare privilege of seeing a star born in person, I fear the worst.
Though Mulligan's Oscar chances are flagging, they're not unsalvageable. That said, what do you do if you're Sony Classics? As noted above, Mulligan has been a cinch for a nomination for nearly 12 months; a new round of press or for-your-consideration ads probably just seems like a waste of money with that kind of myth and momentum behind you. Moreover, it seems like panic -- such a Harvey move. Still, this is a young woman who was once expected to win this award, not just be satisfied with a nomination. (Surely SPC didn't spend $4 million on this at Sundance to merely be nominated.) If ever there were a time to repeal this doctrine of underexposure -- to get Mulligan in front of a few smart, Academy-concentrated audiences where her Oscar trajectory can find a boost before it's too late -- now is the hour. Suggestions?
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It's a lost cause. "An Education'' is so rigorously over-edited that it does not provide Ms. Mulligan with an "Oscar moment.''
I'm not Globes or Oscar voter, but I do vote in three critics' polls, and AN EDUCATION got no buzz-boost from me because I never got to see the damn thing. It never opened in my small town, and Sony didn't send it out "for my consideration" at the end of the year. After the mishandling of AN EDUCATION and MOON, I hope indie filmmakers take a hard look at what SPC has to offer before making a deal, and get it in writing that they're going to get awards-season support (which includes screeners). Sony Pictures Classics has long been one of the classiest acts in the arthouse business, and they've carried a lot of unlikely films to box office and awards-season success in the past, but their paranoid screener-aversion has become a joke.
Oh and one more thing: Though I wish I could've seen AN EDUCATION, and I promise I would've been objective, I confess that I was a little turned off by Jeffrey Wells' incessant advance campaigning for the film. Wells' over-the-top stumping for and against certain awards hopefuls is one of the reasons I've stopped reading his site. He's an entertaining writer, and I admire his passion, but his bullying tone has become a turn-off, and if I were a filmmaker with a movie to promote, I'm not sure I'd want Wells on my side.
Anyone thinking that an Oscar snub is going to hurt Carey's growing career is mad. Nowadays, Oscar win is overrated (say hi Jennifer Hudson) and may even hurt an ingenue as it can be looked at as peaking too soon. The buzz has already helped her become an upper tier actress looking at scripts that other well-known actresses in her age group would NEVER get to. Best part is that's not even the best part. She gets to enjoy my Shia pet every night. Win win, guys, win win.
The movie is dull. There's no "Oscar moment" as an earlier comment states and the story drags. There's always the promise of something happening in the film, but it is never realized. Carey needs a mulligan - another chance at an Oscar worthy performance.
i have to tell you that last night i thought it was the saddest golden globe moment ever. first of all, i got the chance to saw An Education and let me tell you that is a fantastic film. it has the heart that most of the movies forget and i think that i has been underrated. second of all, Carey Mulligan totally deserves both the oscar and tha golden globe because it's one hell of a role and much better than streep ( i thought that her role on julie and julia was absolutly dreadful ) and bullock ( even thought that the movie is good, her role isn't oscar-worthy).third and final i think that the reason that the oscar have such low ratings is because they dont take serious the young crowd, making it a boring spectacle.
Ms mulligan totally deserves the oscar. spc have to start a campaign for her.
I knew Mulligan’s awards capturing chances were dimming after I dressed as “Jenny” for Halloween and no one (at a party full of NYU film school grads) knew who the character was.
So that was the Sony stance on the lack of screeners? I don't see how it matters much for such small films - what you would want is the word of mouth to get around enough where it'd open further in paying markets or push DVD sales/rentals I would think. I hadn't heard of Ms Mulligan or the film until she was Craig Ferguson last week.
It'd take them two seconds to see how popular a film already is on a torrent site (Moon is by far a bit more popular than An Education it seems and White Ribbon is struggling from few seeders and many leechers - ie lots of interest compared to available copies). At least those sites present some form of a metric of interest beyond an award at a festival or critics.
I don't think it's going to hurt her career much if she doesn't win something. Once I did some reading around it seems like she's getting heaps of praise from all over.
She only lost one major award. She still has the SAGs and BAFTAs, but if she doesn't win the SAG her chances are out the door for the Oscar.
I think it is outrageous the lack of support Miss Mulligan is getting from the studio. A lack of nomination will not be her fault -- she isn't a Hollywood player and for the "campaigning" to even be factored into a nomination has proven what kind of a joke Oscars and other awards have become. What ever happened to winning an award on merit?
I am most thankful that several critic's groups have bestowed awards on her because she is most deserving. Hollywood had a glorious year for young talent -- Mulligan, Sidibe, Cornish, Kendrick, Blunt. All of them gave lovely performances.
An Education is one of the BEST films I have seen this year. I believe it was very-much filled with heart and so was her performance. She was perfection. I have now seen it four times and I am stunned with Mulligan's work.
I also wish the studio had backed her co-star Rosamund Pike. She too was fabulous. They are two to watch. Surely Oscar cannot snub Carey in the next couple of weeks ...
I've been following Carey Mulligan ever since she gave incredible performances in Blink on Dr. Who and in Bleak House a few years back. I liked her performance in the quiet period piece An Education, but I have to say that Rosamund Pike was the one who I thought gave a more award-worthy performance.
In fairness to Carey, she's an English actress who's been working almost constantly for about three years. I think the work is much more important to her than campaigning. She was perfectly charming on the David Letterman Show (it's on YouTube if you want to see it) and said it was her first ever talk show interview. And that was only three months ago. So give the kid a chance.
Go Mulligan!
But too bad this awards season is really bizarre. My fave movie from 2009 probably won't even get a nomination (Bright Star).
The sad thing is only Oscars and Golden Globes are televised wordwidly. I wish we could watch the "real" awards.
It appeared in my local independent movie house around New Year's, unfortunately. Now, I would make it available via RSS feed like Fish Tank is. The unknown in Fish Tank could become the "in" actress in a much smaller, much less known film.
I have to be honest: I was quite shocked when Sandra Bullock walked away with the big prize. I mean, her performance in The Blind Side was deserving the credit she's recieved by being nominated and hugely praised by various roundtables, but I think there were other more Oscar worthy performances, and Carey, though fresh and not bright-eyes by the experience, is undoubtedly a contender for the big award. I use to be a huge award season fan, but I was disappointed by the results of the Golden Globes. Hopefully the Oscars will keep up with their of late tradition of Honoring little, but well deserving movies instead of blockbuster repeats with a few changes here and there.
Wow. Shia Lebouf's kiss-of-death powers extend well beyond just his own career, don't they?
I did not find Mulligan's performance worthy of the oscar itself
Most overrated performance of the year
She is the critics darling and thats it. Her acting is not Oscar caliber at all . And her being compared to Hepburn is asinine. The movie story line is old - rehashed , nothing new here.The movies Oscar moment was the end.
Whatever. She can keep company with Abbie Cornish.
Carey Mulligan deserves both the oscar and tha golden globe
SHES GAVE THE BEST PERFORMANCE THIS YAER AND THY KNOW THAT
BUT THEY WILL NEVER GIVE HER AWARDS BECAUSE SHES BRITISH
THEY ALREADY GAVE IT LAST YEAR TO KATE WINSLET
AND ALSO CAREY IS YOUNG
SO THE VOTES GOES TO SANDRA
WHAT A SHAME
IT REALLY AJOKE
thank you S.T. VanAirsdale
for supporting the talented carey mulligan
i hope she gets it next year
with another amaizing rule
to make the voters do nothing but appreciate her work
and cannot ignore her talent
sorry my english not good 🙂
The Golden Globes don't indicate who will win the Oscar anyway, it's much more beneficial to check the Critics choice lists. I personally think it may be one of those years (eg. Joaquin Phoenix for 'Walk the Line') when those who win the Globes don't go on to win the Oscars. Also, 2009 was not a spectacular year for cinema, we are dredging through a climate of over-funded and over-rated spectacles rather than shining sparks of cinematic brilliance: a lot of films don't retain enough heart anymore and severely swerve into the notions of 'box-office success'. The fact that amazing actors in small films are still being looked over is nothing new. I personally think that people should be rewarded for career turning points, and while this is one for Sandra Bullock, it is also definitely one for Carey Mulligan and also Abbie Cornish who was seriously looked over for a Golden globe nod.
I didn't see An Education because I am sick of the standard: under-age girl seduced by man in his mid-30's. It's not cute, it's sickening. I'm just no longer interested in glamorized pseudo-pedophiles I'm sure the middle-age big wigs in Hollywood get off on that type of stuff. As a woman, I put my foot down on supporting these types of movies, ditto with "strong-women" as prostitutes in art films (looking at you "Nine").
Sony Pictures Classics is to blame for the wind falling out of the sails for 'An Education' in general and Carey Mulligan in particular. Their ugly, cheap-looking, black and white For Your Consideration campaign in Daily Variety was a slap in the face to this excellent small movie. And Peter Sarsgaard should be furious too. He was superb in a very unlikeable role; far better than the chew-up-the-scenery performance of Alfred Molina.
Shut it Lou, you're reviews are trite, tangential, and you never have the slightest idea what you're talking about on a cinematic level. In short, you are a hack posing as a film connoisseur. To suggest that the editing is to blame for the lack of an oscar moment is laughable. If anything it's the script's fault for not providing a scene with the usual emotional gravitas that garners oscar nominations. But I think Mulligan may have come out the better for it. Though only 24, her performance is subtle, nuanced, and just doe-eyed enough to convince any audience that she is a confused teenager in 1960's Britain. Her character holds herself together with dignity while her life dramatically shifts course, only letting us in and breaking down at key moments. Unlike Mo'nique's go for broke, sad-sack blitz of a performance, Mulligan gets to the core of not only her role, but the purpose of the entire film itself. The films' editing, which was spot on and provided ideal pacing, is not even a factor for her. If anybody truly deserves this oscar, Mulligan does.
Sorry, you lost me at the second sentence with "Sandra Bullock, the favorite, ready to rise." Though we all love her, and "The Blind Side" was a nice movie, I'm pretty sure no one expected Bullock to take the actual award.
If I can't trust your credibility right from the start, what's a girl to do?
Apart from all that, Golden Globes are not always indicative of who will take the Oscar, and it seems that's the case this year especially. I don't imagine that "The Hangover" will be walking away with a golden statue, nor do I think Sandra has a chance in heck.
Lastly, the only women I feel like pulling for come Oscar time (based on performance) are those of "Precious" (Mo'Nique and Sidibe) and Kathryn Bigelow of "The Hurt Locker." The fact that "The Hurt Locker" was shut out at the Golden Globes shows just how much the Golden Globes is more People's Choice than quality. If Jeremy Renner doesn't get an nomination for acting in THL, I might not even watch.
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