Looks like we'll be treated to 10 Best Picture nominees worth the recognition this year. (Take that, 2009, The Blind Side, and Up in the Air!) But now that 2010 is almost kaput, it's high-time for a reality check of the year's best films -- an unflinching glimpse back at the times when even quality cinema stumbled in its path to greatness. Here, we explore five great films with five really ridiculous (and questionably forgivable) scenes.
Black Swan: Piece of Cake
Barbara Hershey's feverish performance as Natalie Portman's mother in Black Swan is not without its defenders, but her asthmatic delivery was often part of what made Darren Aronofsky's cygnus opus a little contrived. When Hershey offers Portman a congratulatory cake just before threatening to throw it away in a Mommie Dearest huff, we fled Tchaikovsky territory and entered a Jessie Spano caffeine-pill spiral. The zeal of Black Swan may beget intrigue, but it can also compel you to caw at the screen, "You're no fun-fetti, Natalie!" In Hershey's defense, she was just so excited. So excited! And so. Scared.
The Kids are All Right: Leaving a Mark
The Kids are All Right does a fine job of shading Annette Bening and Julianne Moore's characters with insecurities, compulsions, and redeeming sensitivities, but Mark Ruffalo's character Paul, the biological father of their children, is unceremoniously ejected from the movie in its final act. Sure, Paul disrupts their marriage and yes, he tactlessly tries to apologize by ringing the family's doorbell at dinnertime, but not a thing about him is patently detestable or, more importantly, dismissible. Director Lisa Cholodenko said there was an original, more milquetoast ending where Paul's character enjoyed some resolve, but I'd have taken a simple solution over the alternative we received, which was a tepid non-solution.
The Social Network: You Have One New Notification -- There's a Fire Behind You
Before Eduardo Severin's (Andrew Garfield) fate is sealed in The Social Network, a few lesser sideplots go awry for the foolish signee -- namely, his as-of-this-second-crazy girlfriend Christy, who believes Eduardo is lying about sleeping around, sets fire to a scarf he buys for her. For such a ridiculous moment, it's almost hard to remember since it has very little to do with the arc of the movie. And yet, that's what makes it ridiculous: It's a non-sequitur in a tightly arranged script about (usually) believable characters.
Inception: Kick-Off
The layers of dreams, awareness, sleep, and scattered histories that make Inception so convoluted and engrossing are thought-provoking at best and way too literal at worst. One of the film's main conceits, "kicks," or jolts that help awaken unknowing dreamers, is just too simplistic for three-hour psychological warfare. When Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is forced to ford a dreamscape in freefall, we watch him set up a "kick" by tying together a number of sleepers who are suspended in mid-air. Visually it's striking, but it packs the emotional wallop of a cliched Escher-print t-shirt.
Somewhere: Johnny B. Gone
Sofia Coppola's unassuming fourth film benefits from her subtle dialogue and fantastic performances, but its closing metaphor is as tiresome as they come: Movie star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) feels worthless without his daughter in his everyday life, so we watch as he drives down a Los Angeles freeway, leaves his speedster on the roadside, and continues to walk on foot. Yes, he's symbolically giving up Hollywood artificiality, and he's no longer driving in circles as he was in the first scene -- but where is he going? Is he literally walking somewhere? Why is he abandoning his vehicle? How is strutting off into a sunset a metaphor for accepting the responsibility of fathering his child? For a film steeped in realism, Somewhere's sudden detour into trite "new beginnings" feels like throwaway closure.