As rain clouds close in and the weather dips, trapping us in heated sanctuaries or under heavy layers of fabric, the skies aren't the only darkening prospect in the coming months of fall and winter. With the summer blockbusters such as "Iron Man" and "Tropic Thunder" going on hiatus from theaters, this is the time when superheroes return to their secret bases and the demons come out to play.
Walking into a theater during the build up to Oscar season is the equivalent to bending down on your knees whilst your partner fetches the paddle. During the summer, we may unite over our collective search for saviors, but when snow replaces sun, we come together through our mutual pain. At the end of it all, when the golden statues are given out, the most effective exactors of this pain are rewarded for their devious craft and ability to wrench more tears from our eyes than many of us can seem to muster for even the tragedies of our everyday ordinariness. So we look to the silver screen, allowing these Hollywood directors and actors to enact agony and torture on us we would never permit by those we come into contact with on a daily basis.
While there is adequate opiate in kiddie and teen flicks - such as "High School Musical 3" and "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" - for those not seeking the finer fare of the season, the real buzz and consideration will be on releases that don't even deign to let you call them "movies." These, ladies and gentlemen, are coattail-wearing, Mercedes-Benz-driving films, and you'd best remember it. In October, we can look forward to being whiplashed by beasts such as "Changeling," director Clint Eastwood's Angelina Jolie-led venture that plays upon the primordial fears of a parent's loss of a child. Is the loss of a child too daunting for you? Well then, head to "The Secret Life of Bees," where the little one is doing the fleeing from a physically abusive father. Dakota Fanning plays that lead role, after controversy from her last role in "Hounddog," where she was on the wrong end of a graphic rape scene.
For all the agony that many fall films inflict upon audiences, there is typically a payoff that can only be excessively advertised on television as "heartwarming." With anticipated releases such as deranged schizophrenic buddy movie "The Soloist," with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx, and Nazi-escape drama "Defiance," expect warm fuzzies abound as viewers emerge into the daylight. As far as exemplifying the darker side of the season, these may pass as cop-outs or, more simply, half-assed.
If directors are going to whip us and slap us around for two hours, they might as well finish the job and give us our comeuppance. Take the Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman vehicle "Doubt" for reference. If the film script is anything like its Pulitzer Prize-winning, stage-based predecessor, don't expect answers to the constant questions and inquiries generated by this pedophilic Catholic priest scandal. There's delicious moral ambiguity and an overall feeling of disgust for mankind. Once it comes out on Dec. 12, I will be seeing any and all takers on the bet that no one can come out from their theater and still possess the sentiment that humans are naturally good at heart.
Maybe it's just that I become too personally invested in the struggles of characters on-screen. No average person lets a movie affect his or her judgments on the very soul, right? It's only one of our most pervasive and powerful forms of communication and entertainment in the modern age. Movies are the pulse of America, reflecting its citizens' innermost desires and fears.
Come Oscar season, I'll quite passionately haul myself, on hands and knees, into the seats of each and every one of these torture chambers, and hold my breath as I prepare for the worst to move me to my very soul. Because when the gusty winds force shelter to be taken in cineplexes, and the rain clouds hide the heavens from view, there's a satisfaction in letting the beasts come out to play.
You can reach this columnist at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
