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The irony here is that The Lovely Bones was one of the movies Paramount chose to back in place of Shutter Island, which is now opening on February 19th. There was a lot of scuttlebutt made about the movie being pushed back from its original October 2009 release date, but Paramount has been frank in saying that it was all about money for awards campaigns. They preferred to back Up in the Air and the seeming prestige of The Lovely Bones. Shutter Island is, like Star Trek, seen as a more accessible film, something that may be more in line with Cape Fear as opposed to Raging Bull, in terms of Martin Scorsese's filmography not being audience-friendly. Still, every year, it's always a guarantee that one or two Oscar-caliber movies disappoint with audiences and critics, and The Lovely Bones is yet another victim.

The biggest and most prominent victim, though, is Nine. This splashy musical courtesy of producer Harvey Weinstein and director Rob Marshall was based on 8 1/2, one of the most famous films of all time, a self-referential indie masterpiece directed by Federico Fellini. Moreover, the movie Nine was based on the Broadway musical of the same name, and starred Daniel Day-Lewis, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, and Sophia Loren. This movie was spilling out left and right with Oscar weight. If anything, this movie was destined to either become a massive success, or a massive failure. With so much hype behind it, it'd be hard for Nine to land somewhere in the middle. As of January 10th, Nine has a domestic gross of only $16 million against an $80 million budget. The reviews have been tepid at best, and the movie has only had a solid showing at the Golden Globes.

And, sure, you're probably wondering what's so bad about the Golden Globes showering some love on Nine, as it received five nominations, including one for Best Picture - Comedy or Musical. Since the film has only gotten its most major nominations from the Golden Globes, an association made up of foreign journalists, who are more likely to sway towards a musical based on a foreign film, and the reaction has been so bad, there's almost no doubt that this movie isn't going to get Oscar love. I don't want to count it out completely (though the Weinsteins have their hands full with Inglourious Basterds, they've never lacked for Oscar aggressiveness, or did you forget The Reader?), but if Nine were to show up among the ten Best Picture Oscar nominees, it would easily be the biggest surprise of the entire list. Daniel Day-Lewis will have another day in the Oscar sunshine. For now, he can drink someone's milkshake. Oh, what? That may have been easy, but can you blame me?

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