Dream Emmy Ballot 2010: Miniseries and Movies

I never seem to watch enough of what's in contention in the Miniseries/Movie categories to construct a full ballot list - this year, the big one that I missed is The Pacific. I thought I'd offer some general observations on what I did watch and contenders I'd like to see from each.

The Special Relationship

I wouldn't be surprised to see The Special Relationship get a fair number of nominations, though I feel less than enthusiastic about the film. Among screenwriter Peter Morgan's increasing filmography of works looking at politics, politicians and persona (The Deal, The Queen, The Last King of Scotland, Frost/Nixon), I think The Special Relationship will likely stand as a lesser light. The film attempts to cover too much for an hour and forty-five minutes, and never quite makes a strong case for focusing on Blair and Clinton rather than Blair and Bush. Somewhere, there's a good project to be made that analyzes the way the Lewinsky scandal distracted from getting more important political work done, but this was too busy to do so with the attention it deserves.

The film was also harmed, in my opinion, by a performance by Dennis Quaid that never tapped into Clinton's charisma in the way it really needed to. Performances by Michael Sheen, David Morrissey, Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker and Frank Langella in the projects previously mentioned were not necessarily great impressions, but rather built upon familiar public personas to draw inferences about the figures they portrayed that felt emotionally authentic, an area where Quaid was lacking. I will say that I hope Hope Davis and Helen McCrory are nominated for their work as Hillary Clinton and Cherie Blair - I frequently found myself wishing that the movie was about them instead of their husbands.

Emma

I've said before that I haven't been a big fan of Emma, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this miniseries. It would be great to see the members of the cast recognized for their work: Romola Garai was a winning Emma, selling her gregariousness without underplaying her tendencies towards selfishness or cluelessness, Jonny Lee Miller's Mr. Knightley radiates quiet affection throughout the story, and Michael Gambon's performance as Mr. Woodhouse does a wonderful job of making a character too frequently relegated to caricature both realistic and relatable.

Temple Grandin

HBO didn't really have any one movie this year as big/hyped as last year's Grey Gardens, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this film receive a decent number of nominations. It features good work by Claire Danes and Julia Ormond; Danes anchors the film as Grandin, showing skill in communicating the shifts in the way that she approached the world and found a place for herself within it.