The annual race for glory at the Oscars is on and with the eagerly-anticipated War Horse receiving mixed reviews, it could well be losing ground on other front-runners The Artist and The Descendents.
War Horse, directed by the legendary Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg, chronicles the tale of a young man called Albert (played by JEREMY RVINE) who tames a wild horse called Joey. The pair are forced to part and the film follows the horse on his journey throughout the First World War, ending in emotional scenes in No Man's Land. The screenplay has been adapted from the children's book and stage adaptation of War Horse, written by Michael Morpurgo. Whilst the respected film critic Roger Ebert praised the film's "superb artistry" in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, J. Hoberman of Village Voice made reference to one of the movie's Oscars rivals, stating "Dialogue is superfluous; in its way, War Horse is as much a 'silent movie' as The Artist.
A likely threat to War Horse at the 2012 Oscars, The Artist, directed by Michael Hazanavicius, is a black and white silent movie. Other likely candidates are The Descendants, starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley and the Martin Scorsese-directed Hugo, set in 1930s Paris. Currently, it is The Artist that is considered the bookies favorite at 11/10, with The Descadants available at 2/1 and War Horse now out at 7/2. Whether or not the latter can survive the mixed feelings that have been bestowed upon its initial release will be revealed when the Oscar nominations are announced.