Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 1994

The Contenders:

Jessica Lange: Blue Sky (winner)
Susan Sarandon: The Client
Winona Ryder: Little Women
Jodie Foster: Nell
Miranda Richardson: Tom & Viv

Bombshell

Film: Blue Sky
Format: DVD from New Lenox Public Library through interlibrary loan on laptop.

I seem to be saying what I’m about to say a lot lately: the movie I watched for this review has no idea what it wants to be. Blue Sky is one half domestic drama and one half military thriller, resulting in a complete muddle of a film that has a couple of grand performances at the center. But grand performances in the service of what? I have no idea. Blue Sky, which was shelved for four years after wrapping because of Orion’s money problems, is a mess of a film. It tries to be something for everyone and ends up being something for no one.

Major Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones) is one of the players in the American nuclear testing program in the 1950s. His job, more or less, is to monitor radiation, and he has slowly come to the realization that above-ground testing is an increasing issue. This, and the fact that his wife Carly (Jessica Lange) is a “free spirit” who does things like sunbathe topless within sight of the base, much to the enjoyment of the men. After her last display, Hank is transferred to Alabama to start over again. We get the feeling, particularly from the comments of the Marshalls’ daughters Alex (Amy Locane) and Becky (Anna Klemp), that this is not the first time Hank has been transferred because of Carly’s inappropriate behavior.