The Only Oscar Nomination Worth Noticing

Usually, you can at least count on the screenwriters to know what the hell they're doing. When "Titanic" won 11 Oscars, "LA Confidential" won Best Adapted Screenplay; in 2005, when the Oscars were split down the middle between Clint Eastwood (doing solid work with "Million Dollar Baby") and Martin Scorcese (in the last gasp of his Miramax DiCaprio decadent period with "The Aviator"), the writing Oscars went to Charlie Kaufman for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and the Payne/Taylor two-headed beast behind "Sideways." Almost without fail, the screenwriting Oscars are years ahead of everything else.

This year's a half fail. The Adapted Screenplay nominations are a flat-out abortion of history. Two of the nominees, "Frost/Nixon" and "Doubt," are playhouse retreads that didn't feel half as vivid onscreen. "The Reader" is the kind of Holocaust Oscar gloss we thought died years ago. "Slumdog Millionare" is awesome and will win, but one out of 5 sucks.

But thank god for the Original Screenplay nominations, and specifically, the nomination for "In Bruges," a film so dark and tiny and weird and malformed that it practically disappeared before it opened. "In Bruges" is such a thrilling old-fashioned character movie - good actors playing well-written roles in intriguing surroundings. It's got twists and turns, and funny sadness, and more swears than a season of "Deadwood." The decades-long journey from box office flop to cinema classic begins now.