We had one film releasing this weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Hyde Park on Hudson

When the history of the 2012 awards season is written, it will undoubtedly be said that Hyde Park on Hudson started out with such potential from cast to story, that it had to be a shoo-in for Oscar nominations for its cast and design team. But, like so many other films that were talked of so highly before they were released, the final product wasn’t anywhere near the expectations of those who prognosticate the Oscars. That is, if it’s even talked about at all.

The film, about a clandestine meeting between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and King George VI, saw its world premiere at Telluride in August of this year. It followed that up with an appearance at Toronto. Word out of the festivals ranged from mixed to negative, resulting in a critical drubbing. Bill Murray, Laura Linney and Olivia Williams were all talked about beforehand as potential nominees, but none emerged as serious contenders, slowly dropping from prognosticator lists. Linney nabbed a surprise nomination from the Satellite Awards, but is likely to be inconspicuously missing from every other precursor that comes out this year.

The film does still have hope. The production design and costume design still look good and even when critics dislike films, the various creative guilds can step forward and give the films new leases on life. The problem is that neither of the period recreations stand out in a field as wildly inventive as Anna Karenina, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey or Les Misérables, to name just a few of the films in direct competition with it. In the end, I have a strong feeling that the film will be utterly forgotten and Oscar won’t even realized it missed anything.