THE YEAR'S BEST IN MOVIESYes, there were the typical duds. But 2003 had much that made a trek to the multiplex
Any year in which Bill Murray karaokes his way through "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," and Russell Crowe clambers to the crow's nest and puns about "the lesser of two weevils," and Frances McDormand has a three-way with Alessandro Nivola and Kate Beckinsale in the spring, then brings Keanu Reeves home from the farmer's market in the fall . . . well, that year - this year - can't be all bad. In fact, although there have been long hours of Hollywood ho-hummery (The Recruit, The Core, Tears of the Sun, Head of State, Alex and Emma, Phone Booth, Get me out of here!), the 12 months now wrapping proffered heartening signs, thoughtful themes, telling trends. Stars were born (or at least discovered), new directors (Sofia Coppola, Vadim Perelman) made their marks, and older ones (Peter Weir, directing Crowe in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; Clint Eastwood) proved their mettle.
Any year in which Bill Murray karaokes his way through "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," and Russell Crowe clambers to the crow's nest and puns about "the lesser of two weevils," and Frances McDormand has a three-way with Alessandro Nivola and Kate Beckinsale in the spring, then brings Keanu Reeves home from the farmer's market in the fall . . . well, that year - this year - can't be all bad.
In fact, although there have been long hours of Hollywood ho-hummery (The Recruit, The Core, Tears of the Sun, Head of State, Alex and Emma, Phone Booth, Get me out of here!), the 12 months now wrapping proffered heartening signs, thoughtful themes, telling trends. Stars were born (or at least discovered), new directors (Sofia Coppola, Vadim Perelman) made their marks, and older ones (Peter Weir, directing Crowe in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World; Clint Eastwood) proved their mettle.
Documentaries (or nonfiction films, as the distributors prefer to call them) brought real life to the screen - scary, heartbreaking, funny, chilling, revelatory stuff.
And in the last quarter of the year, as the Academy Awards campaigns kicked into gear, three serious - and seriously bleak - masterpieces appeared: Eastwood's Boston-set blue-collar tragedy, Mystic River, in October, and then, last week, Perelman's House of Sand and Fog and Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams. (Question: Will Sean Penn get an Oscar nod for his fierce performance as an avenging father in Mystic River, or for his more contained and meditative, but equally powerful, turn as a heart-transplant recipient in 21 Grams?)
On the business side of the equation, although 2003 produced 25 titles that topped $100 million (Peter Jackson's ultimate Tolkien tale, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, passed that mark in a mere four days of release), total domestic box office was down a bit from 2002. According to Variety, the number of tickets sold was tracking slightly below last year's record 1.6 billion.
And while Walt Disney made industry history by becoming the first company to surpass $3 billion in global box-office receipts in a single year, and three other studios (Universal, Sony and Warner Bros.) surpassed $1 billion in gross receipts, the multiplexes were strewn with high-priced or high-profile disappointments and duds: Dreamcatcher, The Human Stain, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Dr. Seuss' the Cat in the Hat, The Life of David Gale, Looney Tunes: Back in Action - even Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai bowed to less-than-Cruise-like biz.
And now, a flashback montage of movie highlights, lowlights, trends and trivia:
New blood. Playing an unhappy newlywed who bonds with an older, not-so-happy-himself movie star in a Tokyo hotel, Scarlett Johansson raised wistfulness to an art form in Lost in Translation. As a Dutch Master's muse in Girl With a Pearl Earring, she comported herself in an altogether different manner - awkward, servile, uncertain.
Joining Johansson on any list of 2003's bright young things: Keira Knightley (Bend It Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean, Love Actually), Alison Lohman (Matchstick Men, Big Fish), Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Girl With a Pearl Earring), Evan Rachel Wood (thirteen, The Missing), and Derek Luke (Pieces of April). At 34, Peter Dinklage, the diminutive leading man of Thomas McCarthy's art-house sleeper, The Station Agent, may not qualify in the "young thing" category, but his dry, wry turn as a lonely soul who inherits a railroad depot was certainly bright - and sublime.
What's up? Docs. Nonfiction filmmakers told some of the most intriguing, disturbing, emotionally satisfying stories of the year. There were Nathaniel Kahn's My Architect, a son's poignant search for the father he didn't really know; Capturing the Friedmans, a chilling portrait of an American family headed by a father you'd rather not know; and Errol Morris' Fog of War (opening here Jan. 30), a probing look into the mind-set of Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Also: Spellbound, Winged Migration, The Stone Reader, Lost in La Mancha, Bus 174, and Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time.
Fathers and sons. Speaking of Architect and Friedmans, the troubled ties - or lack of them - between fathers and sons were at the heart of several feature films, too: Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions, Tim Burton's Big Fish, Kirk and Michael Douglas' It Runs in the Family, Disney/Pixar's winning undersea saga Finding Nemo, and even Ang Lee's Hulk. There also was dramatic father/daughter conflict going on in Bend It Like Beckham, Matchstick Men, The Missing, and Whale Rider. And Donald Sutherland got to play Pa to both Charlize Theron in The Italian Job and Nicole Kidman in Cold Mountain.
Neo is not the One. That's because Frodo is.
Middle-aged and beautiful. In Hollywood terminology, female empowerment has typically translated to giving the girl the gun, to kung-fu fests for the femme set (Charlie's Angels, Underworld and Quentin Tarantino's disappointing comeback, Kill Bill, Vol. 1). But this year, it also has meant that women of a certain age have been able to show themselves as fully formed human beings with all the flaws and foibles, desires and dreams of non-movie stars. And if they feel like showing themselves with their clothes off, so be it. Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give, Frances McDormand in Laurel Canyon, Meg Ryan in In the Cut, Charlotte Rampling in Swimming Pool - not to mention a whole movie built around the idea of mild-mannered English ladies doffing their duds, Calendar Girls.
Lady lensers. Female filmmakers made a strong showing in 2003, and one of them, Lost in Translation's Sofia Coppola, may well find herself competing for the director Academy Award. (The one that Lord of the Rings' Peter Jackson is going to get. Sorry.) Shari Springer Berman co-helmed (with Robert Pulcini) the terrific Harvey Pekar biopic, American Splendor. Jane Campion steered Ryan through the maze of murder and sex of In the Cut. New Zealander Niki Caro was the guiding force of the beautiful Whale Rider. Nancy Meyers brought some old-school Hollywood wit to her genderational romantic comedy, Something's Gotta Give. Lisa Cholodenko explored loopy L.A. lifestyles - and the lure of love - in Laurel Canyon. And Catherine Hardwicke walked the wild side of early adolescence in thirteen.
The horror. While traditional, by-the-book scare pics didn't exactly go away (there was the spoofy Disney Eddie Murphy vehicle, The Haunted Mansion, and the teens-in-terror Final Destination 2 and Freddy Vs. Jason), a couple of the smartest, dead-scariest horror pics came from indie artists. 28 Days Later, the Brit hit about a devastating viral plague, was shot on the cheap (on digital video) by Danny Boyle and earned a solid $45 million Stateside. Cabin Fever, a gleefully gross Sam Raimi-inspired backwoods nightmare by newcomer Eli Roth, didn't find its multiplex audience, but it just hit video stores and already is selling bloody well.
Where's there's a Will. The latest in a long line of Saturday Night Live alums to hit the big time on the big screen, Will Ferrell emerged as this year's most lovable deadpan knucklehead - first in the Animal House of the new millennium, Old School, and then as a 6-foot-2 Santa's helper lost in the weird, wild world of New York in Elf. In one scene, Ferrell spies a department-store Santa he knows not to be the real thing (because Ed Asner, back at the North Pole, is), and the gawky elf-man calls him on it: "You sit on a throne of lies!" he cries. J'accuse!
Black and White. In The School of Rock, Jack Black (of the band Tenacious D) goes nuts as a metal-head substitute teacher who leads his kids to concert-hall glory. In Cold Mountain, Jack White (of the White Stripes) goes hillbilly as a Civil War-era musician who leads Renée Zellweger to connubial bliss.
The Governator. Arnold Schwarzenegger came back as the robotic time-traveler in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. And then he came back as the governor of California. Really.
Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.
Critics' Top 10 of 2003
Steven Rea's Picks
American Splendor
House of Sand and Fog
Laurel Canyon
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
My Architect
Mystic River
The Station Agent
21 Grams
Whale Rider
Carrie Rickey's Picks
American Splendor
The Barbarian Invasions
Bend It Like Beckham
Dirty Pretty Things
In America
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
My Architect
Mystic River
Whale Rider