Friday, December 26, 2003

BY BARBARA VANCHERI, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Assembling a top 10 list is like putting together a puzzle, but first you must pick the pieces and then decide how they will be arranged. The task seemed especially challenging with a host of good movies but far fewer great ones compared to other years.

1. "MYSTIC RIVER"

Sean Penn deserves an Academy Award for his searing turn in this Clint Eastwood film, his performance in "21 Grams" and pretty much his entire body of work. He, Tim Robbins and Kevin Bacon play boyhood pals who are forever changed by the abduction and abuse of one of them. Tragedy revisits their working-class Boston neighborhood when Penn's 19-year-old daughter is murdered. I still wish the resolution were as satisfying as everything preceding it, but Eastwood, Penn, Robbins, Bacon and supporting players Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney make a formidable team.

2. "FINDING NEMO"

This is quite the cinematic convergence: One of the best films of the year earned the most money ($340 million) and was rated G. Take that, "Cat in the Hat." The computer animation and simple tale about a lost clown fish, fretful father and forgetful friend dazzled grown-ups as much as children and didn't need double entendres to keep adults awake.

3. "21 GRAMS"

Grief becomes her. Naomi Watts, an Australian who has perfected a flawless American accent, has a showy, sensational turn as a woman who loses her husband and two young daughters in a hit-and-run accident. The themes of redemption and salvation echo through this dark story, told in fractured fashion. The title, by the way, refers to the contention that we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our deaths. Watts is joined by Penn, again, and Benicio Del Toro, who has never been better.

4. "COLD MOUNTAIN"

This is old-fashioned storytelling at its best. You would never know that director Anthony Minghella ("The Talented Mr. Ripley," "The English Patient") re-creates Civil War America in Romania with an Australian leading lady, a British leading man and the Romanian army, among others. Charles Frazier's book about a deserting Confederate soldier's odyssey home -- to the woman he loves -- comes to vibrant life courtesy of Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger, Kathy Baker, Natalie Portman and the always excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman.

5. "MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD"

Moviegoers happily will follow Russell Crowe anywhere, including to the far side of the world in a British frigate in 1805. This is a rousing adventure anchored by a first-rate cast, noisy battle scenes and a magical interlude at the Galapagos Islands. Crowe and Paul Bettany, one of his co-stars from "A Beautiful Mind," have spectacular synergy and the lads who sail with them are nothing but impressive.

6. "AMERICAN SPLENDOR"

One of these days, Paul Giamatti is going to take home an armload of acting awards. He burrows under the skin and hunched form of Harvey Pekar, a file clerk at a Cleveland veterans' hospital who developed a cult following in the comic-book world. The real Pekar appears, cartoonists illustrate Pekar's stories and some of Pekar's jazz favorites -- including the appropriate Marvin Gaye tune "Ain't That Peculiar" -- combine for one of the most originally conceived movies of the year.

7. "Capturing The Friedmans"

The best documentary filmmakers peel away the shells from their subjects and allow us a look at what's underneath. Director Andrew Jarecki must have given thanks to the patron saint of filmmakers when he discovered a member of the Friedmans had chronicled the family's ordeal -- a Long Island school teacher and his youngest son charged with sexual abuse -- from the inside. Jarecki weaves that video footage into his movie, which saves some of its biggest bombshells for the end. It's amazing that no one took that video camera and smashed it; instead it became another witness to a stranger-than-fiction story.

8. "Sylvia"

Gwyneth Paltrow disappeared into Sylvia Plath in this movie about the suicidal poet. Paltrow's blond hair, clothing and demeanor darken as she descends into toxic jealousy and despair. It's hard to forget her methodically planning her suicide and buttering bread and pouring milk, so her children will have something to eat in the morning -- once she's dead. Daniel Craig plays poet Ted Hughes, a man who captivates her with his looks and talent, while Paltrow's real-life mother Blythe Danner is perfect as Plath's mother.

9. "Girl With A Pearl Earring"

The young girl in the Vermeer painting of the same title has never been identified but a Tracy Chevalier novel spun a story about a maid inspiring the 1665 masterpiece. The adaptation stars a long-haired Colin Firth as the brooding artist -- trying to support his growing family with commissions -- and Scarlett Johansson as the milky-skinned servant who becomes the unwilling model for the "Dutch Mona Lisa." This is beautifully realized; watching it is like stepping into the candlelit-canvas of a 17th-century painting or world.

10. "The Station Agent"

In the hit "Elf," Peter Dinklage is a human laugh line. In this movie, he is the leading character whose dwarfism makes him a social misfit -- but he finds a pair of pals who don't quite fit in, either. When Dinklage's Finbar McBride takes up residence in an old train depot, he finds himself befriended by the man who has a catering cart nearby and a local artist (Patricia Clarkson) who has lost what can never be replaced. Although barely 90 minutes and small in scope, this is a rich portrait of an unlikely trio.

Honorable mentions: "In America," "Lost in Translation" and "Love Actually." The first features two of the best child actresses, sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger, to come along in decades, while Sofia Coppola's "Translation" showcases a Bill Murray we've too rarely seen. "Love Actually" is like a Christmas stocking straining at its fireplace peg (in other words, overloaded) -- but I cannot remember when I enjoyed a movie more.

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