Friday, December 26, 2003

BY RON WEISKIND, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Was 2003 a good year for movies? I think so, but maybe it's just that I had plenty of candidates for my Top 10 list before Halloween. In 2002, we had to wait until December -- and, in some cases, the last week of December -- for the prestige crop to bloom.

But this was an eclectic 12 months at the cinema in terms of the best films, at least as I see 'em. We have action films, dramas, documentaries, quasi-documentaries, independents, studio blockbusters and even -- dare I say it -- a laugh-out-loud comedy!

So what's missing? There weren't many top-notch foreign-language films, although I managed to find one with a singular vision -- a deadpan comedy about an ongoing tragedy. But the year's best film is an epic fantasy about the battle between good and evil that resonates with parallels to our own grim reality.

1. "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING"

So this is what it takes to conquer evil -- courage, perseverance, loyalty, leadership, selflessness. For all the brilliantly staged battles, stunning special effects and mythological constructs in Peter Jackson's film adaptation of the final book in J.R.R. Tolkien's grand trilogy, it finally comes down to the basics. The heroes of the tale, from kingly Aragorn and ancient Gandalf to hobbits Frodo and Sam and warrior woman Eowyn, display these qualities in abundance. Their decisions, their actions, their fortitude in the face of hopeless odds make the characters as monumental as the movie that tells their tale.

2. "LOST IN TRANSLATION"

Sofia Coppola's sublime mood piece and character study offers acting showcases for Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as lonely Americans in Tokyo who stumble upon each other in a hotel bar and form an entirely platonic friendship that oozes with emotion. Murray seems to signal a multiplicity of feelings with a single facial expression. Tokyo becomes a third character with its colorful and often superficial pop culture. Far from home, not knowing the language and isolated in a metropolis both literally and figuratively foreign to them, the characters strive to make a connection. I, for one, was hooked.

3. "AMERICAN SPLENDOR"

Harvey Pekar validated his often miserable working-class life by sharing it in his self-published, ironically titled comic "American Splendor." The movie of the same name brings Pekar to life as a character portrayed by Paul Giamatti, as a series of cartoon figures, as himself (the real Pekar appears in the movie and narrates it). They're all Harvey and, in a way, we're all him. We all undergo momentous experiences -- falling in love, serious illness, falling short of our dreams, dealing with unexpected blessings and curses. "American Splendor" reminds us that even the most humdrum life has value.

4. "CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS"

This astonishing documentary focuses on a Long Island family that disintegrates when police arrest the father and one of his sons on charges of sexual abuse. As the movie progresses, you keep changing your mind about whether they are guilty. But the documentary also includes home movies, shot by one of the Friedman sons as the family awaited the trial, that show these people were a disaster in need of a spark, a family so dysfunctional that it's a wonder they stay together as long as they do. A disturbing but unforgettable film.

5. "21 GRAMS"

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Amores Perros") has come up with another emotionally powerful narrative that jumps back and forth in relating the tragic events that bring three people into each other's orbit -- a math professor waiting for a heart transplant (Sean Penn), a housewife (Naomi Watts) and a brooding ex-con who thinks he has found God (Benecio Del Toro). The fractured narrative demands that you pay attention but also heightens the intensity because you slowly piece together what is happening before the characters do, setting you up for the inevitable confrontation. Sensational performances from all concerned.

6. "School of Rock"

Alright already. Enough with the bleakness. Let's make room for the funniest movie of the year, directed by Richard Linklater and starring Jack Black as an overbearing musician who gets kicked out of his own band. Desperate for a paycheck, he poses as a substitute teacher to get a gig at a private school, where he discovers his straitlaced students possess musical talent. He surreptitiously teaches them not just how to play rock 'n' roll but also about its history, its nature, its passion. And it's the passion that makes this movie something special. Black's enthusiasm drives the movie, the music, the mirth, the meaning.

7. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"

A thinking man's swashbuckler, starring Russell Crowe as a 19th-century British naval commander who leads his men and his ship on the trail of a French frigate that overwhelmed them in their first battle. There's action aplenty, but director Peter Weir and his attention to period detail make us feel what it must have been like to live and work on one of these wooden ships on the water, a virtual nation unto itself with one master and commander. Based on the series of books by Patrick O'Brian, meaning sequels are likely in order.

8. "Divine Intervention"

Imagine the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians rendered as a Jacques Tati comedy, full of deadpan takes and mundane incidents that build to a comic crescendo. That's how writer-director-actor Elia Suleiman begins his remarkable movie. Suleiman plays a Palestinian who lives in Israel. His girlfriend lives on the West Bank. They can rendezvous only by meeting at the parking lot of a border checkpoint. The straightfaced humor and fantasy sequences do not mask Suleiman's anger and frustration -- the movie ends with a pressure cooker rocking on a stove and the line, "Someone should turn it off."

9. "The Station Agent"

Thomas McCarthy makes a strong debut as director with this gentle movie about a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits an old train station in New Jersey. He moves in, seeking solitude, but finds himself accosted by a talkative fellow (Bobby Cannavale) who operates a snack truck just outside his front door and a distracted woman (Patricia Clarkson, good as always) who nearly runs him down on the highway with her SUV. Moving at its own pace, the film traces the developing relationship among these three lonely people and the secret heartaches they nurse.

10. "Finding Nemo"

The trailer for Pixar's latest computer-animated film made me think the "Toy Story" people had finally come a-cropper. But the movie turns out to be another one of their cartoon delights, the story of a clownfish (voice of Albert Brooks) searching for his missing son, the last survivor of his family, who is scooped out of the sea and ends up in a dentist's fish tank. The movie takes advantage of its undersea locations to conjure up some unusually colorful and imaginative scenes, and it also benefits from the humor and heart provided by dad's sidekick, a blue tang voiced by Ellen DeGeneres.

Worst movies: This is the year of "Gigli," which will live in infamy even though most of us chose not to see it. But the foulest film of the year that I did see was, without question, "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," a mindless concoction that is more a pastiche than a movie, featuring ludicrous stunts and just enough of a mean streak to accentuate the negative. When Bernie Mac appears in a movie and isn't funny, you know something's wrong.

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