Nominees: Million Dollar Baby, Brothers (Brødre), My Summer of Love, Maria Full of Grace, 2046, Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Aviator, Before Sunset, Moolaade, Nobody Knows, Sideways
Oscars pick: Million Dollar Baby
Nominees: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an imaginative tale, as spot-on and devastatingly honest a look at love as has ever been filmed. Jim Carrey has never been better and Kate Winslet is a captivating independent spirit – they play former lovers who have gone through a procedure to erase the memory of their relationship from their minds. Thing is, Carrey is fighting to hold on to these priceless moments.
While I saw a lot of superb movies in '04, there were few that offered as singular, distinctive and elevated a viewing experience as what writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry cooked up with Eternal Sunshine. I exited the theater gobsmacked. Sunshine is an original, thoughtful examination on the value of memory. It’s touching but also a surreal super freak-out and a tad scary. It doesn't take the cheap and predictable road on its ending. The couple doesn’t vow to change and make it work come hell or high water... they know the landmines waiting for them, but it's, okay.
This one was a real, real close call - as I adore Million Dollar Baby, the Clint Eastwood directed story about a broken-down manager and his phenom (Hilary Swank). The boxing and training scenes, the look at this fringe culture was transfixing. But Eastwood, who delves into life's gray areas better than anyone, and screenwriter Paul Haggis (working from a story by F.X. Toole) makes this more than boxing. It's about missed opportunities, regret, and redemption.
While the material is familiar, it's given a telling that is fresh and takes an unexpected turn at the end... and what a crushing turn it was. There are few movies that leave me as emotionally gutted as Million Dollar Baby.
Baby and Sunshine were movies that took me someplace new, had me experiencing a whole different level of emotional or intellectual high. And on film-making technique, they excel. Emotional and intellectual resonance was the overall buzzwords this year. Susan Bier's brilliant wartime story Brothers was another that knocked the breath from my lungs (it features one of the saddest, heartbreaking final lines in cinema history) - and Moolaade from Senegalese writer and director Ousmane Sembène (which addresses the subject of female genital mutilation) strikes a similar chord.
Acting? This was an incredible season, which made it so, so difficult to pick just one. Honestly, I wish I could have called a 5-way tie for Best Actor (and the men behind them are no slouches.) In the end, I was most impressed with Mathieu Amalric. Here's the reason why...
Those eyes – Amalric’s eyes are alight with intelligence and weary amusement. They are expressively child-like and alternatively incredulous. When we meet Ismaël, he’s being hauled off to a Psyche ward – and from the start, the performance is hilarious, full of unbridled kinetic energy – but it is also filled with hurt and the ability to hurt. As John Cribs pointed out - "Ismaël is locked up in a mental ward, not because he’s certifiably crazy but because his uniqueness threatens the world order around him." Mathieu embodies that uniqueness brilliantly and his characters turbulent, artistic mind is a wonder to behold. Ismaël Vuillard isn't always a nice man, but he's never boring and Mathieu's skilled at keeping him from becoming a completely distasteful figure, even in his worst moments, he remains charming and likable.
Honorable Mentions:
Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine * Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda * Bruno Ganz, Downfall * Bill Murray, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou * Javier Bardem, The Sea Inside * Ulrich Thomsen, Brothers * Paul Giamatti, Sideways * Christian Bale, The Machinist * Birol Ünel, Head-On * Leonardo DiCaprio, Aviator
Honorable Mentions:
Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind * Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby * Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace * Julie Delpy, Before Sunset * Fatoumata Coulibaly, Moolaadé * Sibel Kekilli, Head-On * Emmanuelle Devos, Kings and Queen * Natalie Press & Emily Blunt, My Summer of Love
Supporting Actor: Clive Owen, Closer
Other movies I enjoyed? Spider-Man 2, Garden State, The Incredibles, Hellboy, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, House of Flying Daggers, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Hotel Rwanda, Kings and Queen, Super Size Me, Mean Girls, Howl’s Moving Castle, Primer, A Very Long Engagement, The Chorus, Duck Season, Ray, and Downfall
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