Still in theaters as the year opened was The Crime of Fr.
Amaro, Carlos Carrera’s scurrilous depiction of corruption
and abuse in the Mexican hierarchy. Soon afterward,
Costa-Gravas’s Amen. opened in the U.S., revisiting tired,
one-sided charges of Church complicity in the Holocaust. As if
that weren’t enough, the same theme was revived yet again by
Norman Jewison’s The Statement, now playing, starring
Michael Caine as a French Nazi collaborator shielded from postwar
prosecution by high-ranking churchmen.
Anti-Catholicism was also in evidence in Peter Mullan’s
The Magdalene
Sisters, which squandered the opportunity for a balanced
indictment of social sin and abuse of women in Ireland’s
notorious Magdalene asylums in favor of one-dimensional
prejudicial stereotyping of every single nun and priest, none of
whom was permitted the slightest shred of human decency,
compassion, or moral conflict over routine sadism and abuse.
Not in the same league as any of the above, but still
prejudicial against the Catholic Church, was Eric Till’s Luther, which went out of
its way to make Luther’s Catholic opponents as unreasonable and
imperious as possible, along the way distorting Church teachings
on a number of points. And then there were the typical
horror-movie conspiracy-theory shenanigans of Brian Hegeland’s
The Order.
More positive depictions of Catholic representatives and
culture could be found, though you had to look hard to find them.
The war thriller Tears
of the Sun introduced sympathetic nuns and priests on the
mission field, only to martyr them to the cause of establishing
the bad guys’ brutality. A pair of Marvel comic-book movies
offered positive depictions of Catholic faith amid some
problematic content, with superheroes praying the rosary
(X2’s Nightcrawler)
and going to confession (Daredevil, which also
featured a sympathetic priest who rightly upbraided the hero for
his moral faults).
Then there was the indie documentary Sister Helen, about a
foul-mouthed but dedicated third-order Benedictine running a
South Bronx shelter for drug addicts and alcoholics — but you had
to be living in New York to catch its very limited theatrical
run.
Worthwhile family films
There were some positive cinematic trends in
2003 — including a spike in decent family entertainment. Though
the previous year, 2002, had been a relatively good year for
family-friendly movies, 2003 was even better.
At the top of the heap — in more ways than one — was Pixar’s
fifth computer-animated masterpiece, Finding Nemo. Not only
was the father-son fish story one of the best films of the year,
it was also the top earner at the U.S. box office for 2003
(though The Return
of the King is closing fast).
Aimed at older kids was another Disney-distributed film,
Andrew Davis’s successful adaptation of Holes, a popular novel for
intermediate readers that combined wry humor and bizarre detail
in a twisty morality tale about justice and redemption.
A more recent release still scoring at the box office is the
2003 Cheaper
by the Dozen, starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt.
Remarkably, this new Cheaper not only takes a positive,
affectionate view of large families — and all the chaos that can
imply — it also satirically debunks cynically negative attitudes
toward large families, depicting characters who display such
attitudes as emotionally or morally stunted by inadequate human
contact.
Cheaper also favorably contrasts the loving, generous
relationship of its older married couple with that of a young,
cohabitating couple, who are depicted as selfish and shallow.
Despite some moral issues, Cheaper is on balance
remarkably pro-family for a mainstream Hollywood comedy. (It also
looks on target to become Steve Martin’s biggest box-office draw,
eclipsing his other big hit this year, the far less enjoyable
Bringing Down
the House.)
Another decent family film still in theaters, though not
making waves at the box office, is P. J. Hogan’s live-action
fantasy Peter
Pan, an interesting variation on the classic nursery
tale. While not my favorite version of that story (that would be
either the 2000 stage
production starring Cathy Rigby or else the 1924 silent version), Hogan’s
film is an enjoyable take with a number of worthwhile elements,
and may do well in home release.
Other decent 2003 family films include the stellar nature
documentary Winged
Migration, pleasant comedy-drama Secondhand Lions,
the good-natured Christmas comedy hit Elf, and the DreamWorks
animated swashbuckler Sinbad: Legend of the Seven
Seas. And a number of basically harmless efforts
(Jungle Book 2,
Radio, What a Girl Wants,
Rugrats Go
Wild!, Good
Boy!) had their fans.
But not all films targeted to family audiences were so
harmless. Borrowing a page from the marketing for Snow
Dogs, Kangaroo
Jack sold itself to parents and kids as a whimsical
comedy about a talking kangaroo — despite the fact that the
"talking" was restricted to a brief dream sequence and the
"comedy" was actually warmed-over adult caper comedy involving
mobsters, hit men, jokes alluding to homosexuality and
self-abuse, frank sensuality, and shameless wet
T-shirt footage of its female lead.
And, of course, there was The Cat in the Hat,
with throwaway gags featuring Mike Myers’s Cat dancing at an
underground rave with a slinkily attired Paris Hilton (yes, Paris
Hilton; I would have mentioned it in my review, but it didn’t fit
the meter), ogling a centerfold picture of the kids’ mom while
his hat pops erect like something in a Tex Avery cartoon, and
addressing a garden hoe as "You dirty hoe" (followed by "I’m just
playin’, baby, you know I love you"). Is anybody looking
forward to the next live-action Dr. Seuss debacle?
The Year’s Best
Last year, with some reservations and
caveats, I published my first-ever Top 10 list, leaving the
entries unranked and the door open to future revisions. This
year, I’ve decided to rank my list of the year’s top ten films.
Some of the films don’t yet have full reviews, but I’ll seek to
rectify that as soon as possible.
The Decent Films Guide Top
10 Films of 2003
Runners-up: Holes, In This World,
The Station Agent, X2
- The Lord of
the Rings: The Return of the King
The triumphant finale to Jackson and company’s historic
three-part adaptation is perhaps the most awesome spectacle
ever filmed, and the most ambitious and emotionally affecting
of the trilogy. From the rugged beauty of Minas Tririth to the
thrilling sequence with the mountaintop beacons, from Eowyn’s
showdown with the Witch-King to Samwise’s final act of devotion
on the slopes of Mt. Doom, the film’s tribute to Tolkien’s
world exceeds all reasonable hope. Tolkien’s Catholic themes,
including echoes of the harrowing of hell and purgatorial
atoning for sins, are at their most overt here.
Some depictions of intense and sometimes bloody battle
violence; scenes of menace and grotesquerie involving orcs and
other "fell creatures."
- The Son [Le
Fils]
Morally and spiritually the year’s most richly challenging and
inspiring film, The Son’s documentary-like restraint
makes for comparatively demanding viewing at first, but the
difficulty of the first viewing becomes irrelevant in light of
its rewards. The Dardenne brothers’ handheld camera closely
follows a middle-aged carpenter working with troubled teens as
he focuses on one particular boy. A nearly religious parable of
humanity, fallenness, and grace, The Son’s achievement
is one of showing, not telling; telling much more would
diminish the showing (though many reviews will rob you by doing
just that).
A few objectionable phrases; references to remarriage after
divorce and extramarital pregnancy. French with
subtitles.
- Finding
Nemo
The hallmarks of Pixar’s virtually perfect craftsmanship -
narrative tightness, witty dialogue, satirical humor,
note-perfect emotions, eye-popping graphics — are all here, but
there’s also a magic that defies analysis. A coming-of-age fish
story that has as much sympathy and compassion for parental
anxieties and tribulations as for childhood frustrations and
fears, Nemo is both about an overprotective father
learning to give his child room to grow and face his own
challenges and about a disillusioned child again seeing his dad
as a hero. Note the pro-life resonances of an early scene
depicting the parents’ loving concern for their embryonic
unhatched offspring.
Animated high excitement and menace; parental separation
theme.
- Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World
Eschewing the anachronistic modern-day attitudes and
dumbed-down moral conflicts Hollywood usually brings to period
pieces, Peter Weir’s thrilling first film from the popular
historical novels of Patrick O’Brian allows its heroes to talk
and argue like intelligent adults of their own time and place.
Set on a British frigate in the Napoleonic wars, the film is
breathtakingly authentic, from the creak of the timbers to the
matter-of-fact Christian milieu of its protagonists.
Bloody scenes of battle violence and field surgery; a
suicide; somewhat profane language; a couple of rude jokes and
brief obscenity.
- Shattered
Glass
Among stories of journalistic corruption, first-time director
Billy Ray’s intelligent, riveting fact-based drama of the rise
and fall of Beltway hotshot Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen)
stands out for its strongly ethical stance and for its riveting
depiction of Glass’s ability to insinuate himself to his
coworkers while ingeniously covering his tracks. Peter
Sarsgaard is brilliant as the editor forced to confront Glass’s
fraud while beleaguered by office politics. Some may wish Ray
had focused more on Glass’s motivation, but the film doesn’t
need Catch Me If
You Can psychoanalyzing: It knows that what finally
matters isn’t why Glass lied, but simply that he
did.
Some obscene and profane language; a few crude references; a
depiction of drug abuse.
- Winged
Migration
One of cinema’s most valuable functions is to show us things we
would never otherwise see. If you want a narrator to tell you
all about the diet and mating habits of birds, watch Animal
Planet; if you want to see birds as you’ve never seen
them before, here’s the film for you. The filmmakers insinuate
the camera’s eye so intimately into the midst of airborne birds
that one can almost count the hairlike barbs on the feathers;
other shots are staggering for the sheer number of birds on the
screen. It’s a mesmerizing meditation on the wonder of
creation.
A few images of birds in distress; a fleeting image of a
dead bird.
- (Tie) Spellbound / OT: our
town
A pair of uplifting documentaries about young students working
and studying for an hour of onstage stress and glory,
Spellbound and OT: our town have different styles
and different rewards. Spellbound is an endearing,
heartbreaking, satisfying look at eight young spellers from
various socioeconomic backgrounds competing with over 200 other
kids at the Washington, D.C. National Spelling Bee. OT: our
town is an inspiring account of inner-city youth at a
demoralized high school known only for basketball and race
riots, who — despite no money or existing program — take on the
challenge of staging Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Both
films celebrate achievement, grace under pressure, and
self-respect; OT is also about community and culture,
while Spellbound honors family and parents in a story of
competition and personal achievement.
Spellbound — Nothing problematic. OT: our town -
Harsh social milieu includes recurring obscene language,
references to suicide, teen pregnancy, etc. Mature
viewing.
- The Gospel of
John
It’s not "based on" the Gospel of John, it is the Gospel of
John — visualized and enacted, and to that extent interpreted
and glossed, but not "adapted" in the usual sense. Combining
the visual engagement of a biblical epic with the textual
fidelity of the Bible on CD or audiocassette, The Gospel of
John is a unique hybrid of the literary and dramatic — an
approach that offers unique benefits as well as inevitable
tradeoffs. It’s not perfect, but the gist of the biblical
message comes to life in a unique way, with special credit to
solid production values, strong acting, and engaging narration
by Christopher Plummer.
Passion narrative violence.
- The Guys
A small, intimate meditation on grief and loss in the days
after 9/11, The Guys is clearly a product of the period
it documents. Based on a stage play by a New York writer
drawing on her own experiences helping a fire captain compose
eulogies for fallen comrades, the film’s lack of artifice makes
it a quietly moving experience. The Guys captures how
the horror of evil strips away our spiritual complacency: We
want to bargain with God, yet we have nothing to offer and can
settle for nothing less than everything. Slow and somber,
The Guys is rewarding to viewers not put off by its
austerity.
A few crass expressions; reflections on death and
grief.