Top 10 films of '02 challenging, haunting

By Peter T. Chattaway

THE MOVIE year doesn't really end until all the awards have been handed out, and since that won't be for another month or two, there may be time to sneak yet another top 10 list into the mix.

I've probably said it before in these pages, but it bears repeating: C.S. Lewis once said no book was any good to him unless he had read it twice, and that's how I feel about films. As it is, I have not had time to revisit all the films that caught my fancy last year, and my list could change in a heartbeat if I saw any of these films again.

The list is restricted to films which played for at least one week in Vancouver last year, which means two things. First, this rules out worthy contenders such as The Pianist and 25th Hour, which qualify for major awards south of the border but did not open here until after the new year.

Second, this rules out some films that did come here last year but were screened just once or twice, perhaps at one of the festivals. Trembling Before G-d has finally opened this month, and the distributor handling The Man Without a Past promises to release that wonderfully droll Finnish film sometime in the spring, but others, like the Danish dramedy Minor Mishaps and the surreal Swedish film Songs from the Second Floor, may never get a proper release. Ah well, there's always video.

Finally, this is not intended as a list of 'Christian' films, since I have no idea what such a term would mean. I think Changing Lanes and Frailty could be good discussion-starters for those who want to explore faith issues, perhaps in small groups, but neither film was top 10 material; and a number of films that were hyped in the Christian press, such as Signs and A Walk to Remember, were disappointingly mediocre.

However, I myself am a Christian, and these are the films that stuck with me this year -- films that impressed me, haunted me, entertained me or forced me to think deeper about art and faith and life in general.

1. The Believer (USA). A challenging and deeply theological American film about a Jewish skinhead whose uncompromising struggle with God, and with a culture that reduces faith and ideology to whatever feels safe, makes him a thorn in the side to his fellow Jews and neo-Nazis alike.
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2. Punch-Drunk Love (USA). A whimsical but occasionally startling portrayal of a man beset by anxieties who desperately wants someone in his life who can hear, and keep, his secrets. Adam Sandler and Emily Watson are an odd-couple delight in a film that moved me in ways I didn't expect.
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3. The Son's Room (Italy). A psychiatrist who is used to solving other people's problems has to cope with sudden, unexpected grief in his own family. Nanni Moretti's film is reminiscent in some ways of In the Bedroom, but it has a gentle, patient hope that the other film lacks.
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4. Adaptation (USA). The movie-within-a-movie stuff is hilarious, but what I like most about Charlie Kaufman's script -- which, admittedly, is somewhat amoral -- is the way it charts the difference between conscious thought and subconscious instinct, and tries to bring the two together.
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5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (USA/New Zealand). It doesn't quite have the joy or intimacy of the film that came before it, and it makes some awkward revisions to J.R.R. Tolkien's original story, but Peter Jackson's action epic is still a worthy middle chapter in this saga.
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6. Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (USA). Several characters look for meaning and happiness in a seemingly indifferent world. The script, by director Jill Sprecher and her sister Karen, makes its points a bit obviously at times, but it also finds insights in the smaller details.
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7. Insomnia (USA). Chris Nolan's first major-studio film boasts a superb performance from Al Pacino as a compromised cop who is haunted by his conscience, and it has an implicit moral sensibility that sets it apart from the original, and more bleakly existential, Norwegian film of the same name.
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8. Comedian (USA). I never watched Jerry Seinfeld's TV show, but I got a kick out of Christian Charles's documentary, which shows how he and other stand-up comics struggle to come up with the jokes that make us laugh so effortlessly. In its own way, it's a study of grace under pressure.
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9. Iris (Great Britain). Great performances lift this Iris Murdoch biopic above its so-so script. Murdoch's theology, as expressed here, is rather iffy, but the film is a compelling exploration of the nature of love, and whether it can survive when one loses one's mind, as Murdoch did to Alzheimer's.
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10. Mostly Martha (Germany). What could be better than a foreign film about the sensual delights of good food, or one about an uptight adult who learns what life is all about when a child is thrown in her lap? How about a foreign film that combines both elements?
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