Life issues emerge in year's most-honoured films

By Peter T. Chattaway

SURPRISE, surprise, The Passion of the Christ wasn't completely snubbed at the Oscars this year after all.

While Mel Gibson's R-rated blockbuster failed to get a nod for any of the major awards, it did earn nominations for its brutally realistic make-up, for Caleb Deschanel's cinematography (which masterfully evokes the grim but beautiful style of Renaissance paintings), and for John Debney's disappointingly derivative score (which frequently rips off Peter Gabriel's superior soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ).

But just to prove the Academy hasn't forgotten all the controversy over Gibson's brand of traditionalist Catholicism, it also nominated Sister Rose's Passion for best documentary short; the film, directed by Oren Jacoby and Steve Kalafer, concerns a nun who actively campaigned to expunge anti-Semitism from Catholic doctrine during Vatican II.

I can't say I'm enthusiastic about the films that grabbed most of the nominations this year. The Aviator -- which took the lion's share with 11 nods, for best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, supporting actress and others -- is a very entertaining romp through the gossip and legends of Hollywood past, but is hardly the best film of the year.

Similarly, I liked Finding Neverland and Million Dollar Baby well enough (both films garnered seven nominations each), but can't say either film made a deep impression on me -- though I am struck by the way Clint Eastwood's boxing movie, with its tender, troubling portrayal of pride, grace, and spiritual despair, feels like an intercessory prayer.

The other best-picture nominees are simply over-rated, though they happen to revolve around absolutely compelling performances.

Jamie Foxx is magnificent as the star of Ray, and certainly deserves the acting award if he wins it, but the film itself, which grabbed six nominations, is a rather average run-down of all the drug and sex clichés that we're used to seeing in musical biopics. And it is nothing short of shocking that actor Paul Giamatti, easily the best thing about Sideways, was snubbed completely while his director, writers, and co-stars were all recognized.

A few other noteworthy trends presented themselves when the nominees were announced January 25.

First, life issues were prominent in films like Vera Drake (nominated for best director, actress and screenplay), which concerns a woman who provides illegal abortions in England in the 1950s, as well as Million Dollar Baby and The Sea Inside, which touch on euthanasia. (The latter film, from Spain, won the Golden Globe for best foreign-language film, and seems poised to win the Oscar, too.)

Also, two of the nominated foreign films happen to be about choirs. Les Choristes, a French film now playing in Vancouver, is a cute tale in the mold of To Sir with Love and Mr. Holland's Opus, about a teacher who redeems his rebellious charges by lifting their spirits with music. And then there is Sweden's As It Is in Heaven, about a conductor who stirs up trouble when he takes the reins of a church choir; might be good, might be bad, but either way, I'll keep my eyes peeled for a local release date.

So much for the Oscars; now it's time to lay my cards on the table and say which films stirred my own spirit, tickled my visual tastebuds, or brought me to a deeper understanding of what it means to be human this past year. As ever, this list is highly personal and subject to change, especially if I should see any of these films a second or third time.

1. Vera Drake (UK / France / New Zealand). Like Dead Man Walking, Mike Leigh's study of illegal abortions in 1950s England tackles a thorny and controversial issue by focusing on the complex human beings who wrestle with the issue at least as much as, if not more than, on the issue itself. As Catholic critic Peter Malone so aptly put it, watching this film is an exercise in loving the sinner even as we hate the sin.
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2. The Story of the Weeping Camel (Germany / Mongolia). A mother camel rejects its offspring after a difficult birth, and the nomadic herders who care for them try every method they can think of to reconcile the two creatures. A fascinating, documentary-like look at how all creation groans for redemption -- and how the arts can help to bring it about.
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3. Mean Creek (USA). Several teens plan revenge against a bully from school, only to see their plans go very, very wrong. The performances are so powerful and realistic, I kept hoping the characters would call off their plans; the story is told so convincingly, I really, really wished there wouldn't be a story to tell.
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4. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (USA). The second instalment of Quentin Tarantino's love letter to genre filmmaking gives hiis story unexpected depth and poignancy. And isn't it interesting how often his tales of bitter violence hinge on moments of unexpected grace?
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5. Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (Germany). A fascinating look at an artist whose use of natural objects, like stones and twigs and ice, feels like a form of sacrificial offering. Gives a whole new dimension to the word "creation".
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6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (USA). Grounded in Jim Carrey's wonderfully low-key performance, Charlie Kaufman's latest brilliantly absurd script probes the essential roles of memory, suffering, and forgiveness in forming meaningful identities and relationships.
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7. Dogville (Denmark etc.). Lars von Trier's latest, and impressively theatrical, film starts off as yet another one of his female-martyr stories, but ultimately becomes a devastating look at grace and judgment with strong, strong theological overtones.
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8. Before Sunset (USA). Is there anything more sobering than watching actors get older with you? Richard Linklater's sequel to his Gen-X romance Before Sunrise is a mesmerizing ode to the passage of time and the way people wrestle with the stories they create for themselves.
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9. Maria Full of Grace (USA / Colombia). Despite its title, spiritual references are few and far between in Joshua Marston's remarkably confident first feature film; still, it tells an impressively tense, suspenseful, compassionate story about a cash-strapped pregnant teen who smuggles drugs into the United States within her own body.
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10. Spider-Man 2 (USA). A vast improvement over its predecessor in just about every way, and quite possibly the best comic-book movie ever made. Doctor Octopus rocks.
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Other films released in Vancouver last year that stimulated and challenge me include: Donnie Darko (USA); The Return (Russia); The Motorcycle Diaries (Argentina etc.); some obscure thing called The Passion of the Christ (USA); and a wealth of documentaries, including Super Size Me (USA); The Fog of War (USA); Riding Giants (USA / France) and Touching the Void (UK). And can I admit I enjoyed the way Frank Oz's campy remake of The Stepford Wives (USA) trashed the 1975 film on which it was based?