Photo by Jessica Day
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Movies for Grownups 2005
By William R. Newcott and The Editors, March-April 2005
Are we dreaming? Or do this year’s intensely personal visions, adult love stories, and challenging themes mean Hollywood is finally coming of age?
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Best Movies for Grownups from 2004
Ray, Directed by Taylor Hackford
"You can tell any story you want, and you can make me look any way you
want," Ray Charles told Taylor Hackford, director of the compelling biopic
Ray.
"But I will not let you not tell the truth, because that
wouldn't be right."
And the truth, it turns out, has set this movie free. Ray is
beautiful—in its evocation of a man's passion for life and in its
celebration of the universal power of music. It's also ugly—in its
unblinking excavation of that same man's selfishness, duplicity, and
self-destruction.
In other words, it's a lot like life.
True, Ray Charles's devils in the movie are a bit more emphatic
than most of ours. Blindness, drugs, booze, betrayal, and spite all play
important supporting roles. But Ray, in tracing the astronomical and
subterranean extremes of one man's life, invites us to trace our own
lifelong topographies.
The truth of Ray seems somehow truer than it is in most
biopics. The young star, Jamie Foxx, who was personally approved by Charles,
positively channels Brother Ray: the confident-cautious gait, the
rapturous musicianship, the beaming embrace that seems to draw not just an
adoring audience but all of creation into his arms. In the end, though,
it's the music that gives Ray its searing truth. Charles's
original recordings serve as the soundtrack—and he also contributed some
new riffs for the movie before he died.
In deliberating about our 2004 Best Movie for Grownups, the editors of
AARP THE MAGAZINE often noted that, unlike in previous years, there was
no clear choice for 2004—evidence that there were more grown-up movie
choices than ever.
Consider the runners-up: The
Aviator, Martin Scorsese's biography with brains, dissected Howard
Hughes to find the roots of his obsessive later life. The slyly funny In
Good Company offered a timely take on aging baby boomers in the workplace.
Kinsey, the story of 1950s sex researcher Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson), explored
the way a single, passionate quest can change the course of social history. The
Notebook faithfully brought Nicholas Sparks's complex yet romantic
novel to the screen. And Sideways, on its surface a middle-age buddy
flick, slowly emerged as an examination of how, like a fine wine, we all mature
as the sum total of the ingredients of our lives.
And even that expanded list fails to include such accomplishments as Mel
Gibson's intensely personal The Passion of the Christ; Michael
Moore's relentlessly controversial Fahrenheit 9/11; Shall We
Dance?, a heartfelt ode to the happily resolved midlife crisis; and three
high-profile, big-name films exploring existentialism and the meaning of life:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jim Carrey), I ♥
Huckabees (Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, and Jude Law); and What the #$*!
Do We Know? (Marlee Matlin).
They are, in the words of Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan,
"a certain kind of movie." Such films are "the movies that
adults are hungering for, that are thoughtful and intelligent, that are about
something but still are very entertaining," says Turan, author of the new
book
Never Coming to a Theater Near You. "They engage your mind and
your emotions."
Best Actor Over 50
Liam Neeson, Kinsey
Was 1950s sex researcher Alfred Kinsey a hero? Or did he single-handedly
usher in an era of moral decay? In his astonishing portrayal of the good doctor
in Kinsey, Liam Neeson leaves plenty of room for both sides to continue
the debate.
Already one of our most evocative actors (the heart-tugging stepdad in
Love, Actually, the compassionate businessman in Schindler's
List), Neeson this time pulls a mask of inscrutability over his head. As
Kinsey—an entomologist-turned-sex- researcher—he goes about his
investigation with the detachment of an X-Files agent, although from the
beginning it's clear that the truth is not "out there."
A character as bullheaded as Kinsey could become a bore. But Neeson keeps
surprising us. In his early college lecture about diversity among wasps (the
flying kind, not the cultural adversaries he'll later encounter),
Neeson's enthusiasm is enough to make you run out and pick up Alford's
Textbook of Agricultural Entomology. As he seems to encourage sexual
experimentation among his research staff, he might as well be suggesting they
look into switching from paper clips to staples. And as Kinsey sees support for
his work dwindle, he seems physically assaulted. Only at the end, recalling one
small victory, does Neeson allow Kinsey a moment of rapture. We can't know
if the real Kinsey ever enjoyed a moment like that. Through Neeson, we get
to.
Runners-up: Jeff Bridges as the tormented—and
tormenting—children's author in
The Door in the Floor.
Richard Gere as the lawyer who learns it takes two to tango in Shall We
Dance?…Dennis Quaid as the bewildered 50-something manager with a
boss half his age in In Good Company…Kurt Russell as the
hard-driving U.S. hockey coach in Miracle…Omar Sharif as the deli
owner who befriends a Parisian boy in Monsieur Ibrahim.
Best Actress Over 50
Anne Reid, The Mother
You probably don't know BBC regular Anne Reid, but after The
Mother, you will never forget her. Reid's is among the most fearless
performances ever by an actress of any age.
Reid's character, May, is the doting 60ish wife of a jovial old man,
something of an afterthought to her rambunctious grandchildren and vaguely
resentful daughter. Her eyes seem hollow, her walk something just this side of
a shuffle.
Suddenly, May is a widow. Slowly, she awakens to the world outside her comfy
home, until somehow she falls into a torrid affair with a man half her age. Oh,
yes: he also happens to be her daughter's on-again, off-again boyfriend. You
see where this is going—or at least you think you do.
As she falls in love for perhaps the first time in her life, May's
once-dead eyes glisten. Her forced, pinched smile loosens into a wide-open mix
of delight and awe. And her walk morphs into an easy glide, floating on air
with a schoolgirl's bounce.
Reid is courageous in the love scenes, unforgiving in their contrast of the
lovers' bodies. In the entangled aftermath, she's heartbreaking as she
confesses, "I didn't think anyone would ever touch me
again…apart from the undertaker." May is far from sympathetic and
often easy to dislike. By the end all we know for sure is May's been on the
journey of a lifetime, and Reid has taken us along for the ride.
Runners-up: Cloris Leachman, boozy and brassy as Adam Sandler's
wine-soaked but wise mother-in-law in Spanglish…Gena Rowlands,
courageous and heartbreaking as a woman with Alzheimer's in The
Notebook…Susan Sarandon, clueless, then confused, then confounded,
as the wife in Shall We Dance?…Meryl Streep, channeling Hillary
Clinton and Attila the Hun as the ambitious senator in The Manchurian
Candidate…Lily Tomlin, sexy and screwy as an existential detective
in I ♥ Huckabees.
Best Foreign Film
Good Bye Lenin! (Germany)
Alex is glad his mother has snapped out of an eight-month coma in a Berlin
hospital, but there's one problem: she was one of the last true believers
in Communism, and the Berlin Wall has fallen. What's more, Mom's doctor
warns him, the slightest shock could kill her. Alex's solution, in director
Wolfgang Becker's funny, poignant satire, is to reconstruct East Germany in
his mother's bedroom.
Runners-up: The Motorcycle Diaries (Argentina): Che Guevara,
the early years…Osama (Afghanistan): A girl tries to pass as a
boy under Taliban rule…Monsieur Ibrahim (France): A Turkish
shopkeeper befriends a troubled boy…The Sea Inside (Spain): A man's
fight for the right to die.
Best Grown-up Love Story
James Garner and Gena Rowlands, The Notebook
Their embrace at the end of The Notebook may have unleashed more
movie-theater tears than any scene since Leonardo DiCaprio sank slowly in the
west in Titanic. This lifelong love story alternates seamlessly between
a single couple's younger and older selves. The youngsters playing the
roles (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) are sexy and pretty—but as the
long-married couple fighting Alzheimer's, Garner and Rowlands are so
compelling that we hate to leave them for even the shortest flashback.
Runners-up: Robert Redford/Helen Mirren in The Clearing…Dennis Quaid/Marg Helgenberger in In Good Company…Richard Gere/Susan
Sarandon in Shall We Dance?
Best Director 50 and Over
Mike Nichols, Closer
Nichols has been dissecting the evil that men and women do to each other
ever since his directing debut, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in
1966. But here, Nichols's lancet is sharper than ever, and he draws more
blood—even though his characters are bloodless sexual opportunists.
It's one ugly group, fashioned by Nichols from four of the cinema's
most beautiful people: Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, and Clive
Owen. For Nichols, it's a virtuoso performance: he shows only the start and
finish of each cursed relationship, jumps forward and backward in time without
warning, yet never leaves us wondering where we are.
Runners-up: Clint Eastwood, getting gritty again with his boxing
epic, Million Dollar Baby…Taylor Hackford, summoning a genius's
ghost with Ray; Michael Mann, riveting as ever with Collateral…Martin
Scorsese, returning to the bio-epic with The Aviator…Ousmane Sembene,
at 81 showing why he's still Africa's top filmmaker with
Moolaadé.
Best Screenwriter 50 and Over
Alvin Sargent, Spider-Man 2
He wrote for General Electric Theater in 1953. So how did Sargent, 77, end
up penning what Roger Ebert calls "the best superhero movie since the
modern genre was launched"?
"He explores humanity without being mushy or saccharine," Sony
studio chief Amy Pascal said in an interview. "People tend to go with the
newest, grooviest writer. But if someone is a good writer, he's a good
writer."
Runners-up: Pedro Almodóvar for Bad Education, a searing study
of childhood abuse…James L. Brooks for Spanglish, a domestic drama about
people trying to fit in…Paul Haggis and F.X. Toole for Million Dollar
Baby, a gutsy female boxing tale.
Breakaway Performance
Lynn Redgrave, Kinsey
We timed it: Redgrave appears for just over two minutes and 50 seconds, yet
after nearly 40 years of roles that barely touched on her skills, her soliloquy
as a woman telling her story to the controversial sex researcher is so
breathtaking and heartfelt she delivers what amounts to a benediction.
Runners-up: Tom Selleck, losing the mustache and gaining gravitas in
Ike: Countdown to D-Day…Meryl Streep, vamping to Greg
Kinnear's "Summertime" in Stuck on You.
Best Intergenerational Movie
Miracle, Directed by Gavin O'Connor
Even before we've bought our popcorn, we know the U.S. is going to beat
Russia in this movie based on the 1980 Olympic hockey team. So it falls to Kurt
Russell, as coach Herb Brooks, to provide the drama. "If we played them 10
times, they might win nine," he barks. "But not tonight. Tonight we
skate!" Even without all that ice, you'd get the chills.
Runners-up: Baadasssss!: Mario Van Peebles's tribute to
his dad, Melvin…Monsieur Ibrahim: An aging storekeeper passes his
wisdom on to a troubled kid…The Five Obstructions: Director Lars
von Trier puts his mentor, director Jorgen Leth, through a filmmaking
ordeal…Spanglish: A woman realizes it's time to be a mother
to her grown daughter.
Best Documentary
Festival Express, Directed by Bob Smeaton
The film record of this amazing 1972 concert train tour—starring Janis
Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and The Band—was lost for 35 years until
Smeaton gathered footage from all over Canada to piece together this raucous
document.
Runners-up: Control Room: What CNN would look like if Atlanta
were in Qatar…Metallica: Some Kind of Monster: The band gets
group therapy…Riding Giants: A thrilling history of big-wave
surfing…The Story of the Weeping Camel: A Mongolian family tries
to save a baby dromedary.
Best Movie Time Capsule
De-Lovely, Production Design by Eve Stewart
Beyond the film's period details and Cole Porter songs, its energetic
musical numbers (by the likes of Alanis Morissette and Elvis Costello) capture
the exuberant spirit of the 1920s.
Runners-up: The Aviator: Scorsese's 1940s Hollywood time
capsule…Beyond the Sea: Kevin Spacey's quirky Bobby Darin
tribute…The Notebook: Nick Cassavetes's evocation of 1940s
small-town America…Vera Drake: Mike Leigh's return to the bad
old days of repressive 1950s Britain.
Best TV Movie
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, ABC/Hallmark
Entertainment
Often-underused Oscar-winner Jon Voight shines as a man given the chance to
see how his life profoundly affected five people—some of whom he'd
never met.
Runner-up: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (HBO): Geoffrey
Rush gets under the skin of the legend—and finds it wasn't very funny
in there.
Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up
The Incredibles, Directed by Brad Bird
There's lots for kids, but even more for adults, as middle-age heroes
come to grips with a world that has passed them by.
Runners-up: Anchorman: An ode to insipid "happy
talk" 1970s news teams…Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story: A
reminder of the days when child abuse was sanctioned under the title "gym
class"…Mean Girls: Tina Fey's exploration of the twisted
adolescent mind…The Polar Express: A call to adults to hang
on—for dear life—to the dreams of youth.
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