Adult Viewing
2003’s Best Hit Video Stores

Fans of dramatic movies dread this time of year. Let’s face it, the kids are alright but their summer movies get old after a couple of weeks. Fortunately, DVD and VHS releases run about six months behind theatrical releases and that means that some of the best adult dramas that came out at the end of 2003 are now making their way to the video rental outlets.

Three of the top ten movies of 2003 were released on DVD during the past few weeks when Mystic River, Cold Mountain and The Station Agent hit the shelves. So drop the kids off at the Cineplex and let them watch two-dimensional characters blow stuff up while you rent something more mature. We’ll get back in the summer groove and talk about Spider-Man next week.

Mystic River

Director Clint Eastwood took Dennis Lehane’s best-selling novel Mystic River and turned it into one of the most gripping movies of 2003. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins took home Oscars for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in Mystic River and both awards were well deserved.

Mystic River tells the tale of Jimmy (Penn), a hot-headed ex-con whose life turns upside down when his eldest daughter Katie is murdered in a park. His desire for revenge is all-consuming and he wants nothing better to get his hands on the killer before the Boston cops do. Dave (Robbins) is one of Jimmy’s oldest friends but came home covered in blood that night with a lame excuse to his suspicious wife Celeste (Marcia Gay Hardin). Investigating the crime is Sean (Kevin Bacon), a childhood friend of Dave and Jimmy’s who has become a cop with his own personal doubts and demons.

Without relying on grandiose shots of gratuitous violence, Eastwood lets the actors tell the tale of who murdered Katie and what the crime will do to the rest of the families involved. It is incredibly moving and the three male leads give the performances of their careers. Rated R.

Cold Mountain

Like Mystic River, Cold Mountain is filled with great actors and is based on a best-selling book. While Eastwood kept true to the novel, Cold Mountain director Anthony Minghella played around with some of the aspects of the story, much to the consternation of the book’s faithful fans. Despite that tinkering, Cold Mountain is a great film with wonderful performances by leads Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger (who won a Best Supporting Actress nod). The smaller roles were filled with such notable actors as Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Giovanni Ribisi and Kathy Baker, so the director had a lot of talent on tap.

The first part of Cold Mountain shifts gears dramatically as the new Confederate recruits from the mountains of North Carolina go from enthusiastic to homesick or dead. Law plays Inman, a noble man who has found true love with Ada (Kidman) just before being drafted into the conflict between the states. After being wounded in a battle in Virginia and transported to a hospital in eastern North Carolina, Inman struggles to make his way back home to Cold Mountain. The movie pays homage to Frazier’s book not by sticking to every detail, but by conveying the spirit of the novel. Rated R.

The Station Agent

Peter Dinklage and Patricia Clarkson star in The Station Agent, now on DVD.

Tom McCarthy’s directorial debut, The Station Agent, is my pick for best movie of 2003. I can’t think of a single movie last year that perfectly blended realism, humor and unforgettable characters quite the way this small story set in rural Newfoundland, New Jersey.

Peter Dinklage stars as a Finabar McBride, a young man with dwarfism who inherits a small, unused train station in Newfoundland. Not being very social by nature and a train enthusiast by hobby, he ventures from Hoboken and moves into the train station for some peace and solitude. That lasts about a day before Newfoundlanders Joe (Bobby Cannavale), Olivia (Patricia Clarkson) and others invade Fin’s privacy.

With gentle humor and some really fine acting, the movie explores what it means to be different, the pros and cons of being alone, and the unique way American railroads tied thousands of disparate communities together. If this is what McCarthy’s first film is like, I can’t wait to follow the rest of his directing career. Rated R.

AFI’s Top 100 Movie Songs

Last week the American Film Institute aired a three hour television special highlighting its Top 100 Songs of the Movies. It is a fascinating look at the evolution of film music and the power that a song can hold when wedded to the proper visuals.

It is hard to argue with the list’s top four entries—the recurring melody of “Moon River” that haunts Breakfast at Tiffany’s (#4), the unabashed joy of “Singing in the Rain” (#3), the defiant sadness of “As Time Goes By” from Casablanca (#2), and the eternal hopefulness of “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.

Other songs on the list—and omissions thereof—spark some lively debate. Carly Simon’s sappy “Nobody Does It Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me comes in at number 67, while a more appropriate James Bond theme song, Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” isn’t on the list at all. West Side Story has three songs in the top 100, but the gorgeous ballad “Maria” is not one of them.

The TV special AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs will be released soon on DVD. Until then you can look at the list at www.afi.com/tvevents/100years/songs.aspx.