The Journal presents the best films of 2007

Famous directors and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have produced yet another critical success with their nearly silent Western starring Tommy Lee Jones
Image supplied by: Photo courtesy of film.com
Famous directors and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have produced yet another critical success with their nearly silent Western starring Tommy Lee Jones

Though award-hopeful films are still ruling the box-office, the honour they’re contending for may fall victim to the writers’ picket lines as the Golden Globes, and perhaps even the Oscar ceremonies, are replaced by press conferences.

In spite of such turmoil, 2007 boasts the release of a commendable crop of movies, some under-appreciated and some over-hyped. Here are my choices for the best five motion pictures of the year.

Compiling a “best-of” list as short as five is almost an impossible task, the results of which are sure to raise the ire of more than a few. Such a limit forces the omission of popular films like Ridley Scott’s great, but not quite masterful, American Gangster; the genre tributes of James Mangold’s introspective western 3:10 to Yuma and Danny Boyle’s eerie space odyssey Sunshine; Tim Burton’s bloodthirsty adaptation of Sondheim’s tragic musical Sweeney Todd, and of course Jason Reitman’s endearing Juno, which would have made the list but for its trademark quirkiness feeling at times contrived and forced.

After much thought and deliberation, and the above cheat on my five-film limit, the following is my list of the year’s best—do with it as you will (read: newsprint makes good kindling).

5. The Bourne Ultimatum

I fought against this one with every critical nerve in my body, but in the end, as he always does, Jason Bourne won out. Action films are entirely ignored when it comes to year-end honours, and deservedly so—most of them are loud, dumb, formulaic money-makers. Perhaps for this reason alone, the final Bourne adventure deserves a place at the top. Unapologetically intelligent, Paul Greengrass’s latest project is mercilessly shot, reinvigorating a genre that all too often settles for the status quo.

Matt Damon continues to solidify his place among a generation of actors that has graduated from eye-candy to elite thespians, alongside DiCaprio, Pitt and Clooney. The tortured nuance he brings to the ex-assassin Bourne is nothing short of brilliant.

Along with a finely tuned script by Tony Gilroy, later to direct George Clooney in the equally powerful Michael Clayton, Bourne boasts masterful chase sequences and stunts that raise the bar in the same way that Raiders of the Lost Ark did in 1981 and The Fugitive did in 1993—both of which, coincidentally, turned out to be legitimate Best Picture contenders.

4. Zodiac

After Seven, Fight Club and Panic Room, David Fincher’s 2007 offering was marketed poorly as a serial-thriller. In reality, the slow-paced drama stands as a poignant psychological study in the destructive nature of obsession. Zodiac spans almost a decade in the lives of the San Francisco detectives and journalists who are torn apart by their relentless need to bring the infamous Zodiac killer to justice.

The film’s occasionally painfully slow pace evokes the very sense of restlessness felt by leads Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal, both of whom deliver resonant performances. Fincher briefly leaves his stylistic fingerprints on the film, but for the most part shoots and edits in the blunt visual style of ’70s detective dramas a la The French Connection or Dirty Harry.

At times harrowing and creepy, Zodiac again breaks genre barriers and brings the audience something that is deep, thoughtful and unnerving.

3. Across the Universe

No film last year was subjected to greater scrutiny, or more divisive reviews; regardless of your affection for the Beatles, movie-goers either loved Julie Taymor’s musical or held it in the utmost disdain. I’m of the former camp. Though generally of paramount importance, the acting, writing and the plot itself all admittedly leave something to be desired.

In spite of these shortcomings, Taymor’s audacious vision, and the visceral spectacle that results, make this motion picture a sight to behold. In every sense of the word Across the Universe is a spectacle, self-consciously embracing its own grandeur with a very intentional and very refreshing lack of cynicism or irony. Filmmaking of this sort is as rare as it is brave. Unfortunately, many will point to the movie’s flaws, blind to the sheer joy and excitement brought by every astonishing frame and pitch-perfect note.

With ingenious re-imaginings of Beatles tracks such as “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” and “Come Together,” the movie earns its spot on the list if for no other reason than its honest attempt to inspire and entertain the audience the way films were meant to.

2. Atonement

The director-composer duo of Joe Wright and Dario Marianelli that successfully remade Pride and Prejudice reunite to adapt Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. Building upon the same strengths of their previous effort, they manage to create a film that’s entirely sumptuous (no word is more apt).

One couldn’t imagine scenes more masterfully shot than its opening in the peaceful English countryside or the heartbreaking evacuation of Dunkirk by the Allied forces, all underscored by Marianelli’s ethereal compositions. A sweeping Second World War romance, the movie is ultimately about the power of literature and how the words that form both truth and lies have the ability to bring people together or tear them tragically apart. While Kiera Knightley holds her own, James McAvoy, as her exiled lover falsely accused of rape, and 13 year-old Saoirse Ronan, as his tortured accuser, steal the screen.

Following the tradition of Gone with the Wind and Titanic, Atonement lives up to its billing as a classically romantic yet profound epic.

1. No Country for Old Men

A daring masterpiece—there’s really no other way to put it. This Coen Brothers adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel is so taut that by the time the credits roll you exhale without having noticed you stopped breathing. No Country takes its title from a poem by W.B. Yeats and is similarly steeped in a modernist anxiety for the death of morality.

Set in the open country of South Texas around 1980, the film uses the same land of American Western film mythology—and then turns it on its head. Where the sheriff of old stood for justice and unequivocal right and wrong, Tommy Lee Jones’ withering lawman is impotent to impose any such power upon an increasingly amoral, violent society.

Josh Brolin is excellent as a hunter who stumbles upon a dozen dead bodies in the middle of the desert, the result of a drug deal gone bad. He takes a case filled with two million dollars and would have made a clean getaway had he not heeded his conscience and returned to the scene to help the last survivor. As he does, his tracks are picked up by a merciless assassin, whose pursuit shapes most of the movie.

Javier Bardem plays the assassin in what is arguably the best performance of the year, creating a charming yet repulsive force of nature that tears through the film with a presence matching Dr. Lector in Silence of the Lambs. The Coen Brothers thankfully lend their trademark dialogue to the script, but sparsely, as most of the project is hushed into eerie silence. Though Carter Burwell is credited for the score, his impact is remarkably absent. Not until the end credits do you hear any music at all and realize that you have just sat, captivated, through a virtually silent film. The lack of music adds to the thick tension pervading the smartest, edgiest thriller in recent memory. Written, acted and patiently directed to steeled perfection, No Country for Old Men is, without a doubt, the best film of the year.

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