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 Back to [ Page One ] 3. Japanese Story - Box Office Gross: $647,054 Look no further for 2004's finest female performance (well, Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake is pretty damn great)-the honor belongs to Toni Collette's tour de force that was Japanese Story. Only in non-American pictures can the eccentric, humanist actress take front and center as she does here, and she rips into Sue Brooks' Australian, culture shock, romantic adventure with lusty gusto that's first jaded, then ripely sensual, then achingly tragic. As Sandy, a burnt-out geologist designated to entertain an arrogant Japanese investor, she becomes a reluctant tour guide amidst the wide-open natural beauty of the outback-and ends up navigating an internal landscape far vaster after the mismatched couple unexpectedly fall in love. Collette is all edges and resistance as she hesitates, then hesitates some more, before giving in to love and life in equal measures. The film's centerpiece is a jolting narrative left-turn that devastates Collette and us. Love hurts, badly indeed. Heart on her sleeve and movie on her back, she found her work and the film dumped unceremoniously on a paltry 21 screens during the doldrums of January 2004. It was gone a week later, but it took much longer to shake. Don't miss scene: Collette's reaction to a spoiler of a plot twist. 4. Intermission - Domestic Box Office Gross: $896,993 A near-perfect example of the criss-crossing lives genre set in a working-class Dublin milieu of lovers, thieves, families and detectives, Intermission is a rowdy, raucous, touching, sublime, violent ride. Taking a cue from ensemble dramas like Short Cuts, where interrelated lives gradually come into sharper focus and connection, we're introduced to a collection of eccentrics, both endearing and off-putting. Lehiff (Colin Farrell, full Irish brogue, diametrically opposed to both Alexander and Bobby Morrow) is a vicious, nothing to lose thug being pursued by a posturing "tough guy" detective (a gritty Colm Meany). Grocery stock boy John (Cillian Murphy) has been dumped by love Dierdre (bright Kelly Macdonald of Trainspotting), who has taken up with an older, married man. Dierdre's adult sister Sally (Shirley Henderson) is a jaded lonely heart living with mum and one major stumbling block-a prominent moustache. They all come together over a botched kidnapping masterminded by Farrell, which of course goes off the rails. Add to the mix a TV crew doing a doc on the detective's life, a jilted wife on the make and a porn-obsessed grocery clerk and you get where this whirligig of a movie is going. Director John Crowley infuses the film with a gleeful energy that's periodically spiked with graphic violence and real feeling. Henderson, a veteran of Michael Winterbottom's films and this year's Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, almost steals the show from Farrell with her blend of defiant self-pity. Almost. Don't miss scene: The opening moments, in which on-the-take thug Lehiff speaks plainly-and manipulatively-about love and commitment before bashing in a lovely young girl's face for a small chunk of cash register loot. Intermission is $9.99 at Best Buy ("special value"). Treat yourself. 5. Birth - Domestic Box Office Gross as of Dec. 19, 2004: $4,760,000 There are moments in Birth, the sad, knowing tale of a woman unable to let go of her dead husband's emotional legacy, that have an almost original tone I don't think I've seen in a movie before-one of chilly, supernatural heartbreak, infused with equal parts realism and fancy, living and dead, hushed control and breaking emotion. Dressed up with impeccable style by director and co-writer Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) and cinematographer Harris Savides, Birth is a high-concept, low-uptake thing. Set in upscale Manhattan, Nicole Kidman is a well-tended young widow who becomes convinced that an odd twelve-year-old boy is the reincarnation of her recently deceased husband. She's never been able to disconnect from that great love and even in the presence of exasperated new finance Danny Huston, she melts, literally, into the arms of this young boy. Mom Lauren Bacall is a voice of regal reason, but in an audacious and risky scene, Kidman ends up naked and vulnerable, in a hot bath with the child, planning an escape to Mexico and a new beginning. Anne Heche, performing with appealing directness, holds the keys to the mystery. Birth, with its gorgeous set design, cinematography and striking, prominent score by Alexandre Desplat, is first-class all the way. Above the technical control and precision lies a performance from Kidman obviously cherished by director Glazer (and us). She lets go in a rare actor's moment when her director points the camera and shoots her face for a few solid minutes while we hear a symphonic crescendo of the music match her rising, confused emotions. She's the best American actress working today who isn't actually American, and in Birth she dons a brunette pixie wig and a set of discolored emotions that resonate deeply after the mystery unravels. It's intelligent and adult-a recipe for the box office death knell. A widely misunderstood, high profile film ushered in and out of theaters after a few knee-jerk critics ludicrously suggested its provocative child-adult love veered into the uncomfortable, Birth should find itself appropriately reincarnated, hopefully with a better life, on DVD. Don't miss scene: The last scene of the film, in which a devastated bride nearly suffers a wordless nervous breakdown in the crashing surf. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Written by [ Lee Shoquist ] [ Home ] |
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