Why does this feel so arbitrary? Two of the top ten films didn't screen in U.S. theaters in 2007, but I saw and loved them. English actress Romola Garai makes it here not once twice. Sarah Polley earned her spot once again, this time as a director. Daniel Day-Lewis and Viggo Mortensen went over the top and belonged there. Wes Anderson has returned. My list, submitted with the usual trepidation.
1. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
IFC Films
I tried to sell this film just the other day to a friend: the one movie of 2007 where the girl actually gets the abortion. The adjective that I chose to apply to the experience was "horrific." The word choice stands, but Cristian Mungiu 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, the story of a young woman who helps her friend obtain an illegal abortion in Communist Romania, is much more than that. The marvelous Anamaria Marinca stars as Otila, a pretty blond college student who learns in a day that the realities of life are more than she can handle - and she then handles it anyway. Marinca's in nearly every scene of this powerful, beautiful film. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days won the top prize at Cannes and will be released in the U.S. in January.
2. There Will Be Blood
Paramount Vantage
The intensity of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is hard to match: the over the top, outstanding performances, the sprawling landscape, the screeching music. Daniel Day-Lewis takes down his younger nemesis Paul Dano, time after time, and somehow, watching them spar genuinely thrilling. Jürgen wrote it all in his review.
3. Atonement
Focus Features
Atonement got even better the second time that I saw it. Romola Garai (making her first appearance in the top 10 of the year) is surly and petulant as the middle Briony of a finely cast trio. Not only is Keira Knightley stunning in her green dress, but she gives good disdain. The score is menacing, the cinematography gorgeous, and the story holy compelling with a perfectly satisfaying sad, wonderful and evocative ending.
4. The Darjeeling Limited
Fox Searchlight
Wes Anderson's story of three brothers on a train trip across India to find spiritual enlightenment filled me with delight. It was almost enough to look at the spectacle of Jason Scwartzman, Adrian Brody, and Owen Wilson filling the frame. Better still when they speak. The Darjeeling Limited features wonderful luggage, the debut of Amara Karan, a poisonous snake, a six thousand dollar belt, and an abundance of unprescribed pharmaceuticals. But more important, the journey of the Whitman's journey is moving. Brothers who want to bond. I understood their impulse. Saw them change and grow, while I laughed at their antics.
