"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" - two of the biggest hits of the holiday season - are conspicuously absent from my ten best list. Although both films are undeniably superb achievements, they did not have the same impact on me that my choices did. These ten are the ones I wanted to see more than once. So, for better or worse, here are my ten favorite movies for the Year, 2003.

1- THE MAGDALENE SISTERS - In the brilliant first ten minutes of "The Magdalene Sisters," a Catholic priest sings passionately at a wedding party about dipping at the well of lust, thrashing his bodhran with a drumstick - driving the song to an orgasmic crescendo. The bride and groom clutch each other’s hand. Teenaged Margaret (Anne-Marie Duff) giggles with her peers. Then she is led innocently to a secluded room by her cousin - a male. Once there, he turns on her. The violent muffled sounds of Margaret’s rape and protest replace the primordial rhythms of the bodhran. The raped rushes back to the party, the rapist behind her. Celebratory Celtic dance music drowns out Margaret’s accusations. Her attacker works the room gaining favor with his male brethren. This is Dublin, Ireland - 1964. . Men are the center of the family. Women are secondary citizens and the dictates of the Irish Catholic Church are the law of the land. Margaret is blamed for letting herself be violated. She is damaged goods. With the complicity of her parents she is soon carted off by the local clergy to a Magdalene Asylum for wayward girls.

Two other girls are likewise sacrificed on the altar of Irish Catholic propriety: the flirtatious orphan Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone) for placing temptation in the path of young boys and the meek but loving Patricia (Dorothy Duffy) - later dubbed Rose by the nuns - for having a child out of wedlock. But it is the riveting first ten minutes with Margaret’s rape that sets the tone for the horrific ordeals that will come later.

"The Magdalene Sisters" is not "Boys Town" and Sister Bridget (Geraldine McEwan), who runs the asylum like a Nazi Commandant, is no Father Flanagan. She is a taskmaster bent on serving her God and filling the coffers of her church with money made from the blood sweat and tears of the girls who toil in the asylum’s laundry - a business that rivals Charles Dickens’ workhouses. According to Sister Bridget, the girls must atone for their misdeeds - real and imagined - through silence, obedience, and work.

A fourth girl, Crispina (Eileen Walsh), already a resident of the asylum, becomes a catalyst that unites several of the girls and divides the others. She is a simpleton to some, a victim to others, and a nuisance that must be dealt with in the extreme by Sister Bridget. Revolt is in the air, but not before writer/director Peter Mullan takes us on a tour of holy hell in the name of God, Country and Holy Mother Church. Each girl survives in a way that reflects her temperament: Margaret remains the quiet one, sympathetic to everyone except her tormentors. Bernadette deals with her suffering through vindictiveness but redeems herself through a simple kiss on a dead woman’s forehead. Paricia/Rose, forever the optimist, learns to hold back her feelings. Small acts of defiance - the hiding of a key and a simple act of vanity - take on heroic proportions. What is all the more disturbing is that the story is true. According to the credits, as many as 30.000 women went through the Magdalene laundries. The last one closed in 1996. Many women died within its walls without anyone from the outside world to mourn them. At the end of the movie I wanted to mourn them all. "The Magdalene Sisters" is a powerful film and my hands down favorite of the year.

2- SEABISCUIT - Fact: a has-been horse named Seabiscuit beat the unbeatable Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, in a match race at Maryland’s famed Pimlico race track on November 1, 1938. By all accounts, you’d never know that anyone in the movie theater watching "Seabiscuit" knew the outcome. Everyone was on the edge of their seats cheering when Seabiscuit looked War Admiral in the eye and left him in the dust. This climactic scene was not the end of the film because "Seabiscuit" is more than just a movie about a horse and a race. It’s a story about comebacks, and before it’s over, Seabiscuit and the three men who saved him from obscurity have one more comeback to make.

Writer/director Gary Ross brings history alive with his recreation of The Great Depression and the circumstances that bring an entrepreneur, a brawling jockey, and an old time cowboy together. Jeff Bridges is Charles Howard, a one time bicycle repairman who made his fortune from a new fangled invention called the automobile. He drifts into the horse business when his auto business bottoms out. Toby Maguire is Red Pollard, a back lot racer, abandoned as a kid by his parents, surviving from one second rate track to the next. Chris Cooper is the soft spoken Tom Smith, an old school wrangler who is more at home under the stars than under a roof, trying to get by in a modern world. He knows horses better than people. Ross fills the screen with the details of their lives from the stock market crash that kills the auto business, the cutthroat tactics of the amateur racing circuit, to the open ranges and big skies that symbolize the cowboy’s dying way of life. That three disparate individuals and a horse that was on the way to the slaughter house should come together and renew each other’s lives with one common purpose, and give the country a sense of hope in a time of hopelessness, is one of the great stories of the 20^th Century. Gary Ross captures the spirit of hope instilled in the downtrodden who needed a second chance to come together as a nation by drawing parallels between their stories, as represented in the newsreels of the day, and the aspirations of Howard, Pollard and Smith for Seabiscuit. Ross makes every race more exciting than the last until the owner of War Admiral finally agrees to a match race. In one masterstroke Ross portrays the way most of America experienced the race on November 1, 1938. He cuts away at the start of the race and goes into homes and shops across the land to hear the first thrilling moments on the radio - the most listened to sporting event of the era. "Seabiscuit" is in every sense of the word - A Winner!

3- NOWHERE IN AFRICA (German with English subtitles) - "Nowhere in Africa" is about the plight of Jews who fled Nazi Germany and found refuge in British Kenya in the thirties before WWII. Lawyer Walter Redlich (Merab Ninidze) spearheads his family’s move and finds work as an overseer on an English farm.. Once settled, he relocates his haughty wife, Jettel (Juliane Kohler) and young daughter, Kathe (Regine Zimmermann) Living in a new world without winter, Kathe’s only memory of her homeland is snow and fear.

Director and screenwriter, Caroline Link, alternates the narrative between Kathe’s embrace of the country she is destined to grow up in, and the hardship and deprivation felt by her parents who once enjoyed a privileged life in Germany. Owur (Sidede Onyulo), a native bushman who works odd jobs on the farm and doubles as the family’s cook, teaches Kathe the ways of his country and the lore of his tribe. Kathe grows up embracing his people and their customs. Meanwhile her mother resists change alienating herself from her husband and Kathe. When letters stop coming from family in Germany and news filters through to Kenya about entire families disappearing within their homeland, Walter’s suspicions and Jettel’s worst fears are confirmed.

Once war breaks out, all the Jews in Kenya are rounded up and put in camps. The Nazis saw them as Jews, the English see them as Germans. Men are separated from the women and children. Walter is used to separation. Jettel is not. She comes to appreciate her husband’s sacrifices and swallows her pride. Jettel compromises her dignity to bring the family back together and comes to accept what fate has handed to her.

"Nowhere in Africa" unfolds like a good old fashioned novel until each character’s relationship to the land emerges. Kathe knows no other home but Kenya. She is as much a part of the country as the soil beneath her feet. Walter has his eye on the future and longs to return to a repatriated Germany. Jettel goes through the most dramatic change, torn between her husband’s needs and the country her daughter calls home. In the movie’s amazing finale, Jettel joins the fight against a force of nature that threatens the fragility of the farm the Redlich’s call home. In one fell swoop "Nowhere in Africa" takes on the dimensions of a Hollywood epic. It is as emotionally seductive as it is thrilling.

Postscript: "Nowhere in Africa" won the Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category for 2002, but wasn’t released in the states until the Spring of this year.

4- IN AMERICA - Writer/director Jim Sheridan is a master story teller who has given us two Oscar winning film biographies: "My Left Foot" about Irish painter/writer Christy Brown and "In the Name of the Father." The latter is about the harrowing ordeal suffered by Gerry Conlon, his father, and friends in a British prison after being falsely accused and convicted of conspiracy in a terrorist bombing in London. Despite the dramatic differences in their plots, both films portray the strength of the family in times of emotional crises. This time Jim Sheridan uses his unique gifts to explore the ties that bind an Irish immigrant family together with "In America," a thinly disguised version of events in his own life.

With the help of his two co-writers - daughters, Naomi and Kirsten - Sheridan charts the course of an emotionally scarred family who come to New York from their native Ireland to start a new life. Haunted by the death of Frankie, their youngest child, Johnny (Paddy Considine) and Sarah’s (Samantha Morton) lives are sustained by their unswerving love for each other and the resiliency of their daughters, six year old Ariel and Christy, ten (Sarah and Emma Bolger). They see Time Square as a kaleidoscope of Reds, Whites, and Blues.

The dilapidated building they call home takes on a magical quality even with its broken down elevator, creaky staircases, faulty wiring and holes in the ceiling. The girls liken it to a haunted castle. Halloween becomes a night of celebration when the girls win the heart of the screaming man (Djimon Hounsou) who lives below them. He portrays his tortured soul on canvas and showers his new friends with his zest for life. Hardships abound but are eased by the love forged between the newly arrived immigrants and the people who befriend them. A new life calls for new beginnings and a new baby to heal their wounded souls. Christy is the film’s diarist and prism through which Jim Sheridan filters the rise and fall in the tide of emotions that runs through "In America." It is through her pain over the loss of her brother that her father is eventually able to let go of the past. A new joie de vivre replaces the collective guilt felt by the whole family.

All the actors give such heartfelt performances that is impossible not to be involved in the ups and downs of their lives. Two scenes stand out in particular: a carnival where the winning of a simple ET doll becomes a challenge to Johnny’s manhood and his roll as a hero in his kids’ eyes and the finale that solidifies that roll when he and his daughters witness a shooting star with a shared sense of wonder and a fond remembrance of the joy that Frankie brought to their lives.

5- MYSTIC RIVER - "Mystic River" is unquestionably one of the most emotionally complex movies I’ve ever experienced. It’s a gut wrenching tale about personal loss and emotional trauma suffered by three childhood friends after one of them is kidnapped by a child molester in front of the other two. As adults, the abducted Dave Boyle can’t shake the nightmares that plague him, Jimmy Markum toughens up by becoming a local hood, and Detective Sean Devine devotes his life to getting the bad guys. Sordid memories and unresolved feelings are dredged up when Jimmy’s daughter is senselessly murdered. Dave can’t account for his actions on the night of the murder, Sean is the investigator, and Jimmy wants revenge.

Screenwriter, Brian Helgeland’s ("L.A. Confidential") knows how to go to the heart of a novel, identify its most compelling moments, and weave a complex web of relationships to give the story its dramatic thrust. Director Clint Eastwood has taken Helgeland’ s blueprint for David Lahane’s novel, "Mystic River," and given it a cinematic life that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and rubs your face in the pain of its characters. He challenges you to think and feel as they do - to put yourself in their shoes. Would you let yourself, as a kid, be taken by a stranger? Would you let your friend be taken away without a fight? Would you think of yourself as the weaker or the stronger of the three? Would you forever think of one of your friends as the weak link who didn’t deserve your pity? Would you feel like you have to prove yourself worthy of love for the rest of your life? These and many other questions are raised. Some are answered in the wake of Jimmy’s daughter’s death, others are not.

Information is scattered throughout "Mystic River" like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle begging to be put together. Secondary players come and go and then come back again to fill in gaps. "Mystic River" is a first class murder mystery and a dramatic conundrum. Motivations are sometimes murky, but always human. Grief leads to rage, and rage to revenge. It’s difficult not to be absorbed into the complex emotional fabric of each and every player, from the boy who loved Jimmy’s daughter to the wives - seen and unseen - of the best friends who are unable to make sense out of their splintered lives.

The direction is invisible, the story compelling, and the acting phenomenal. When Tim Robbins droops his shoulders, lets his jaw hang low and shuffles his feet, you know all you need to know about the emotionally scarred Dave Boyle. Marcia Gay Harden turns Celeste, his uneducated wife, into one of the movie’s most sympathetic creatures, unwise to the ways of the world, and blind to her husband’s true nature. Kevin Bacon is the cool headed Sean Devine, able to separate the cop from the man and to put his job before his friends. Sean Penn sears the screen with Jimmy Markum’s grief and rage. Laura Linney is the unseen power behind the throne waiting patiently to step out of the shadows and lay claim to her husband’s soul.

I had one reservation with the plot having to do with the murder weapon when I first saw "Mystic River." Several of my friends and members of my family felt a lack of remorse and the action taken by one of the lead players had more to do with standing tall in the eyes of his peers. It is still the subject of an ongoing debate and one of the reasons I’m compelled to list "Mystic River" among the best films of the year. It stirs the emotions with its disturbing images and challenges the intellect with its many points of view. It deserves to be seen again and again and….

6- CITY OF GOD - Torn from the headlines of Brazil, art imitates life in "City of God." It is an unflinching look at the cycle of violence passed on from one generation to the next in a Brazilian ghetto called the City of God. Director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Braulio Mantovani spin this fact based tale through the eyes of Rocket, a kid too puny or smart to take on the big guys but resilient enough to survive the gang wars that spring up around him. He is the story’s narrator, going back and forth through time, telling stories about boys who believe that to kill is to be man, boys who die too young, and others grown to men who kill indiscriminately. One, Li’l Dice - a child killer before the age of puberty - grows up to become Li’l Zee, a drug lord whose vanity provides the kindling for a vendetta that spins out of control. Rocket follows his story and others about Li’l Zee’s enemies with names like Carrot and Knockout Ned until the burgeoning cocaine trade they perpetuate leads to unrelenting bloodshed. Presented in documentary style, the filmmakers show how their intersecting lives play an important part in the development of Rocket’s artistic sensibility in a world of chaos. His obsession with cameras, his instinct for survival, and ability to walk a fine line between warring factions, making neither friends nor enemies at a time when no one could be trusted, yet finding trust where he least expects it, lead him down a path to his true calling and a future beyond the City of God.

"City of God" is a no frills tour de force, told in a clear cut journalistic style that condenses the essence of each person’s story with an editorial precision that defies description. It’s one helluva movie!

7- CHAOS (French with English subtitles) - When I saw "Chaos" earlier this year, I was struck by the ease with which writer/director seamlessly blended elements of comedy, drama, and social criticism in what ultimately turns out to be a suspenseful thriller. It defies categorization. Her protagonist, Helene (Catherine Frot) takes on the war of the sexes and more when her husband refuses to help Noemi - aka Malika - a hooker beaten within an inch of her life while they watch from inside their locked car. Helene thrusts herself into Noemi’s life and discovers, not just a prostitute. but an amazingly intelligent woman.

Humor comes from the contrasting actions and attitudes of chauvinistic males - domestic and criminal - and the women they see as useful appendages to their lives. The source of drama comes from the women’s decision to become masters of their own destiny. Helene takes her first step towards emancipation when her compassion leads her to Noemi’s hospital bedside. Noemi’s escape from the traditions of her Algerian family and her eventual slavery by an international crime syndicate are revealed in riveting flashbacks. Helene sees parallels in their lives and decides to become an active participant in Noemi’s bid for freedom.

"Chaos" moves at breakneck speed with one subplot rushing into another until a much more thought provoking subtext evolves - the role of women in Western and Islamic societies and the threat that emancipation poses for the men who have either taken them for granted or used them as chattel in the name of tradition. The role of women in Arabic societies is a very hot topic, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 and the liberation of Afghanistan. "Chaos" addresses this topic in the guise of a comedic thriller that works on every level. Some may see it as just another plot device, but when the laughs die out - there are many - and the thrill of the caper subsides - and long after the end credits role, "Chaos" leaves plenty of food for thought. I’m still thinking about it. This is an overlooked gem.

8 - CARNAGE (Fr. with English subtitles) - "Carnage" is an episodic tour deforce by Delphine Gleize, a filmmaker in full control of her creative faculties. She uses snippets of dialogue, nuance, and carefully placed images to reveal bits of character the way a painter uses brush strokes.

The fate of a bullfighter and a bull sent to the slaughter house will forever change the lives of the people in different age groups, different walks of life, and in different countries. Each vignette is a story unto itself. Each character - linked by fate to another. The bullfighter prepares for the ring. A kindergarten age girl draws a picture of a dog much bigger than herself. Her teacher misreads the picture’s message. The girl later watches a bull fight on TV with her dog. A chance encounter with an old lover stirs up memories of an ill fated love affair and a broken heart. Two brothers long to reunite with their father. A husband frets over his financial problems while his wife carries on about her pregnancy. On and on it goes, one story washing over the next like waves on a beach, all part of the same ocean. Each story returns time and again with new revelations, each dependent on the other. A harmony emerges from color schemes and mystical numbers until order comes out of chaos. "Carnage" is one of a kind movie and not to be missed.

9- DIRTY PRETTY THINGS - Illegal immigrants, strange doings in the dead of night, and the desire for a better life are three key ingredients that make "Dirty Pretty Things" a thought provoking suspenseful thriller that raises questions about morality and justice in the uncompromising nether world of illegal immigrants.

Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a Nigerian on the run in London trying to make ends meet. He drives a cab by day and does odd jobs at a sleazy hotel by night. He’s the clean up man, sometimes working the desk, other times lending a thoughtful hand to the hookers who have befriended him. In his off hours he sleeps at the apartment of the Turkish illegal, Senay (Audrey Tatou), who works at the same hotel by day. They are silent partners in a cat and mouse game designed to keep the immigration authorities from finding them. Okwe helps pay the rent. Senay’s landlord doesn’t know he exists. Others do: the owner of the cab company, a friend at the local hospital who supplies Okwe with uppers, and Juan aka Sneaky (Sergei Lopez), the night time concierge who has a sideline business that trades in human misery.

When a body part shows up in a toilet, I thought "Dirty Pretty Things" was going to be a minor little horror film with a mad doctor on the loose, but writer Steve Knight and director Stephen Frears have more serious issues on their minds. They explore the twilight world of illegal immigrants who clean the toilets, drive the cabs and perform all the dirty jobs that the average citizen of the civilized world abhors. These laborers are a hardworking invisible race of have-nots who long to carve out a place for themselves and their families amidst the anonymity offered by the multi cultural cities of the Western World.

Chiwetel Ejiofor is superb. He makes you feel Okwe’s desperation in every scene, especially when he is blackmailed into using skills he has forsaken lest they betray his true identity. "Dirty Pretty Things" has a satisfying ending. It is not necessarily a happy one. The nagging question raised by the filmmakers still persists. How far would any one person be willing to go, what sacrifices would any one person be willing to endure, and how much of one’s soul would any one person be willing to give up to put food in the mouths of loved ones when abject poverty and starvation are the only other options? The mere fact that these questions need be raised at all and that they should persist in anyone’s mind long after the movie ends elevates "Dirty Pretty Things" above its humble origins.

10- THE LAST SAMURAI - If you love opulent, action filled, historic epics with flesh and blood characters, breathtaking visuals, and thrilling combat scenes, then you’ll love "The Last Samurai" as much as I did.

Tom Cruise plays Union Officer Nathan Algren, a disillusioned survivor of the Indian wars trying to wash away his nightmares in a sea of booze while plying his marksmanship and tall tales as a side show attraction to sell rifles. He is persuaded to go to Japan to teach battle tactics with modern weapons. Instead of finding a seasoned army, he finds conscripts unfit for battle. The Emperor’s minions believe that sheer numbers and guns are enough to put down a rebellion led by the most feared and revered Samurai in Japan - Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) - the Last Samurai.

The Samurai rebels meet the Emperor’s Army head on, not with guns and cannon but with pure grit and steel. They appear like ghosts through the wooded mist, rushing forward like metal monsters on horse back, their steel horned helmets high above their steeds. Their arrows cut down the enemy with the swiftness of a bullet. Their swords slice through their prey with the precision of a guillotine. Algren fights back with the ferocity of a tiger until his last ounce of energy is spent. As a captive, he learns the true nature of Katsumoto and the Samurai way of life, saving not only his skin but his soul. Director Ed Zwick, no stranger to action movies driven by character with hits like "Glory" and "Siege," examines a lifestyle devoted to perfection in mind, body, spirit, and the art of war through Algren’s experiences.

Comparisons to the epic films of Akira Kurosawa are inevitable. He looked to the westerns of John Ford to create "The Seven Samurai" and still made something uniquely his own. Zwick likewise looks to Kurosawa’s films to create a Samurai film that has the feel of both genres and succeeds. Instead of the noble savage of Kevin Costner’s "Dances with Wolves" you have the noble Samurai with a cause - to preserve a way of life with a code of behavior that would help the Emperor weather the corrupt influence of the industrial powers. Katsumoto sees himself, not as rebel, but a patriot. To give up his sword is give up his honor, To give up his honor is to die at the hands of his enemies. To die at the hands of his enemies, without his sword - a symbol of his loyalty and power - unable to strike a blow at those who would corrupt his Emperor, would be to die a shameful death. So what better way to die for an ideal than on the field of battle against a superior force in both numbers and munitions? Ed Zwick and his screenwriters take you through every exciting and thrilling step of Algren’s journey: his first encounter with the Samurai warriors; his healing; his conversion to the Samurai way of life; the ninja assault; his treacherous journey at the side of Katsumoto to appease the Emperor; the narrow escapes - all with some of the most exciting martial arts combat and kendo fighting ever put on screen. Zwick puts you in Algren’s frame of mind to see and feel as he does, anticipating his adversary’s every move. Then - the inevitable - a heroic confrontation that obliterates a way of life but not before one last gesture on the part of the Emperor’s Army that is as surprising as it is moving. I loved "The Last Samurai."

Copyright 2004