Rocks that Move

40. THE CROW (1994)
directed by Alex Proyas
starring Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, Michael Wincott, and Rochelle Davis

"FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!"

One of the most simple and easy movie plots you can come up with is the ol' "revenge" plot. Someone does something diabolic to the hero or someone he loves, and the hero spends the rest of the movie hunting down the one who did it to avenge himself. Pretty much every Clint Eastwood, Steven Segal, and Charles Bronson movie went something like that. Well, of course, I'm exaggerating, but you get the point. In any case, it is an old, tired plot that is difficult to pull off without being unoriginal and dull. If you have a lot of style and a damned good gimmick, however, it can be a hell of a ride! That is "The Crow," which is based on a graphic novel called, coincidently, "The Crow."

Taking place in a futuristic, dark, rainy, apocalyptic Detroit that looks a lot like how most people imagine Detroit looking like today, a young man played by Brandon Lee is about to marry his lovely fiance, but instead they are brutally murdered. The rest of the film is the young man avenging his beloved's murder. How, you ask? He's dead! DUH!!! "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right."

Of course.

Sound terrible? This is where director Alex Proyas, cinematographer Darius Wolski (of Pirates of the Caribbean fame), and screenwriter John Shirley come in. A gorgeously dank gothic world is created with a unique array of scary characters, a haunting young girl, and a witty cop (Ernie Hudson is excellent in this role); and this is combined with terrific, vulgarly poetic dialogue to create something that is unique and awe-inspiring. Proyas also chooses to add dark, industrial alternative rock to the soundtrack that adds to the aura and feel of the film, and it works here. There is also a lot of action to keep you busy. Throw into all of this the tragic real-life death of Brandon Lee on the set of the film (he was accidently shot with a gun that was supposed to have blanks in it), and you are left with a movie that is not really about the ol' revenge plot. It is about being in a black, romantic Edgar Allen Poe poem that will make your skin crawl... if you're into that sort of thing.

39. THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (1993)
directed by James Ivory
starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant, and James Fox

Attention to detail. That is the key to being a successful butler in a mansion in the British countryside before the war (in Britain, you do not need to say which war it was). Measuring the distance of the forks from the edge of the table, dusting the old chinaman, seemlessly entering and leaving a room like a ghost. As a real butler said while helping with the making of this film, there is nothing to being a butler... when you're in the room, it should be more empty.

Attention to detail. That is the key to playing a part so perfectly, it seems like it was written just for you. Anthony Hopkins as Stevens is the perfect example. Most people will always think of Hannibal Lecter when they see Hopkins. I will always expect him to get me some tea. His Stevens is the perfect butler. Neat. Efficient. A robot. Yet Hopkins takes care to let out just enough feeling for you to care for him. His deep fear of intimacy haunts you as you watch the film. He is awkward in non-work situations. Emma Thompson plays his foil, energetic and full of personality. I love the scene where she finds him reading romance novels. Our Mr. Stevens is a human being afterall... even if he does claim he only reads them to improve his vocabulary. Later, when their hands part at the bus station, it is amazing how you can actually feel Stevens' entire life slipping away. Yet he is still a human being, somehow. It is all in the fine detail of this performance.

Attention to detail. That is the key to making a successful historical drama. Politics. Tension. Racism. Spies. War. The fate of the nation. A drop of snot that is about to fall into someone's food if Stevens does not save the day. Love. All these items are there, but you have to hunt for them. "Remains of the Day" is a treasure hunt of drama. James Ivory directs a flawless film. The movie is stunningly beautiful. The house. The props. The garden. The plot is subtle and finely tuned. It is a film that a lot of people will find boring, and I'll never understand why. There is always so much happening.

38. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004)
directed by Michel Gondry
starring Jim Carey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Wilkinson

This movie, at the most basic premise of the plot, is just a gimmick. Lots of movies do it. You start with an odd premise that makes no sense (like last year's "Click"), and attempt to build a movie around it. In "Eternal Sunshine," there is an invention where you can have your memories erased... but not all of them. Just the ones you WANT erased. That, my friends, is a gimmick. Gimmicks can be bad... but they do not have to be. Like a work by Picasso or Sali, the gimmick here is used to perfection by director Michel Gondry to form a work of art.

"Eternal Sunshine" is a bizarre love story. It is a romantic comedy, tear-jerker, and science fiction film all rolled into one. Jim Carey finds out that his ex (Kate Winslet) has had him removed from her memories, and decides to avenge himself by doing the same thing to her. During the process, we are allowed into his mind, and we re-experience all his experiences of love and loss with this unique woman. As he experiences the events for the last time, he realizes that not only does he not want to lose them, he is still in love with her. Thus begins a battle in his mind to save his memories in a vivid and dream-like tale that is exciting, hilarious, and bitter-sweet.

My favorite scene has Carey and Winslet fleeing from the mind-wipe, at one point hiding under the table in the kitchen of one of his childhood memories in a scene that made me think of my own childhood. I was reminded of hiding under the table myself as a child, snooping in on my parents' conversations, and occassionally reaching up to sneak a cookie. I was touched by the familiarity, along with the vulnerability of the characters, now grown up, but reduced to children who are helpless and seemingly out of control.

The moral, of course, is that even the painful memories we have are an important part of what makes us who we are. You do not just lose the bad memories in a case like this. You lose the good ones, too. I love a movie with a moral, so long as that moral is not crammed down your throat like a sermon. That is definitely not the case here. Does Carey save his memories? You'll have to see it to find out, if you haven't already. The ending of the film is predictable and cute, but I do not think it could have ended any other way. It was perfect.

37. THE LION IN WINTER (1968)
directed by Anthony Harvey
starring Katherine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, and a young Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton, and Nigel Terry

This film is all about the dialogue and performances. Based on a Broadway play that flopped, it was only made to capitalize on the success of the period drama "A Man for All Seasons" a couple of years before. As a film, however, how could you go wrong with Peter O'Toole reprising his part from the film "Becket" as Henry II and Katherine Hepburn, who is allegedly an actual descendent of Eleanor of Aquitaine? Combine them with three conniving sons, including Anthony Hopkins as a gay Richard the Lionheart (Who is to say he wasn't? Lots of British kings were!), and a young French king Philip played by Timothy Dalton... and you've got a mess. Much like this paragraph is a mess.

Ah, but it is a good mess; a juggling of spying, wit, plotting, treachery, back-stabbing, yelling, negotiating, lying, and something that could possibly be... wait, no... oh, yes, I do believe... it is love. Or maybe it isn't. You be the judge...

Eleanor: How dear of you to let me out of prison.
Henry II: It's only for the holidays.

Eleanor: You don't dare go!
Henry II: Say that again at noon, you'll say it to my horse's ass! Lamb, I'll be rid of you by Easter: you can count your reign in days!

Eleanor: What would you have me do? Give out? Give up? Give in?
Henry II: Give me a little peace.
Eleanor: A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there's a thought.

Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.
Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

Henry II: We're in the cellar and you're going back to prison and my life is wasted and we've lost each other... and you're smiling.
Eleanor: It's the way I register despair. There's everything in life but hope.
Henry II: We're both alive... and for all I know that's what hope is.

Eleanor: I adored you. I still do.
Henry II: Of all the lies you've told, that is the most terrible.
Eleanor: I know. That's why I've saved it up until now.

Awwww.... I'm as much of a sucker for love as I am for historical fiction.

36. THE PIANO (1993)
directed by Jane Campion
starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin

YES! Yes, Harvey Keitel is NAKED in this film. NAKED, I tell you!! You get to see his wee-willy!! HIS PENIS!!! OK!!?? Are you satisfied!!?? Huh!!?? Ok. Now grow up and get over it. :-P

Sorry I had to get that out of my system. A lot of people ask me about that when I say I like this movie. "Wasn't Harvey Keitel naked in that film? Ew!" Yes, but it is directed by a woman, so it is ok. ;-)

This is a gripping drama about passion. Passion for music. Passion for life. Passion as pride. And, yes, passion as lust. That lust eventually turns into love is the crown of the film. A friend of mine watched this film with me and didn't like it. He said that the characters all disgusted him. I told him that the actors must have done their jobs perfectly if he felt that way, but the truth is that I was not disgusted with them. They were realistic characters in a strange and harsh environment trying to get what they wanted, but not knowing how. In a weird sort of way, the amazing Anna Paquin's 10-year-old was the most grown-up and wise character in the film. She knew what she wanted (attention), and she knew how to get it. The adults were learning as they went along... or, for one of them, failing to learn.

Although I didn't think this at the time, in retrospect I think Holly Hunter got robbed for the Oscar. The emotion, feelings, thoughts, intentions, hopes, love, pride, anger, desires that she was able to create without saying a single word was amazing. The way she communicated through sign, as well as through the music (she played many of the piano scenes herself), facial expressions, gestures... there is never any doubt what she is saying. A stunning performance.

This movie is also one of the first films that I ever saw that made me realize how significant cinematography is to a film. Honestly, I should be listing cinemtographers above, but I'm not going to now. "The Piano" has a 'blue' look about it. This slightly bluish hue creates a colder environment in the film, making things seem more bleak and despairing. At the end of the movie, Hunter rises from the water. The end of the movie is brightly lit. She has found true love and happiness, and you can see it, even in such a brief scene.