Movies for Grownups 2006

By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2006-01-25 14:39:00-05:00

Best Movie for Grownups

Capote, directed by Bennett Miller

He stands there, an improbable man impeccably dressed, stark against the Midwest horizon. And to make matters worse, he has been told by his best friend to stay with the car. He's just too...well...strange to amble up to a Kansas farmhouse and ask to be let inside.

That's Truman Capote, the ultimate outsider, and this is the world into which he seemingly parachutes in Capote. It's a film with a meticulously narrow vision of a larger-than-life character, a guy who insists with a straight face, "I never lie," yet who lies with astonishing facility. The script, by Dan Futterman, is equally spare and majestic, like a Great Plains landscape. The Manhattan scenes crackle with cocktail banter and clinking glasses. The heartland episodes unfold in some cinematic Central Time, full of measured words and thoughtful pauses. All crowned with one of the finest performances of this or any other year: Philip Seymour Hoffman, body and soul, as Truman Capote.

Thrilling in its composure, nail-biting in its revelations, Capote is everything you could want in a movie for grownups.

For the people of Holcomb, Kansas, the earth seemed to be coming off its axis when a local family was shotgunned to death in 1959. But when the flamboyant little man from New York City blew into town to write a story about the crime for The New Yorker, well, that just about tore it. Door by door, Capote exposes his personal tragedies and insecurities to others—but only to disarm them into spilling their own secrets.

"On the surface it's this elaborate story of a writer doing all sorts of things to complete his masterpiece," says director Bennett Miller. "But nobody, and to some degree not even he himself, really understands the course he's on and what he is going through. He wanted fame so badly he was oblivious to what he was trampling on to get it."

Runners-up Three other nominees for this year's Best Movie for Grownups award likewise find compelling ways to profile real-life figures. Director Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, the most conventional of the lot, tells the story of boxer Jimmy Braddock (Russell Crowe)—a man propelled by a sense of hope that's so infectious it inspires an entire nation. Good Night, and Good Luck is a black-and-white evocation of a time when the American social landscape was ignited by ideologically polarized giants—Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joe McCarthy—doing battle to the death. And the musical biography Walk the Line, a warts-and-all look at the life of Johnny Cash, sharpens its edge by asking its stars, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, to do all their own singing.

Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis, enlists a dozen characters to take on the issue of race in America. The picture he paints is painful to watch but impossible to forget.

Best Actor 50 and Over

Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale

"Kafka—he was one of my predecessors," declares the self-involved, hopelessly intellectual father at the center of this quirky family portrait. When he signs a photo for his son, he writes: "Best wishes, Bernard Berkman (Dad)."

It takes a special actor to pull off head-scratching hubris like that without slipping into parody. But here's Daniels, resplendent in his oh-so-bohemian beard, spouting self-serving accolades and casting himself as patriarch even as his family, long beyond falling apart at the seams, whirls out of control.

Daniels plays a failed author who hasn't told himself he's secretly humiliated by his career as a writing teacher. He fancies himself a legend—yet behind that sagebrush beard, his eyes seem empty, the shade of snuffed-out dreams.

"I wanted someone funny to play the part, but who was also a great actor," writer and director Noah Baumbach said in an interview. "As Bernard he can be very off-putting, but there's also something that makes you want to take care of him."

Runners-up Anthony Hopkins, The World's Fastest Indian: He's quirky and eccentric in one of his most enjoyable roles...Kurt Russell, Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story: Gruff and reluctantly charming, he's the perfect balance to the Dakota Fanning effect...Nathan Lane, The Producers: If he could reach your seat and throttle laughs out of you, he would...Tom Wilkinson, Separate Lies: His slow awakening to the gray areas between right and wrong draws us in.

Best Actress 50 and Over

Joan Plowright, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

She's played just about every major role in classical theater and was nominated for an Oscar for Enchanted April in 1992. But Plowright, 76, has never given a more radiant performance than in this gentle tale of a widow who takes up residence among the eccentric occupants of a London hotel.

From the moment we meet Mrs. Palfrey alighting from her taxi, we're hooked. She stands there, distinguished and experienced, yet her face is an open portrait of nervous expectation. Gently turning away the advances of a suitor who, like us, has become enamored of her character, Plowright excavates deeply to uncover the complex emotions of a woman on her own: "Most of my life I've been somebody's daughter, somebody's wife, and somebody's mother. I would like to spend the rest of my time here being simply myself." Her voice is firm, her eyes determined. Trouble is, in declaring her independence, she makes herself all the more irresistible.

If selecting a Best Actress winner from this year's terrific performances was difficult, finding enough eligible nominees was nearly as tough. Hollywood still seems reluctant to trust actresses 50 and over with leading roles. Instead, moviegoers have to find them in sparkling supporting parts, like Sissy Spacek in North Country, Susan Sarandon in Elizabethtown, and Jessica Lange in Broken Flowers.

Runners-up Judi Dench, Ladies in Lavender: She breaks our hearts as a woman in hopeless love...Shirley MacLaine, In Her Shoes: Upstaging Cameron Diaz, she hijacks the whole movie...Meryl Streep, Prime: She's agonizingly hilarious as a shrink with family issues...Liv Ullmann, Saraband: Radiant as ever, she reprises her Scenes From a Marriage role.

Best Director 50 and Over

Steven Spielberg, Munich

His Oscar-winning Schindler's List comes closest, but for pulse-pounding human drama, for searing exploration of the hard choices people make in the name of justice, Munich is the most intense film Steven Spielberg has yet conjured up.

On its face, Munich is a straightforward narrative of an Israeli hit squad tracking down and assassinating those responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, in which 11 members of the Israeli team were killed. But along the way the film becomes a devastatingly personal view of the price of vengeance. Brutal and beautiful, the story probes the chasm between retaliation and forgiveness. Its final scene, a cityscape that five years ago would have been a postcard shot, becomes in his hands a certified jaw-dropper.

Runners-up Woody Allen, Match Point: This is his best in years, a Hitchcockian tale of obsession...Ron Howard, Cinderella Man: Above the blood-spattered, smoke-filled ring rises his keen sense of humanity...Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain: An unconventional love story, it is masterfully framed with Western motifs...Fernando Meirelles, The Constant Gardener: His first movie in English proves the universal language of film.

Best Screenwriter 50 and Over

Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain

The screen adaptation of Annie Proulx's New Yorker story about two gay cowboys turns the standard portrayal of homosexuality on its ear. It's not that we don't see gay characters in film and television. We do. They're just shrill, zany, campy—alien. But here, as Frank Rich writes in The New York Times, "the heroes are neither midnight cowboys, drugstore cowboys nor Village People cowboys." They're painfully, brutally real. And their struggle to find love is universal.

Runners-up Pedro Almodóvar, Bad Education: His own childhood was the inspiration...Paul Haggis, Crash: He brings contagious passion to his theme and characters...Jim Jarmusch, Broken Flowers: Bill Murray's latest middle-age angstathon has a poetic lilt...Sally Potter, Yes: She reports the war between men and women in iambic pentameter.

Breakaway Accomplishment

David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck

He's one of Hollywood's most reliable supporting actors—but get a load of this astonishing turn as the careworn, clip-voiced, chain-smoking Edward R. Murrow. Channeling the newsman, Strathairn carries an invisible weight of somber experience on his stooped shoulders. He's so good, he's scary.

Runners-up Pierce Brosnan, The Matador: James Bond scores as a scruffy hit man...Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada: It's his first feature-directing job (in English and Spanish)...Kate Montgomery, Christmas in the Clouds: After a life in journalism and marketing, she directs for the first time at age 50...Susan Stroman, The Producers: The queen of Broadway musical directors triumphs with her first film.

Best Documentary

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, directed by Alex Gibney

"Burn, baby, burn!" chant Enron energy traders as California fires push up the price of electricity. It's just one startling scene in Gibney's meticulous exposé of what went wrong in the halls of Enron. Says Gibney: "This is about something fundamentally more problematic about our culture, this sense that in the economics sphere, ethics and morality no longer need apply."

Runners-up Grizzly Man: A doomed nature lover makes home videos...March of the Penguins: Love blossoms on ice...No Direction Home: Bob Dylan: Martin Scorsese creates the definitive bio of an icon...Tell Them Who You Are: Director Mark Wexler studies his cinematographer dad, Haskell.

Best Intergenerational Movie

Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, directed by John Gatins

Kurt Russell (whose Miracle won this category last year) plays a struggling horse trainer coping with the dreams of his daughter (adorable Dakota Fanning) and the demons that haunt his father (cranky Kris Kristofferson). "I liked that this is a generational Kentucky horse people story," says Russell. "This is what they do."

Runners-up Because of Winn-Dixie: A stray dog helps a girl reconnect with her dad...In Her Shoes: A ne'er-do-well party girl learns valuable life lessons from her grandma...Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont: Pretending to be related, an older woman and a young man learn the meaning of family...The Squid and the Whale: From the wreckage of divorce, members of a family try to salvage their futures.

Best Comedy for Grownups

The Producers, directed by Susan Stroman

Yes, it's a musical remake of one of the funniest films ever (Mel Brooks's 1968 Oscar winner); and, yes, Nathan Lane devours the scenery and his costars. But once you catch your breath, you'll realize just how sophisticated lowbrow comedy can be.

Runners-up The Family Stone: They're dysfunctional and loving it...The 40-Year-Old Virgin: We're glad he waited, for our sake...In Her Shoes: Grandma knows best...Rumor Has It: It's an inside joke for The Graduate generation.

Best Foreign-Language Film

Ushpizin (Israel), directed by Gidi Dar

The title means "Holy Guests," and during the festival of Succoth—when guests must be treated as a blessing, no matter what—an Orthodox Jewish couple find themselves playing host to a most annoying pair.

Runners-up Bad Education (Spain): Here's a good argument for home schooling...Saraband (Sweden): Ingmar Bergman makes a worthy last film...Après Vous (France): This buddy comedy is très funny...Crónicas (United States): In Spanish, John Leguizamo indicts TV news.

Best Grownup Love Story

Craig T. Nelson and Diane Keaton, The Family Stone

It's rare that filmmakers take a crack at depicting a love story involving folks 50 and over; rarer still that they get it right. Well, meet The Family Stone. Writer and director Thomas Bezucha's long-married couple—and a more handsome pair than Diane Keaton and Craig T. Nelson would be hard to imagine—share passion physically and intellectually. They laugh, weep, and make love—sometimes simultaneously. If, on your child's wedding day, you were to imagine the couple 40 years on, you'd do worse than to hope for something like this.

Runners-up Kevin Costner and Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger: They fuss and fight, but then there's make-up sex...Peter Falk and Olympia Dukakis, The Thing About My Folks: She's in just the last 15 minutes, but their devotion drives the movie...Al Pacino and Rene Russo, Two for the Money: They're as flawed—and devoted—as they come...The penguin pairs, March of the Penguins: Hey, they walk 70 miles just to bring home fish. Would you do that for your mate?

Best Movie Time Capsule

Cinderella Man, production design by Wynn Thomas

There's much more here than the spot-on look of the 1920s and '30s. The film captures the delirious optimism of pre-Crash America, the numb shock of the Great Depression, and the nation's desperate need for an Everyman hero.

Runners-up Good Night, and Good Luck: Everyone smoked, slicked their hair, and saw things in black and white...North Country: It's the '80s, and America learns what sex discrimination means...Capote: The big city meets mid-America in the '60s...Munich: Global terrorism is born.

Best TV Movie

The Girl in the Café, directed by David Yates, HBO/BBC

A wonderfully understated Bill Nighy stars as a buttoned-down British bureaucrat who impulsively asks a young woman (Kelly Macdonald) along to a world poverty summit. Beyond a May-December romance, he gets more than he bargained for when she challenges his commitment to compromise.

Runners-up Empire Falls: An all-star cast populates small-town U.S.A...Lackawanna Blues: A boy finds music and love in a boarding house...Sometimes in April: Rwanda explodes in genocide...Warm Springs: A crippled FDR stands tall.

Best Movie for Grownups Who Refuse to Grow Up

King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson

When do three hours seem like 90 minutes? When you fill them with battling dinosaurs, killer three-foot insects, and a big ape with the temperament of a four-year-old. Respectful of the original, jazzed up for the kids, it's a surprisingly affecting thrill ride.

Runners-up Batman Begins: He's got a girl and gadgets...The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: It's like Oz, only with swords...Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: The dog is the smart one...Wedding Crashers: They're crass and strangely sweet.