| Most Memorable Mystical Movies
of 2002 The Movie Mystic | by Stephen Simon This month marks the debut listing of our Most Memorable Mystical Movies of 2002 -- the films that impacted me the most on a spiritual level in 2002: The Hours (my personal favorite film of 2002) Far From Heaven Antwone Fisher Bowling for Columbine About Schmidt The Hours It has been a long time since I have felt so moved by a film as I was while watching The Hours. Only Far from Heaven comes close this year, and The Hours had a much more powerful and emotional impact on me. The film is eerie, disturbing, exhilarating, unsettling, totally engrossing, and is also brilliantly written, photographed, scored, acted and directed. The Hours tells the interlocking story of three women in different decades. Nicole Kidman plays Virginia Woolf in the 1920s, Julianne Moore plays a woman in the 1950s whose life is unraveling as she reads Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway, and Meryl Streep plays a modern-day woman whose life is deeply affected by both of the other two women. The device that connects their lives is so beautifully and brilliantly conceived and executed that I don't want to say anything more about the plot here. Nicole Kidman's performance is hauntingly brilliant and definitively marks her evolution from being considered a beautiful woman who can act to being one of the most accomplished and powerful actresses in film today. Although Kidman is on screen for only a few scenes, the depth, pathos and heartache that she brings to her character is, for me, comparable to Diane Lane's career performance in Unfaithful and Julianne Moore's performance in Far from Heaven. (Throw in Salma Hayek's bravura depiction of Frida and this has been one amazing year for actresses!) Moore is wonderful in another Fifties portrayal in The Hours (two in one year...hmmm?) and Streep is her usual extraordinary self -- as is the entire cast. The film is directed with great style and intelligence by Stephen Daldry, and Philip Glass has composed one of the most memorable and achingly beautiful film scores since The Piano. In short, this is a first-class production all the way through and will deservedly be one of the strongest Oscar candidates in several major categories. As Spiritual Cinema, it completes for me (with Frida and Far from Heaven) the Trilogy in the 2002 Holiday Season that celebrated both the ascension of feminine energy and our evolution from the Male Age of Pisces into the Female Age of Aquarius. (Yes, I know -- those are reversed in astrology....) And it's about time! While I can't really elaborate without divulging more of The Hours than is appropriate here, the internal structure of the progressive attitudes of all three women in the film up through the decades possesses this amazing transformation, as well. As the title of The Hours refers, in part, to the time we spend in reflection after the occurrence of a particular event in our lives, so has this film fascinated and affected me since I first saw it on New Year's Eve. The Hours is a deeply moving, emotionally challenging and often brooding film that may very well unsettle some viewers. With all that in mind, I heartily recommend it to you as a film for adults who are in the mood for an absorbing and haunting literary evening at the movies. Far from Heaven Far from Heaven is a miraculous, beautiful, original, haunting, provocative and extraordinary film -- and that may be the understatement of the year. Set in 1957, the film is shot as though it was actually made in 1957. Gorgeous Technicolor techniques have been utilized, the film score is evocative of those times, and the entire creative team recreated a 1950s look that is dazzling to behold. If you've never seen the leaves turn in New England in the fall, this is awfully close to being there. The major impact of the film, however, is that it explores issues that never could have been addressed if the film had actually been made in the 1950s. The story and characters are dazzling and beautifully orchestrated. Essentially, the film looks at the social and emotional fabric of the "perfect" 1950s family, and I was just thunderstruck at how far we have traveled in the last 45 years. Without getting into too much of the plot here, the film is a searing portrait of women's rights, racism, repressive sexuality and the painful cost of living with societal pretense and without honesty in personal relationships. For me, this is about as close to perfect film making as a movie can be, and I believe that the film is a real candidate for Best Picture honors, along with several other individual nominations. More than that, it is an amazing opportunity for us all to see how far we have come and to take comfort and pride in the amazing spiritual, emotional and societal evolution of the last half the 20th century. As the title so poignantly demonstrates, those "Happy Days" were "Far From Heaven." Keep a close eye on your local theaters for Far from Heaven When it opens near you, get your friends together (including young teenagers -- it's rated PG-13) and go! I promise you a wonderful two hours of Spiritual Cinema in its most beautiful form. Bowling for Columbine Yes, it's a documentary...but...the impact of this film is so powerful and important that I believe it deserves to be recognized as one of the top achievements of 2002. Michael Moore's brilliant and disturbing film looks deeply into the soul of the gun culture of America and contrasts it with the rest of the civilized countries in the world. Sadly, we don't exactly set a standard for others to follow. By crisscrossing the country, Moore illuminates the violent nature of American society and shows us a view that mainstream media sources hardly ever even mention. Those same media outlets are greatly responsible for the fanning of the flames of violence in America because, as it is often said in the film, these sources have a vested interest in our fear. Some of the more notable moments in the film: -- Moore takes two young men who had been wounded in the Columbine shootout to the headquarters of K-mart (at whose store the bullets used at Columbine were purchased) where they request that K-mart stop selling ammunition -- with amazing results. -- The heartbreaking story of the youngest shooter in American history -- a 6 year old -- is investigated along with the underlying social phenomenon that set the tragedy in motion. (Warning: you may never look at Dick Clark in the same way ever again....) -- Moore demonstrates that Canada has as many -- or more -- guns per capita as the United States, but our murder rate is close 200 times the rate in Canada. As one young Canadian says, "In Canada, maybe we'll tease someone mercilessly if we disagree with them. In America, you just shoot them!" -- In the showpiece of the film, Moore gains an interview with Charlton Heston, the public spokesman for the National Rifle Association -- with a shocking and poignant result. In an odd and disturbing way, the conclusion of the film somewhat contradicts anti-gun sentiment because the impression that we, as viewers, are left with is that -- guns or not-- we are indeed the most violent society in the world. The challenge is in our own hearts and psyches -- and I believe that Moore deserves our respect and gratitude for tearing off the mask of our own complacency. Antwone Fisher Antwone Fisher is the extremely moving and harrowing true-life story of a young man who survived a brutal and abused childhood and subsequently transformed himself into a poet, author...and screenwriter. (In fact, I think that this is the only "biopic" I've ever seen that was written by the central character of the film itself). Fisher's father was shot and killed two months before Antwone himself was born in jail to a 17-year-old-convict and then put in foster care where he was regularly abused -- mentally, physically and sexually (no, we don't see the brunt of it, but we know it's happening). He eventually joined the Navy where he had "inexplicable" bursts of rage, which finally brought him into contact with a psychiatrist who befriended him, treated him and encouraged him to finally seek the solace of finding his family...putting his tortured past behind him. Sound a bit rough? It is. The film is also extremely inspiring and ultimately uplifting on all levels. Yes, you do initially need to journey through the darkness (as sometimes in life, yes?) but the outcome is dazzling. Fisher's character and internal compass were so courageous and powerful that he overcame every emotional obstacle that one could imagine in an early life. Today, he is a husband, father and successful writer. Oh...and Fisher also happens to be African-American. The director (Denzel Washington in an auspicious and assured debut) and the entire brilliant cast are African-American...but it really does not matter. Martin Luther King Jr. once dreamed of a world in which black children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the quality of their character. This is the signal accomplishment, great beauty and spiritual significance of the film: Justice, pain, redemption and hope are all color-blind. Fisher could have been white, Asian, Latino. It was his determination to transcend his background that lifted him to greatness, and the film's compassionate embrace of that "colorless" desire is one of its most admirable accomplishments. Along the way, the film also has a lot to say about the channeling of creative energy and the human desire for "family" -- whatever the form might be. Antwone Fisher is an extraordinary film about integrity, grace and perseverance. I hope audiences will embrace its life-affirming messages. We need more movies like this, and the world needs more people like Antwone Fisher. About Schmidt About Schmidt is a beautiful, heart-felt, poignant and bittersweet film that begins on the day of a 66-year-old actuary's retirement from the Omaha insurance company for which he has worked his entire adult life. As he faces life without the job that has come to define not just what he does but also who he is, and not knowing what to do with his time, he begins an odyssey that, after years of numb detachment, reconnects him with his own heart. As Spiritual Cinema, the film is a brilliantly rendered reminder of keeping our priorities in order and, most particularly, about staying in touch with our feelings. (In some ways, it reminded me of what might have happened to the Nicolas Cage character in Family Man if he had never been given the "glimpse" that led him back to his heart. He would have had a lot more money, but the ache would be no less.) As Warren, the main character, makes his way out of Omaha and out of his rut, he encounters some hilarious moments (including a hot-tub scene with Kathy Bates that is utterly wonderful) but, mostly, he becomes conscious of the loneliness that he completely denied to himself -- and, along the path, he discovers something else that can sustain him -- a denouement that is beautifully foreshadowed and, ultimately, touching and uplifting. Jack Nicholson plays the main character in the film. No. Jack Nicholson IS the main character in the film. No. Jack Nicholson just IS - an international acting treasure. His performance is so perfect, so restrained, so heartfelt, so achingly vulnerable and so alive, that it almost defies being characterized as just a performance. I believe that this will be considered the defining achievement of Nicholson's career -- and deservedly so. Brilliantly directed by Alexander Payne, Nicholson seems to have been constantly reminded to just BE the part -- and his accomplishment is a tour-de-force in the truest sense of that accolade. His Academy Award for Best Actor may be the easiest Oscar call in years -- there just doesn't seem to be anyone else even close. Daniel Day-Lewis is brilliant in Gangs of New York, but the film itself is so violent and soulless that it will hurt him, and Nicolas Cage is wonderful in Adaptation, but the film is a comedy, which usually is itself an obstacle. And, let's face it, the persona that is Jack Nicholson is larger than life -- that impish grin, the devil-may-care, rumpled, I'm-having-a-great-life-on-my-own-terms attitude -- only endears him more to so many. Congratulations, Mr. Nicholson -- and thank you. Stephen Simon welcomes your comments at Stephen@mysticalmovies.com and invites you to discuss these and other films on the MysticalMovies.com Discussion Boards. Through March 21, the website also is conducting its first Academy Awards poll. Stephen Simon has produced such films as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come. His book, The Force is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives, published by Walsch Books/Hampton Roads, is now available. For more information, visit www.MysticalMovies.com. Copyright (c) 2003 Stephen Simon |
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