Presented by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, The Orphanage is a film that is so much more than I had ever expected. It isn’t often that a horror film can play on a variety of emotions, especially those of sheer fright as well as tug at your heart strings, but The Orphanage does both and with seemingly relative ease. The 10-year-old script is brought to life on screen through careful direction and an impressive ability to tie up all lose ends in a way that is traditional in every way, but also so unique that everything feels new.
Along with The Kingdom, Atonement, Reign Over Me and No Country for Old Men; Sweeney Todd is one of the few films I took the time to see twice in theaters this year. Three of them make my top ten and the two others made my honorable mention. My reason for seeing Sweeney Todd twice was due to being sleepy and poor sound on my first showing, but on the second something happened. It all came together for me. The movie, the music, the performance, the direction, the atmosphere and a realization that everything that is Sweeney Todd is 100% engrossing. Listening to the soundtrack now I can’t stop from reliving each scene over and over again, and only a truly special film can achieve that.
Zodiac is a film I wanted to like and thought I would like the first time I saw it. The film ended up being nothing like what I expected. As a rabid fan of David Fincher’s Seven and Fight Club I guess I was looking for something with grit and grime in combination with the story of a serial killer that will never be caught. It was the recipe for success and the inclusion of Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo told me I was in for something special, and I was… I just didn’t know it at the time. Like No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, for me, was a case of “if at first you don’t succeed try again.” I waited until DVD to give Zodiac a second chance, and a film that originally only generated a “B” from my review now borders on the brink of an “A+”. As I mentioned, 2007 was a year for cerebral films, and this is the most cerebral of the year to make my top ten, and it is one I can watch over and over again, picking out new pieces to enjoy each time.
I was never quite sure if Reign Over Me would be able to keep me interested throughout the entire year. It was my mid-year #1, and I am positive if it had been released with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington instead of Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle we would be talking about it for an Oscar. Instead it must be left to be loved here on my top ten, and most likely not many others.
Susan Bier’s drama is one for the ages. It looks cliché squarely in the face and defies it at every turn, that along with the fact that both Halle Berry and Benicio del Toro turn in the absolute best performances of their careers and they aren’t even going to get the recognition they deserve. I am not sure why this absolutely magical film was overlooked, but it was. Luckily I don’t forget the great ones and once this hits DVD in February I expect it to be one of those films I will watch over and over.
