come not because something terrible has hap-
pened, but because something good has hap-
pened, which reveals the willingness of people
to be brave and kind." This year, 127 Hours
serves as a perfect example of that point. It's a
heart-wrenching movie in which we watch
someone brought to the brink of death forced
to make an impossible decision (to remove his
own arm or die trapped beneath a boulder),
but the moment that gets me is when he cries
out to the first people he sees after emerging
they run to his aid, offering him water and as-
sistance. I wept at that moment.
throughout Winter's Bone as Ree continues to
get pushed around by the world, but without a
doubt the scene where a wave of emotion
washes over her as her journey concludes and its
final horror begins when she has to help chain-
saw off her father's hands in order to prove he's
really dead, not just skipping bail, so that she
an emotional scene not to be forgotten!
egory for the rare instance where a crisis point
can be the most emotional moment in a film.
in his jihad by his wife and child (Four Lions).
racing to the prison yard for the first time in
order to catch a parting glimpse of Steven Rus-
sell (Jim Carrey).
that nearly every other critic in America didn't
see, but I am in awe of its climax, as Woody,
Buzz and the gang are dumped off the end of
the conveyor belt into the pit where toys go to
die. Of course, they won't die -- this is a bil-
lion-dollar franchise, after all -- but just the fact
that they come that close to being melted
down into plastic globs is gutsier than I would
have imagined. And though the rescue de-
pends on a massive deus ex machina, it works,
serving as a satisfying callback to the first movie
in the series (the claw!).
grabbed me, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was-
n't riveted by the incredible climax in The King's
Speech (his speech), Inception's ultra-inventive cli-
max, 127 Hours shocking climax and lightning
fast denoument (see this issue's Lost Scenes article
for more on that), Toy Story 3's emotional climax
and resolution, Four Lions' tragically hilarious cli-
max and, of course, the transformation of the
White Swan into the Black Swan makes for a tour
de force entire third act -- I can't pick just one!
Next time you hear some idiot talk about 2010
being a bad year for movies, please kick 'em for
me.
toys appear headed toward their demise. Their
touching reaction: to grab each other's hands
and accept their fate -- a heart-wrenching se-
quence for anyone who's spent the last decade
loving these characters.
marathon (Four Lions); Teddy Daniels in the lake
(Shutter Island)
Swan
is engineered to break your heart, but it also
dares to ask the big questions. It's the year's best
meaning-of-life movie and one of the few to ask
the question (the only other ontological film
that comes to mind is Toy Story 3, in which toys
are created to provide companionship to hu-
mans). The ending, like so much of Alex Gar-
land's excellent adaptation, improves on the
book for a couple of reasons: First, it opens up
the film, defusing the mystery about the sci-fi
story's cloning premise. Second, it allows us to
see the donation process and realize the horror
of it, which is compounded by the characters'
resignation to their fates. In any other film,
her aid and try to save her, but here, they walk
away, allowing her to "complete." It's all very
British (such resignation would never fly in an
American movie -- and it didn't in Logan's Run),
but the characters accept their fates here, and
it's devastating when we learn the secret: "We
didn't have the Gallery in order to look into your
souls. We had the Gallery in order to see if you
had souls at all."
Bone and Four Lions each have such riveting
endings that I can't pick which one I liked best,
because they're all so incredible. And who
Buried??! Hell, I love the end of Inception, Never
Let Me Go and Toy Story 3 as well. So do you
think you could ever possibly guess who failed
this part of the quiz?
clichéd answer. Let's be honest: You're still not
sure if the top was going to stop spinning, are
you? (Inception)
watches on (Never Let Me Go)