My Great Movies: Million Dollar Baby

"I only ever met one man I wouldn't want to fight." This is the first line of "Million Dollar Baby" as spoken by Scrap Dupris (Morgan Freeman) in voice-over. The man he's referring to is Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), a boxing trainer, the "best cut man in the business". Moments after this we see Frankie hiking through the back hallway of the arena where his main fighter has just won a match. Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) appears and walks with him. She is a fighter, too, and wonders if he would be interested in training in her. He advises he doesn't train girls. "You sure?" wonders Maggie, never losing her little smile. "People seen me fight say I'm pretty tough." Frankie replies, simply and harshly, "Girlie tough ain't enough." And he's gone, and so is Maggie's smile. This scene seems simple, perhaps what one would expect from a movie about a female boxer, but its complexity stems from the fact that what we're seeing sets up all to come. It sets us forth on a voyage into one of the greatest films ever made.

Frankie is the owner of a dirty, little boxing gym in Los Angeles. Scrap is its manager and he was once a boxer and Frankie his trainer. But Scrap lost his eye in his 108th - and final - match. Frankie didn't throw in the towel. He blames himself. He's never said this but "he doesn't have to," explains Scrap. "I can see it in his face every time he looks at me."

One day Scrap notices someone in the gym. "Who's your new girl?" he asks Frankie. It is Maggie - a waitress from Missouri who "grew up knowing only one thing - she was trash". She has arrived at the gym despite his previous dismissal. He continues to say he won't help her and she continues to show up and train as best she knows. Scrap assists her and she slowly improves. It is inevitable, of course, that Frankie will take her on as his student but the movie does not rush us into this development. Frankie is resolute, which we see in his daily confrontations with a Catholic priest, but not as resolute as Maggie.


When he finally agrees to become - as she puts it - her "boss" late at night and in the shadows of the gymnasium it takes place in a scene so perfect that it leaves me stirred to the absolute depths of my emotions. Scenes this magnificent come along only once in a vast while and should be appreciated to the utmost and so I will say no more of it.

This is a film about three characters, the events that happen to them, their reactions to those events, and nothing more. What happens to these characters happens only as a result of what they choose. The moviemakers do not push them in the directions they desire. Not one of the three main characters at any point in the movie's two hour running time takes a misstep or makes a false decision.

The story is incredibly tight, told only within the worlds of this trio. The supporting players are, for the most part, well drawn (Maggie's family is a bit too over the top) but they only matter in relation to how they interact with our three main characters. Even during a crucial, heartbreaking scene late in the movie when Frankie visits the Catholic priest (Brian F. O'Byrne) for advice and the priest tells Frankie that he must "leave" the situation which they are discussing "with God" the movie still does not betray its story and knows even God himself cannot factor into its outcome. "She's not asking for God's help," Frankie says with tears in his eyes. "She's asking for mine."

It is a film with many themes, perhaps the most important being Fathers & Daughters. Frankie had a daughter who he hasn't seen for some time. He writes her a letter every week and every week they come back return to sender. In Maggie he sees a chance to right whatever wrongs he may have made. Maggie's father was a man she loved very much and he has since passed. The remaining members of her family are hardly present in her life, despite her efforts to care for them. "I got nobody but you, Frankie," she says in a majestic scene set at night in Frankie's car.

The acting is uniformly outstanding. Frankie and Scrap are portrayed, of course, as longtime friends and Eastwood and Freeman make this portrayal genuine. Scrap calls out Frankie for the way he mismanaged his previous fighter's shot at the championship and the angered look Frankie gets you realize is one that only could have been caused by Scrap. Alternately when the two men have a chat on the edge of Scrap's cot you can see the years and the mileage behind both men and how they came to be in the same place. And Swank shows Maggie to not only be fiercely resolute but kind-hearted and genuine, nearly to a fault. Notice her reaction when Scrap shows her his "living quarters". But the few times in this movie when Maggie is hurt, and those moments only come when she is pushed to the absolute brink, she makes us feel that hurt and her desire to fight back, to not give in. We are right alongside her for every second she is onscreen. I do not hesitate to say this may well end up being the finest female acting turn of the entire decade.

The script by Paul Haggis - which was based on two short stories by F.X. Toole - is modern writing at its zenith. It is phenomenal to witness how nearly each line works both simply in the context of the scene where it appears and then on a deeper level - either in the meaning of the film itself or for something that will occur later.

Eastwood's direction does not veer from his typical style, which is to say lean, mean, never pumped up, no show-offy flourishes. (It was Tim Robbins who said in the wake of "Mystic River" that Eastwood never did more than two or three takes.) The final act almost feels like a documentary. The camera merely watches and contemplates the characters and what happens to them, refusing to force-feed even a bit of it. At this point so much time has been taken to establish our characters and we care so deeply for them that no extraneous gestures are needed from the director. All which happens to them is powerful enough on its own.

The fim's music - written by Eastwood himself - should be considered a how-to in composing for a movie. It is restrained but elegant. It underscores and highlights but never cues you emotionally or tells you what to think and when to think it.

In the end what comes to pass is something which was foretold all the way back at the beginning. No one wanted to fight with Frankie. No one but Maggie. She wasn't merely "girly tough" but tougher than anyone to ever enter his life. "My daddy used to say I fought to get into this world," Maggie says at an important moment. "And I'd fight to get out."

Roger Ebert once used the following words to describe a different film but I will use them in conclusion here as no sentence written could ever more perfectly summarize "Million Dollar Baby" and what it means to me: "Once you have seen movie characters who are alive, it's harder to care about the robots in their puppet shows."

My Great Movies, Or Movies I Think Are Great

As I went through a recent re-organization of my precious, mighty DVD collection I realized that I had not seen some of my most cherished movies belonging to said collection in quite some time. I decided this situation needed to be rectified. Therefore over the course of 2008 I will set aside a single post each month to focus on a Great Movie. These won't necessarily be the movies generally considered to be among the greatest (no "Citizen Kane" or "Gone With the Wind", for instance) but movies that I personally find great. Movies that I would give 5 stars without hesitation. Movies that I would go so far as to call masterpieces, or at least minor masterpieces. Movies that I hold near and dear to my heart. Movies that mean something significant to me.

Yes, I hope to turn you, my faction of loyal readers, onto any of these films which you may have not seen, but the most vital part of this exercise is entirely selfish. It will offer me an excuse to re-watch them, which makes me happy beyond compare, and then pontificate on them.

We will begin tomorrow by honoring the 3rd anniversary of the most transcendent movie-going experience of my life (it's the Review I Never Wrote And Always Wanted To Write) and the post for February will actually occur a mere six days later in honor of Super Tuesday (you will understand why then).

So let's have some fun this year, what do ya' say?! At least I know I will.

Into the Wild

Last year's film, based on Jon Krakauer's book of the same name and written for the screen and directed by Sean Penn, recounts the story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch in the film) who in 1990 gave up all his possessions, money, and identity and tramped his way through the country, ultimately ending up in Alaska where he would tragically perish.

In reality whether or not McCandless was foolhardy or brave is not for me to say. What I will say is that "Into the Wild" makes me think.

It makes me think about how deeply in love I am with the city of Chicago and yet how much I miss the plains of Iowa, most especially in the spring and summer when a thunderstorm rolls in.

It makes me think about how much I cherish complete silence and yet how much difficulty I would have existing without my Ipod.

It makes me think about how grateful I was to see the sites where "Last of the Mohicans" was filmed all by myself and yet how happy I was to have my sister with me last year in Maine at "The Myth of Fingerprints" gazebo.

It makes me think about getting on the train after the movie and sitting behind two annoying blonde girls who smelled of hairspray and wishing that I was in the Alaskan wilderness.

It makes me think about how any of us may at one time or another rail against the various wiles of society and yet how, in truth, society has a fairly big upside.

It makes me think about how much I still hate phones.

It makes me think about a line from a different film, "Without Limits", and how it perfectly describes the journey taken by McCandless. "It was to test the limits of the human heart. And that he did."

Yes, People Talk Like That In Real Life

Well, it appears the time has come yet again for Cinema Romantico to go on the offensive in regards to movie-related backlash. This time said backlash is being at directed at this year's little indie-related gem "Juno" (which just earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture which will undoubtedly lead to even more backlash). In fact, on his blog Scanners Jim Emerson recently stated he expects the anti-backlash backlash to begin any day now. Very well. Let this herald the beginning of the anti-backlash backlash.

The backlash, from what can I tell, stems mostly from "Juno's" very distinct dialogue. (A sample: "(My mom) inexplicably mails me a cactus every Valentine's Day. And I'm like, 'Thanks a heap, coyote ugly. This cactus-gram stings even worse than your abandonment.'") This has often led to the response: "Nobody talks like that in real life."

I quote Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun Times who took exception to the words of the film: "The notion that kids -- even smart and sarcastic ones -- talk like Juno is a lie only thirty-something filmmakers and fifty-something movie critics could buy."

I also quote Rob Harvilla of the Village Voice, who says that "Juno" possesses "....the fakest dialogue imaginable....Teenagers who talk like thirtysomething screenwriters."

I could, of course, simply advise that "Juno" has essentially coined what should be termed Codyspeak (as in Diablo Cody, the screenwriter of the movie). This would be inspired by Mametspeak, named for the great screenwriter and playwrite David Mamet. His dialogue is so consistently memorable and unique and exists essentially only within its own universe that a name was given to it. Codyspeak - like Mametspeak - is as much about the rhythmic pattern of the words as it is about the words themselves. Reality is not as important as tone. Mamet likes to find a particular word or phrase (think "the leads" in "Glengarry Glen Ross") and repeat it again and again and again. Cody's constant use of pop culture in "Juno" works in the same way.

You might hear people whine after a Mamet movie about how much they disliked the dialogue but you rarely hear them say "Nobody talks like that in real life" since they accept the fact Mametspeak is - as stated - part of its own world. Why isn't this being done with Codyspeak? Perhaps because it was one of those Little Movies That Could which emerged from Sundance and initially a small band of people liked it and slowly more and more people latched onto it and so once too many people liked it then pretty much everyone else - and some of the ones who probably liked it before - had to start hating it.

But I won't advise any of that and instead offer up a foolproof defense of why the dialogue spoken by the Juno of "Juno" can and does, in fact, exist in real life.

Last Friday I sat next to Juno McGuff on the train.

Okay, okay, not the real Juno McGuff but you would have been hard pressed to tell this girl apart from Ellen Page as Juno McGuff. I proceeded to stare at the same page of my book, unable to concentrate on it, as I listened to "Juno" (who talked in precisely the same dry, rat-a-tat-tat manner as the movie Juno) and her friend talk for the next 20 minutes. She was under the age of 18 and I know this because she had just come from getting her nose pierced and found it odd that the person who had done the piercing hadn't actually asked for ID "since, you know, you're supposed to be of age or have a consenting adult with you. I just had you (i.e. Her Friend)". "If they'd asked me," replied her Friend, "I wouldn't have consented." "That's why they didn't ask," retorted "Juno".

"Juno" then proceeded to let her hand dangle over the nose ring without actually laying a finger on it because, "I'm afraid to touch it. It might stick something it shouldn't and I'd, like, totally gush blood all over. Come on, everybody, ride the red line." And, oh, do I wish you could have heard the way she phrased that last line because, man, it was brilliant.

(And yes, by the way, that quote was pretty much exact as are all the quotes of hers listed. I'm a writer. This is what I do. I eavesdrop on the train. All the time. I don't like to talk. I like to listen. Even when I'm with people I know. And when I listen I'm taking extensive mental notes. So beware.)

"Juno" and her friend then proceeded to discuss another they girl they knew whose feet smelled like "tuna". (And, if you've seen "Juno", you know there's a character they talk about who always smells like "soup".) Her friend wondered if this other girl wasn't wearing socks but "Juno" seemed to think it was because this other girl's shoes "wreaked" and needed to "totally be scrubbed".

From there they drifted into "Juno's" father having just taught her how to do laundry. "He printed out instructions for how to do laundry off the internet." This was followed by a brief discussion regarding Tide being the best detergent.

When it came time for them to depart the train at the Belmont stop "Juno" was stressing out because the pink bag she had with her was "as big as (her) head" and she feared she might hit someone as she tried to disembark. As they made their way out she apologized to a person she did end up smacking with said bag by stating, "I'm sorry. It contains all my valuables."

I was sad to see her depart because I wanted to take her down to the Sun Times office and show her to Jim DeRogatis and then to the Village Voice office and show her to Rob Harvilla and then I wanted to tape record her talking and send the tape to all the "Juno" haters. After all, there's nothing more detrimental to the argument "nobody talks like that in real life" then, you know, someone who talks like that in real life.

A Sad Day

I myself don't feel in any way equipped to attempt a eulogy in the wake of the terribly unfortunate passing of the much too young Heath Ledger yesterday. But the esteemed New York Times' film critic A.O. Scott has penned a beautiful memorial to Mr. Ledger and I would like to offer up the link here for any who may wish to read it.

Oscar Nomination Reaction

Yes, the day has arrived. The long awaited nominations were announced this morning. I have to say, usually I'm pretty amped up for these but with the writer's strike and the whole possibility of the Academy Awards not even happening has toned down my enthusiasm a bit. Of course, it's "just an honor to be nominated". Right? Isn't it? And so we'll take stock of the nominations and advise you where they went right, where they went wrong, and who should or should not win. (This is a full list of nominees.)

Best Picture: "Atonement" and "No Country For Old Men" both garnered nods and so we can hope one of those two win and if one of them does then I can sleep well knowing they didn't mess it up. "Michael Clayton" surprised people, I think, and I have no problem with that one as it is a really good movie. "Juno" snuck in as well which marks the second year that a favorite of Sundance has earned a nomination. So take a close look at the films showing at Sundance as we speak, people, and place your bets on which one gets a nod 365 days from now.

Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis will be the winner for "There Will Be Blood" (though I've already heard "talk" that George Clooney could push him for "Michael Clayton"). I'm personally disappointed James McEvoy didn't get a nod for "Atonement" but then I didn't think he would. The real pleasant surprise nomination-wise, however, is Tommy Lee Jones for "In the Valley of Elah". He was the rock of that one. Without him, it would have sunk under the weight of its own wannabe' grandiosity.

Best Actress: Julie Christie nominated for "Away From Her" is, of course, correct and she'll also win. And she should win. That's fine with me. What, are you going to disagree? She's Julie f---in' Christie. Ellen Page got a nod for "Juno", and good for her, and same goes for Laura Linney for "The Savages" which is a bit of a stunner, I think. But Cate Blanchett for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"? Over Keira Knightley for "Atonement"? Is Cate becoming the new Meryl Streep (i.e. we'll nominate her for anything)?

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem for "No Country For Old Men". What, there were other nominees in this category? (Okay, that's not fair. My friend Rory the Movie Idiot said he really wanted Hal Holbrook to get nominated for "Into the Wild" - which I haven't seen yet and hope I can before the awards - and he did.)

Best Supporting Actress: Okay, we're going to make this crystal clear right now for the Academy voters. Amy Ryan - for "Gone Baby Gone" - wins. Understand? I'll repeat it for good measure - Amy Ryan wins. That's it. No questions nor arguments. She wins. That's that. If you have a different opinion, I'm sorry because it's just wrong. So please fill our your voting forms accordingly. Thank you.

(Okay, let's look at the other nominees. Or: the ones who won't be winning. I'm happy Saoirse Ronan got a nod for "Atonement". It's well deserved. And Tilda Swinton was awesome in "Michael Clayton". I haven't seen Cate Blanchett yet in "I'm Not There" but, come on, she's already got an Oscar. She doesn't need another one. And Ruby Dee for the static, yawn-inducing "American Gangster"? Are you kidding me?)

Best Director: This may very well be the Brothers Coen year for "No Country For Old Men". Paul Thomas Anderson was nominated for "There Will Be Blood" and, you know, even though I didn't really like it you've gotta' give the guy some credit because few filmmakers alive could create something as monumentally polarizing as what he did. The biggest disappointment of all the nominations, however, is found right here - no Joe Wright for "Atonement". What the hell is that about? Is his name too ordinary?

Original Screenplay: First off, Tony Gilroy's script for "Michael Clayton" is pretty brilliant and probably the best of the bunch. But Diablo Cody will win for "Juno" (she's the best story, after all) and I'm fine with that. It is a fantastic script, despite the naysayers that have recently come out of the woodwork (and I'll be making a post in relation to that in the next day or two).

Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton for "Atonement". Could he win, please? Except he won't. It will be either the Brothers Coen or Paul Thomas Anderson - whoever doesn't win Best Director will win this one. That's the way these things work. (Sarah Polley was also nominated for "Away From Her". Good for her.)

Original Song: "Falling Slowly" wins from "Once" or there is no God.

Roger, You've Done It Again!

Cinema Romantico's fondness for the esteemed Chicago Sun Times film critic Roger Ebert is well known, of course, and each Friday I hop onto the Sun Times web site to check out his reviews of movies I do not plan to see any time soon (it should also be well known that I DO NOT read reviews ahead of time of movies I really, really want to see and I encourage you to do the same). In any event, I read his review of "Mad Money" which opens today and stars Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes as bank robbers - yes, bank robbers - and looked simply dreadful in the one preview I saw for it but, man, the review Ebert wrote is genius. Absolute genius. Check it out.

If I Were At Sundance....

Tomorrow the eyes of the cinematic nation turn toward the ski resort of Park City, Utah where thousands upon thousands will arrive to spend several days doing nothing but seeing movies and drinking coffee to stay awake and then seeing more movies. I will not be the among thousands. Why? 1.) That's a lot of people and that many people may cause me to freak out to a level no one has yet seen from me - in public, anyway. 2.) I have - for lack of a better term - a job.

Oh, but if I was there....a man can dream, can't he? I would not merely spend my days trying to catch a glimpse of Sienna Miller (who will be on hand for her latest film "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh") smoking or drinking or drinking coffee or swearing or preferably all four at the same time. No, I'd be seeing as many movies as humanly possible. And these are the ones I'd see (each synopsis is culled from the Sundance.org)....

Pretty Bird - A comic tale of three would-be entrepreneurs who set out to invent a rocket belt. It was written & directed by Paul Schneider who is quickly turning into one of my favorite character actors and so I'm interested to see what he can do from behind the scenes. Plus, it stars Billy Crudup. So it's a given.

Sunshine Cleaning - Struck by financial hardship, an ambitious mother and her unmotivated sister become entrepreneurs in the field of biohazard removal and crime scene clean-up. It stars Amy Adams ("Junebug", "Enchanted") and from what I've heard her performance is supposed to be spectacular.

Sugar - Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who last teamed up for "Half Nelson", chronicle the journey of Dominican baseball star Miguel "Sugar" Santos recruited from his native country to play in the U.S. minor leagues. Sounds pretty cool, no?

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Based on Michael Chabon's novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality, and the enigmas surrounding his life and his city. So what if it stars Sienna Miller? Even if she wasn't present I'd still want to see it, maybe just not quite as much. Sue me.

The Last Word - An off-beat romantic comedy about a solitary writer who makes his living composing other people's suicide notes. After meeting the sister of a recently deceased client, he finds his reclusive life and secret career upended by an unusual romance. It stars Winona Ryder, Wes Bentley and....Ray Romano??

Absurdistan - This inventive and allegorical comedy centers on two childhood sweethearts who seem destined for one another until the women of their isolated village, angered by male indifference toward the water shortage, go on a sex strike that threatens the young couple's first night of love. Come on, after reading what it's about don't even try and tell me you don't want to see it, too.

A 2007 Scene To Go Home With You

(Be wary of spoilers, friends. Be wary. But this is the one scene from cinema in 2007 that affected me the most and so I must press forward.) 

The head nurse comes to Briony Tallis (played at this point in the film by Romola Garai) and advises a wounded French solider needs someone at his bedside and to hold his hand and offer conversation. Briony takes on the task. Once she is with the soldier we see he is not merely wounded but mortally so. These are his final minutes. He talks to her and as he does we recognize he does not know where he or who Briony is. "What is your name?" he asks. "Tallis," she tells him. "Do you love me?" he asks. "Yes," she says.

In the month since I first saw "Atonement" I've pondered from where my deep love of it comes. I think it's because I'm a writer. A paid writer? Well, no. Not yet. But being a writer has nothing to do with payment and if you think that's not true you're not a writer. Being a writer means you can't more than a couple days without writing for fear of getting edgy and freaking out. It means you tend to work out the issues of your life and convey your true feelings on paper rather than out loud. In the cases when you can convey them minus the written word it usually occurs to someone not directly related to the feeling you possess. You live with passion but said passion remains inside until written or until a moment when you simply can't hold it back any longer and it gushes forth.

From the first moment we see Briony Tallis we know she is a writer (she is placing the finishing touches on her first play) and so what I've just said can work as a summation of her and so this is why I she is a movie character I will forever cherish. "Have you ever been in love?" a fellow nurse asks Briony at one point. Briony says nay. "Not even a crush?" wonders the nurse and Briony confirms she did have a crush once.

This would be Robbie (James McEvoy) who was a servant on Briony's estate when she was thirteen. Robbie loved Briony's older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and upon watching Cecilia and Robbie share a romantic moment - "something she thinks she understands, but she doesn't" - Briony comes back to this when a rape involving other people happens on said estate. She accuses Robbie and he is taken to jail and, later, forced to enlist in the army. Cecilia essentially disowns her family after this ugly incident and becomes a nurse. And, in time, so does Briony. Is this to atone for the sins of the past? Or is she losing whatever identity she had even further?

"Your name is Tallis", says the head nurse. "There is no Briony." Briony looks out the window and repeats the mantra. "There is no Briony." And so soon she finds herself with the French soldier. A French soldier who suddenly takes the place of Robbie. And Cecilia. Their fates are staring Briony in the face courtesy of this man she does not know. "I love you," says Briony. And so she has loved someone. She just couldn't admit it. Not until now. She never realized how much wrong she'd done lo those many years ago to Robbie and her sister and her family. Not until now. She never got the blood on her face. Not until now.

The French soldier passes away and she shoots to her feet. "Briony," she says to him, though, of course, by now he can't hear. "My name is Briony." She didn't know who she was. Not until now.

"Atonement" is told on a monumental scale. It spans decades. And, oh yes, the tracking shot. Everyone's talking about the tracking shot. Tracking shot this, and tracking shot that, and the tracking shot is spectacular and worked to the hilt for me. But that isn't the soul of the film. No, the soul of the film rests in this scene. Why? Because she bears her soul to this person she doesn't know it allows her to realize what happened before and influences - whether real or imagined - all that is to come.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Let's begin with the beginning, shall we? I've gone on and on about how many luminous endings there were in so many 2007 movies but I've hardly mentioned anything in regards to movie beginnings. The beginning is just as hard to do properly as an ending. What makes a good beginning? Well, if you ask one of those studio moguls or producers who profess to know "what the people want" they'll tell you something slam-bang, something in your face, something most likely with explosions. I would disagree. The finest beginnings should in some sort of way summarize everything that's ahead of us without giving anything away. In the best of the best beginnings it's a situation where it could function all on its own as a short film. "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" has one of the greatest beginnings I've ever witnessed. I adored it so much I nearly leapt from my seat and dashed to the projection room to stop it and rewind it so we could all digest it a second time.

And so I struggle with whether or not I should give away any details regarding this most sterling of starts. People will usually criticize you for giving away the end, but what of the opening? Do you play by the same rules? I will. You won't get any specifics from me. Maybe just what I already said: it summarizes without spoiling and could work as a short film. You need to see it. This movie actually came out in 2007 and I just got around to it so hopefully it will be arriving on video soon and so skip on over to the Netflix queue and go ahead and save "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and then when it comes out you'll get it and you'll see.

Okay. Breathe in....breathe out....and on to the rest of the movie. (But I will forewarn if you don't know any plot details of the film and don't want to know any you should wait for Netflix since it's already in your Netflix queue at this point. Right?)

Andy (Phillip Seymour Hoffmann) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are brothers. Andy and Gina (Marisa Tomei) have a marriage on the proverbial rocks and Andy doubles as the supervisor of the payroll department at some company where Hank also works. The brothers have monetary issues. Andy has a drug habit of the high-end kind and it seems there may be some other things that aren't revealed. Hank has a daughter and an ex-wife (Amy Ryan - yes, the Amy Ryan - the one we established several days ago gave the best performance of 2007). Andy and Hank's father (Albert Finney) and mother (Rosemary Harris) are old, but still in love, and own a suburban jewelry store. Might you see where this is going?

Andy hatches the scheme to knock off their own folks' jewelry store and whether or not all goes awry I leave you to decide but in what way and how much goes awry I don't know if you'll be able to figure out quite as easily. The movie invites comparisons to Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" as it contains not just a jewelry store heist but skips back and forth and around and around in time. But "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is, dare I say it, better. I think it's better because it's more emotional, cuts deeper, and is about more than sublime dialogue and someone getting his ear lopped off.

The writing of Kelly Masterson and the direction of Sidney Lumet (83 years old and the man who brought you "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Serpico, amongst others) is simply exquisite. The script does not offer things up in black and white. It doesn't fill in every blank. No long-winded monologues are given to advise the audience of all which has happened between father and sons and husbands and wives before we arrived at this point. There are also so many teeny-tiny things hovering on the edges that don't necessarily foreshadow but provide inordinate amount of texture - a quality all but gone from current screenwriting. Notice when the IRS audit is announced at Andy's office and his boss advises of the terminated employees still getting paid. This isn't brought back up but seems so amazingly correct for the character and deepens Andy just a tad. Even Andy and Hank's sister who appears only a few times and very briefly is given one line that sums up her character entirely.

In relation to direction watch how Lumet stages each and every scene to maximize drama even if it would appear there is no drama to be found. Andy arrive at a luxurious NYC apartment with a scantily clad woman making breakfast and he pours a drink and removes his suit coat and looks out the window and crosses his room and enters another room and then takes off his shirt and you're thinking....where the hell are they going with this?! Brilliant.

The acting is remarkable all around. Hoffmann shows the charm he must have had to get where he is but also convinces us of his desperation and depression. Ethan Hawke is a marvel. This is a perfect role for him as the drinks-too-much, low-on-money, can't-get-it-together brother. Watch his reaction late in the movie when Hoffmann is yelling at him, "Did you touch anything?!" Tomei sometimes seems resigned to the Woman Who Won An Oscar (For "My Cousin Vinny") That She Wouldn't Have Won. Well, maybe she shouldn't have won that one, but this woman - get it straight - can act. Hoffmann again blows his top in his car with Tomei in the passenger seat but it's her reaction shots and her line reading of "Andy...." that got to me. Albert Finney is a living legend and gets a role here that perhaps could've just been a characture but he makes it work. There are many hints to him not having been a good father but it's not totally spelled out (as it should not be) but Finney plays it in a way that makes you think he's not showing his whole hand. And Amy Ryan - oh, this Amy Ryan - gets an underwritten role and is just playing another bad mother (like she did in "Gone Baby Gone") but not quite as bad and she plays her differently here - more like a woman stuck in a battle of wills with her idiot ex-husband. That's a signal of immense talent - someone who takes such a small role without any real depth and still does something with it. Keep an eye on the smile she gives to Hawke at their daughter's play. It's incredible.

I could go on and on and further and further but maybe it's time to stop. How good was last year for movies? So good that it's 2008 and the great movies from 2007 still keep coming.

There Will Be Blood

Cinematic Arena's diatribes on the Daniel Day Lewis/Paul Thomas Anderson epic "There Will Be Blood" are up and ready for your reading pleasure. I don't recommend it, per se, but I also think you should watch it in spite of that since, well, you just kind of have to witness the whole thing for yourself.

A Scene To Go Home With You: A Moment Of Clarity

(Be wary of spoilers, friends. Be wary. But this is the one scene from cinema in 2007 that affected me the most and so I must press forward.)

The head nurse comes to Briony Tallis (played at this point in the film by Romola Garai) and advises a wounded French solider needs someone at his bedside and to hold his hand and offer conversation. Briony takes on the task. Once she is with the soldier we see he is not merely wounded but mortally so. These are his final minutes. He talks to her and as he does we recognize he does not know where he or who Briony is. "What is your name?" he asks. "Tallis," she tells him. "Do you love me?" he asks. "Yes," she says.

In the month since I first saw "Atonement" I've pondered from where my deep love of it comes. I think it's because I'm a writer. A paid writer? Well, no. Not yet. But being a writer has nothing to do with payment and if you think that's not true you're not a writer. Being a writer means you can't go more than a couple days without writing for fear of getting edgy and freaking out. It means you tend to work out the issues of your life and convey your true feelings on paper rather than out loud. In the cases when you can convey them minus the written word it usually occurs to someone not directly related to the feeling you possess. You live with passion but said passion remains inside until written or until a moment when you simply can't hold it back any longer and it gushes forth. From the first moment we see Briony Tallis we know she is a writer (she is placing the finishing touches on her first play) and so what I've just said can work as a summation of her and so this is why I she is a movie character I will forever cherish.

"Have you ever been in love?" a fellow nurse asks Briony at one point. Briony says nay. "Not even a crush?" wonders the nurse and Briony confirms she did have a crush once. This would be Robbie (James McEvoy) who was a servant on Briony's estate when she was thirteen. Robbie loved Briony's older sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and upon watching Cecilia and Robbie share a romantic moment - "something she thinks she understands, but she doesn't" - Briony comes back to this when a rape involving other people happens on said estate. She accuses Robbie and he is taken to jail and, later, forced to enlist in the army. Cecilia essentially disowns her family after this ugly incident and becomes a nurse. And, in time, so does Briony. Is this to atone for the sins of the past? Or is she losing whatever identity she had even further? "Your name is Tallis", says the head nurse. "There is no Briony." Briony looks out the window and repeats the mantra. "There is no Briony."

And so soon she finds herself with the French soldier. A French soldier who suddenly takes the place of Robbie. And Cecilia. Their fates are staring Briony in the face courtesy of this man she does not know. "I love you," says Briony. And so she has loved someone. She just couldn't admit it. Not until now. She never realized how much wrong she'd done lo those many years ago to Robbie and her sister and her family. Not until now. She never got the blood on her face. Not until now.

The French soldier passes away and she shoots to her feet. "Briony," she says to him, though, of course, by now he can't hear. "My name is Briony." She didn't know who she was. Not until now.

"Atonement" is told on a monumental scale. It spans decades. And, oh yes, the tracking shot. Everyone's talking about the tracking shot. Tracking shot this, and tracking shot that, and the tracking shot is spectacular and worked to the hilt for me. But that isn't the soul of the film. No, the soul of the film rests in this scene. Why? Because she bears her soul to this person she doesn't know it allows her to realize what happened before and influences - whether real or imagined - all that is to come.

The 3rd Annual Prigge's: Top 5 Movies of 2007

Not to overstate, but 2007 was probably the greatest year for movies I've ever personally experienced. If you think I'm lying, well, I've got the esteemed Roger Ebert on my side who called 2007 both "a time of wonders" and "one of the best years in recent movie history" as well as Nathan Lee of the Village Voice who said "2007 was hands down, hands up, wax on, wax off, do a little dance, drink a little water, yippie-kay-ya motherf---er!—the most exciting moviegoing year I've witnessed since becoming a film critic. "

My Top 5 is stellar, not-to-be-believed, the stuff of which dreams are made. It includes three masterpieces and another two that can be called great. In fact, all five of them are better than anything released in all of 2006 and 2005. And there were other great movies, too. I'd like to send emphatic shout-outs to the utterly uproarious "Juno" and the intelligent, well-crafted "Michael Clayton" and the quiet, we're-gonna'-take-our-time wonders of "Away From Her", and the pulse-pounding, this-is-how-you-make-an-action-movie "Bourne Ultimatum". I loved those movies but they just can't compete with the Top 5.

It's also worth noting that in an era where most filmmakers can't craft even a semi-decent ending to save their lives all 5 of these movies have unquestionably perfect conclusions.

The only bad part about all this? We're in for one hell of an inevitable letdown in 2008.

1. Atonement. The finest film released during the existence of our humble blog. Chalk this up as one of those movies I'll spend the rest of my days trying to sum up with words only to fail at every turn. It deepens as it progresses and saves the most powerful punch for last, which is made so powerful because the film takes time to allow us to become invested in it. It's a film with marvelous acting and breathless writing and the sublime direction of Joe Wright that works not to show off but to enhance the story. This is why I still wholly believe cinema to be our greatest artform. "Atonement" is why I go to the movies.

2. Once. There's an issue regarding this magical, transcendent Irish musical opus I'd like to clear up right now. It's critically acclaimed beyond question but now with every critic's Top 10 list coming out it seems to be falling to victim to a certain issue that plagues critics - namely, The Theory Of Importance. The esteemed Roger Ebert didn't put it in his Top 10 but instead gave it a "Special Jury Prize". And check out the words by Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips (who, to be fair, did name "Once" his #1 film of the year): "I really can't rationalize my pick for favorite film of the year" and "(other movies) reached higher and achieved more." What sense does that make? How can it not be rationalized? How in the hell did "Once" not reach as high and attempt to achieve as much as, say, "In the Valley of Elah"? Is it because "In the Valley of Elah" dealt with the war in Iraq and "Once" only dared deal with two people sharing a connection? That makes absolutely no sense to me and it's why this film is getting no love now that it's awards season.

IN CINEMA SUBJECT MATTER DOES NOT EQUAL IMPORTANCE. "Casablanca" involved the Nazis and the French Resistance, yes, but no one would have given it two thoughts if people didn't care to the hilt about the relationships between the characters. And yes, "Atonement" also dealt with WWII and yes I liked it better than "Once" but then its the humanistic aspects of "Atonement" that made me care about the movie when it got to the war and kept carrying me through. And so what if "Once" is just two people and nothing more? If two people meeting and realizing they will be affected by one another for the rest of eternity isn't important, if that isn't reaching high, then I give up.

3. No Country For Old Men. Let's all agree right up front that purely on a moviemaking level this one is darn near perfect. It is expertly crafted, paced, and it employs silence to about the greatest effect I've ever seen. In fact, I wish every film school in the country had a class entitled Silence 101 (Using Silence In Your Films And Not Hammering Things Home With The Soundtrack) that would begin each semester with a lecture on this movie. But goes past just moviemaking to be a tale of something else, something deeper, something to do with fear. Llewellyn fears Chiggurh and Chiggurh lives to cause fear and then there's Carla Jean, the one person in the film who won't give in to fear. Now that I've had two months to sit on it I feel safe in making this proclamation: "No Country For Old Men" is the Coen Brothers' best movie.

4. Gone Baby Gone. On the surface it's a crime and procedural film but it accomplishes what only the finest films do - it reveals its deeper meaning through the results of the procedure without ever shoving things down our throats. It's also filled to the brim with powerhouse performances including - as we established yesterday - the best one of the year. There a few nits to pick, yes, but then I think those are only noticeable because the film is so damn close to perfection.

5. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I honesty can't believe this wound up in my Top 5 but, man, I just dug the hell outta' this movie. I loved it. Dark, dreary, frightening, violent but also deeply, devoutly passionate and romantic. A final shot that will stay with me for the rest of my days. I don't know what to say that I didn't say in my review. Maybe you should just read it again. And then go see this movie.

The 3rd Annual Prigge's: Top 5 Performances of 2007

Oh, how excited I was to compose my list this year! I compiled it with whole-hearted glee! And what I found most interesting once I had finished was this - pretty much everyone on it, aside from Javier Bardem, is a relative unknown. Two of them aren't even actors. (I cheat, by the way, and actually have 7 people on my Top 5 but you'll see why soon enough.) I like that. I really do.

The as-usual magnificent Daniel Day Lewis may well win the Oscar for his turn in "There Will Be Blood" but he won't appear on this list. Why? I love the man but his performance just didn't hit me like these and all I can be is honest about it.

It also re-affirms the fact that each and every year I stumble across one performance that seems to leave every other peformance (whether male or female) in the dust, and it's hardly ever the one I expect. I went to see "Gone Baby Gone" because I was really excited to see it and its plethora of great actors but from the very first moment one person in particular showed up onscreen all I could think was.....sweet Jesus, who is that?! And when I left the theater that night I was pretty sure of what I'd seen and it turns out I was right.

Now, onto the overstatements!

1. Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone". There are heavy-hitters aplenty in this film but this actress, with whom I was unfamiliar going in, outdoes them all, and those are the indisputable facts. Absolutely mesmerizing, and if you have no desire to see this movie from what you saw in the preview or already know of it I urge you beyond compare to watch it for Ms. Ryan's turn as the not-so-good mother whose baby of the film's title sets things in motion alone. There is one moment in particular when she dismisses someone's question with a line that is, well, not exactly appropriate for me to type on my blog (it's something Ice Cube might have said - in fact, probably did say - in "Boyz 'n the Hood") but it's so correct for the character and so well delivered that it's one of those too-rare moments when writing and acting converge to create something light years beyond stupendous. It's a cinematic aurora borealis. If the movie gods are just then she wins the Oscar, or if someone else wins the Oscar then that person rightfully concedes onstage that Amy Ryan was better and hands the statue over to her. No actress and/or actor in 2007 was even in the same league.

2. Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, "Once". They both earn the #2 spot because A.) I simply don't want to bump one of them down a notch and B.) Each performance is entirely integral to the other. Every decision by each actor at each moment of the movie's entire running time feels accurate and genuine. Yes, in real life they are both singer-songwriters and in the film they're playing, uh, singer-songwriters and so you could argue they're just playing themselves but if that's your argument then allow me to me direct you to Bill Murray who said in relation to his role in "Lost in Translation" (and forgive me in advance as I'm paraphrasing here) that there are certain things only an aging actor playing an aging actor could possibly know.

3. Saoirse Ronan & Romola Garai, "Atonement". Ronan plays the primary player of this film Briony Tallis as a thirteen year old girl and Garai comes in midway through to play her at the age of nineteen. Yes, they both look very much alike but watch how they also exhibit the same speech patterns, the same mannerisms. An example: they both walk with a decided purpose in essentially the exact same way. But then acting isn't just physical, it's emotional. Garai's scene at the deathbed of an English soldier is exquisite. Ronan's reaction to what she views out her window alongside the fountain is something a girl of her age should not be able to do so damn well. And note the way both of them bottle up their emotions, blank faces, staring dead ahead, observing and processing everything around them and storing it away for a later time. Exactly like a writer.

4. Javier Bardem, "No Country For Old Men". There has been a bit of backlash against Bardem's character of Anton Chigurrh recently. It has been said by some that he is nothing more than a walking symbol. A symbol for death, as it were. Perhaps, but what jumped into my mind after seeing the film was Charles Bronson's character in "Once Upon a Time in the West". Remember when Jason Robards says of that character, "A man like that has something inside of him....something to do with death." People want to explain away the character of Chigurrh rather than just letting him exist. A man who wanders, roams, adherent only to his own code. The most terrifying movie moment of the year is when Chigurrh comes face-to-face with Carla Jean. And, oh, the terror Bardem wrings from it without terrorizing. He is so chillingly matter-of-fact about it (and everything else, for that matter) that it gives me the shakes as I type this.

5. Leslie Mann, "Knocked Up". I know people may be tiring of me mentioning this performance but I can't help it. It just smacked me across the face in the best kind of way. Everyone else can chatter on about the movie's abortion issue. Whatever. I'll just revel in Mann's unquestioned foul-mouthed genius. In my portion of the review for this film on Cinematic Arena I likened her to a comedic version of Mark Wahlberg's Oscar-nominated turn in last year's "The Departed". I still agree with that assessment. It's profane, impassioned, and causes incessant laughter. For my money the single funniest cinematic moment this year came during the scene at the kitchen table between Mann and Paul Ruud playing her husband as he does everything in his power to avoid eye contact while her eyes remained locked laser-like on him the whole time as she simultaneously slings insults at him. They say only dramatic acting can be towering. This performance proves otherwise.

Shout-Out To My Fellow Screenwriter

I'd like to direct everyone today to this wonderful article on cnn.com in reference to Diablo Cody, the screenwriter of "Juno" - which I went on record a few weeks ago as saying was the funniest movie of the year.

It mentions her next project is with Steven Spielberg. Let's all pray he doesn't muck up her immense promise.

Random Cinematic Awards

This past year was a miraculous one for cinema and what's even more miraculous that I'm very nearly up to speed with everything I need to see before releasing my annual Top 5 lists. Living in Des Moines (and even in Phoenix, that bastion of culture) it usually took me until February for everything to reach my respective city before declaring my "official" Top 5's. Chalk up another point for Chi-town! But before we delve into all that I first have to hand out a few of my other, more non-traditional awards. Without further adieu....

Best Guilty Pleasure Cinematic Moment: The opening to "Music & Lyrics" which is a spot-on fake 80's music video for the spot-on fake 80's song "Pop! Goes My Heart", performed by Hugh Grant's fake 80's band Pop! I must have watched this at least two-dozen times when I rented the DVD. And, if you want, you can watch it right here.

Best Action Scene: The opening sequence of "The Bourne Ultimatum" which, by the way, contains only a single gunshot and nothing blowing up. (Somewhere Michael Bay is scratching his head, confused. "Nothing blowing up? I don't understand....")

Best Use of Music in a Movie: There are four songs from "Once" that I want to name but I will limit myself to just one and go with "When Your Mind's Made Up", played during the triumphant recording studio scene.

Best First-Time Director: Sarah Polley & Ben Affleck are our co-winners for their directorial debuts, respectively, "Away From Her" and "Gone Baby Gone". (PLEASE direct more movies, you two!)

Worst Movie Villain of the Year: Topher Grace, "Spiderman 3". I like you, Topher. I do. But this just didn't work, man.

Most Erotic Cinematic Moment of the Year: Sienna Miller smoking a cigarette and pouring a glass of scotch AT THE SAME TIME in "Interview". (Gratuitous link! Her with coffee, a cigarette AND cowboy boots. Oh, Sienna, how you wreck my heart.)

Best Individual Line of the Year: "Doctors are sadists who like to play God and see lesser people scream." - Allison Janney, "Juno"

Most Underrated Movie of the Year: "Margot at the Wedding".

Worst Movie of the Year: "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: Dead Man's Chest".

Best Movie For 30 Minutes Before Plummeting South: "The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford".

Best Movie Rental Experience: "A Fond Kiss".

Best Movie Rental Experience Part 2: "Zodiac". (I realize as I type this I never wrote a review upon seeing this film but I need to rectify that at some point. This was excellent work in a film released very early in 2007.)

Worst Movie Rental Experience: "The Good German".

Best Performance of the Year That Won't Even Be Mentioned at Oscar Nomination Time: Leslie Mann, "Knocked Up". (I'd like to ask the Academy - for the third time in my blogging adventures - to consider her for a nomination.)

Best Movie Review Line of the Year: "'Larger than life' doesn't begin to do justice to (Daniel) Day Lewis' performance in 'There Will Be Blood'. As in 'Gangs of New York', Lewis plays a man so forceful and towering that he could probably wrestle a full-grown grizzly bear onscreen and have audiences worried primarily about the bear's safety." - Nathan Rabin, The AV Club (A shout-out to my friend Brad - the wretched genius - for bringing this quote to my attention.)

Do Presidential Candidates Have Taste In Movies?

It's here! My home state's lone day on top of the world! Once every four years the eyes of the nation turn to Iowa as a small percentage of its population heads out to caucus and begin the process in deciding which Presidential candidates we'll both want to fall off the face of the earth we'll be so sick of seeing and hearing them come November!

There's been a lot of griping about how there is too much attention given to the Iowa caucuses and how my home state should not hold so much sway in saying who will or will not be running for President and you know what? Those people can go you-know-where! The caucuses are just about all my home state has, understand? Who cares if it's an antiquated system (which it totally is)? So is the electoral college. You take the caucuses away from us and all we have left is Nile Kinnick's Heisman Trophy and Donna Reed's Oscar and that's less than we Iowans deserve. Everyone thinks the state is nothing but cornfields and dirt roads clogged with tractors and so what if once every four years my home state is the center of the world? New York and California and everyone else gets the spotlight the rest of the time so today they can all shut the hell up.

I, of course, no longer live in Iowa and even if I did there's no way I'd be caucusing (that's right! I said it!) because caucusing requires far more forced socializing than this blogger can handle. We're not all extroverts, people. I want to go, tell someone who I'm voting for, and go home. Why's that so hard? I don't want someone yapping in my face about why their respective choice is better than mine. The more you talk to me, the less likely I am to switch sides. I have my opinion, you have yours. So let's just cast our votes in private and go grab a pint and watch the Orange Bowl (I'm FAR more interested in whether or not Virginia Tech can slow Kansas's potent "spread" attack than if Mike Huckabee's for real, and whatever that makes me is something I'm A-Okay with being).

All that said, even if I was dragged at gunpoint to a caucus I don't know which candidate would get my support. I'm one of those, shall we say, undecided voters. And so that's why I've decided it's high-time Cinema Romantico gets to the bottom of the only real issue of this campaign, the issue which has not been addressed enough, the issue which will decide this race. What is each candidate's favorite movie?

We took to the world-wide-web and this what we found.

Hillary Clinton: "Casablanca".

Barack Obama: "The Godfather", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Casablanca".

John Edwards: "Dr. Strangelove."

Bill Richardson: "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid."

Mitt Romney: "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Mike Huckabee: "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Casablanca".

John McCain: "Viva Zapata."

Rudy Giuliani: "The Godfather."

Fred Thompson: "The Hunt For Red October."

Dennis Kucinich: “Dr. Zhivago" and "Gone With the Wind".

Joe Biden: "Dead Poets Society".

Okay. So what does is all this tell us? To whom do I lend my support? Right off the bat, I have to say that I don't really care what Fred Thompson's favorite movie is. As you may know, Mr. Thompson is a regular movie and TV actor and he happened to have a role in "Days of Thunder". If you're in "Days of Thunder", I don't want you as my President. Bye, Fred.

Biden's gone, too. "Dead Poets Society"? Are you kidding me with that schlock? I don't want someone who says "Dead Poets Society" is his or her favorite movie on this continenet, let alone in the White House. Vaya con dios, Joe.

McCain and "Viva Zapata"? I see what he's up to here with that famed revolutionary but that just ain't gonna' cut it on this blog, John. Scoot to the back of the line.

I like "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" but it's never been one of my ultimates and so Richardson's outta' the running, too.

Anyone who names two and refuses to properly answer the question of "what's your favorite movie (not movies)?" has no place, either. And so just like that Obama's lost my vote. (Unless Huckabee and Kucinich had gone all crazy on us and said something like "Streets of Fire" they wouldn't get my vote, anyway.) Quit waffling, Barack. Get it together. If someone asked me I'd say either "Last of the Mohicans" or "Million Dollar Baby" depending on my mood but I'd only say one.

I believe Giuliani when he says "The Godfather" but my favorite mafia movie's always been "Goodfellas". So it's out to the pasture with Rudolf.

Hillary said "Casablanca" and we all know I worship the ground on which "Casablanca" walks (if it could) but I smell something fishy. I get a strong inclination Hillary pulled this one out to cover all her bases. That, or Bill told her to say it. It's too popular of an answer in this sorta' situation. So Hillary's a no-go. Though I will reconsider if Ingrid Bergman returns from the dead and offers Ms. Clinton an endorsement.

So it's down to Romney and Edwards. I gotta' say, I'm impressed with wacky Mitt pulling out "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Greatest action movie ever made. Not as safe a pick as "Casablanca". But Edwards picking a black comedy about nuclear apocalypse? THAT'S bold. So John Edwards it is! Cinema Romantico gives you its ringing endorsement! Not based on anything having to do with policy or ethics but because John found General Buck C. Turgidson as awesome as we did!

Good luck, John! And if you do win this November, make sure no one sees the big board.

(Postcript: It turns out John Kerry's favorite movie was "Animal House". I now exceedingly regret throwing my support behind him in 2004.)

A Digression: `Onipa`a. (Stand Firm).

There are only a few things in my life I care about more than college football. I can offer up just about any useless fact you require regarding the sport. And no, I don't care what you think. It's who I am and I'm fine with it. In the words of Chuck Klosterman, "College football almost always makes me happy." Almost is the key word in that phrase, because watching poor Hawaii University get supremely whacked by the University of Georgia last night in the Sugar Bowl saddened me a whole lot.

Perhaps for a college football novice it's difficult to comprehend the absurdity of Hawaii University playing in the Sugar Bowl. To put this into perspective we'll say that Hawaii getting to the Sugar Bowl is quite similar to man setting foot on mars - not the moon, but mars. It's like yours truly scoring a date with everyone's favorite Aussie (i.e. Kylie Minogue) and then her agreeing to go out on a second date. For the fans of that crummy organization known as the NFL it's like the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush playing in the Super Bowl.

A mere ten years ago Hawaii had lost 18 consecutive games and was about to disband its football program. The payout provided by the Sugar Bowl equaled the team's entire football budget. Hawaii's funds used for recruiting of players is a measly $50,000 - or, to say it another way, Georgia probably gives that much away in illegal cash to every recruit. A few days ago I read the Hawaii coaches didn't even have the luxury of camera equipment compatible with DVD players for watching game film until LAST YEAR! (The article also said the coaches offices have the same carpet from the 70's). The odds of them going undefeated (which they did) and get to one of the four major bowl games that have been around since the 1930's (which, as I've already said, they did) were astronomical. But there they were. The team from the islands whose games typically don't end until 4 AM on the east coast that usually provokes non die-hard college football fans to say, "Hawaii has a football team?" was playing on frickin' New Year's Day - the sport's nirvana.

Outside of every single contest my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers have ever played in never before have I so desperately wanted a team to win a game. I believed Hawaii could stun the world, but deep down inside I also feared the same thing many "experts" suspected - that Hawaii was not even near the same class as Georgia. And last night my worst fear was confirmed. Georgia throttled them by a score of 41-10, and - as the saying goes - it wasn't that close. No argument about it. Hawaii did not belong on the same field.

But that's not right. Perhaps talent-wise they did not belong on the same field but last evening's Sugar Bowl was not simply about talent. It was about something else. And it's why the score didn't mean (pardon my language) shit. This team stood for something else. Have you ever told someone about a dream you have only to have that person laugh in your face? Hawaii stood for those of us who have been laughed at. Really, it's like a movie. A coach who in 2001 got in a car crash so terrible the paramedics who arrived on the scene thought he was dead and the man who performed surgery on him said his life was saved only because of "divine intervention". A QB who ran afoul of the law several years back, admit it, grew from it, and chose against entering the NFL draft early for a multi-million dollar contract because - as he said - "I like the person I'm becoming in Hawaii."

(Question: Why should Hawaii QB Colt Brennan have won the Heisman Trophy over Florida QB Tim Tebow? Answer: Colt Brennan's athletic department couldn't afford soap for the showers and Tim Tebow had to "put up" with things like this.)

This movie didn't have the storybook end and that's okay. Not all movies do. Being on that field was accomplishment enough, and if it's a cliche it's also the truth. I got chills as I read this morning that as the Hawaii football team departed the field last night their 14,000 fans that made the ludicrously long and enormously expensive trip gave them a standing ovation. Think about that. In a sports world where teams are consistently booed not just when they lose but when they're ahead or even on occassion when they've won the game (see: Chicago Bears fans after they beat the Kansas City Chiefs this year) the Hawaii fans - in spite of their team's horrific walloping - applauded their players' effort. They didn't finish undefeated, they didn't win a national championship and they couldn't really even make a game of it against one of the sport's "big boys" but, hey, it's all relative and to Hawaii just playing last night was a bigger accomplishment than all three of those things put together. The score does not in any way diminish what they did in 2007 and I hope they don't let any cynics or pedantic sportswriters or know-it-alls or jackasses who think they're funny tell them otherwise.

'Onipa'a, Hawaii. And congratulations on a wonderful season from one idiot blogger who loves the game you play a little too much.