Best Film of 2007

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2007)

It's easy to come up with a snappy snarky review of a bad movie (Babel) or even a good but flawed movie (too many to mention), but it is hard to entertainingly praise a movie so I won't really try. This is the best film of 2007 (that I saw, anyway...let's restrict it to "Best in contention for Oscar"). All the elements aligned, perfect casting both of stars and unknowns (what a surprise, Julianne Moore has a dead child again!) especially Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine, Peter Mullan and Claire Hope-Ashitey, unbelievable cinematography (I was fooled into thinking it was one take), a lead performance that is a mammoth of slowly skinned disaffectedness by Clive Owen, a cracking script that balances visuals and terse effective dialogue, moments that are frankly terrifying (the attack on the car, the hood pulled over the face), and the courage to leave the ending hopeful without saving the main character.
Only qualm: You should have saved the main character. There was really no reason for the story to demand that he sacrifice himself, having him die and not even see that the boat came didn't really say anything, let the dude live.
A great film by an imaginative, intelligent, deferential, groundbreaking director who should stop being friends with that jackass Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Keep 'em coming.