This was the last movie that I saw in 1999...

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2005)

...and I'd say that it was a perfect way to end the 20th century (unless you say that the 20th century ended in 2000). For years, movie adaptations of Stephen King novels bungled everything, but with "The Green Mile" in the hands of the man behind "The Shawshank Redemption" (also about a prison), it clearly had to be good.
In case you've never read the novel - which I highly recommend - the plot has prison guard Paul Edgecombe (Tom Hanks) overseeing death row in a Louisiana penitentiary in 1935. When a very large African-American named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) arrives, Paul witnesses some events that no one could ever imagine.
This is the only which comes to my mind that I would classify as both haunting and heartwarming at the same time. Haunting because the prison's bleak environs drain all hope; heartwarming because of what happens in this particular prison. Both Hanks and Duncan turn in pitch-perfect performances, as do the other cast members. Bonnie Hunt as Paul's wife Jan, trying to cope with the effects that her husband's job has on their personal life; James Cromwell as Warden Hal Moores, doing everything to carry out his job but depressed by numerous factors; Doug Hutchison as despicable guard Percy Wetmore, who likes nothing more than to be as cruel as possible; David Morse, Barry Pepper, and Jeffrey DeMunn as fellow guards Brutus "Brutal" Howell, Dean Stanton, and Harry Terwilliger, respectively; Sam Rockwell as vicious inmate "Wild Bill" Wharton; Michael Jeter and Graham Greene as fellow inmates Eduard Delacroix and Arlen Bitterbuck, respectively; Patricia Clarkson as the warden's wife Melinda, afflicted by an awful disease; Harry Dean Stanton as loopy janitor Toot-Toot; and Dabbs Greer as the elderly Paul Edgecombe. Gary Sinise all appears as Coffey's lawyer. An 11/10.