The Best Films of 2004

1. “The Aviator” – Martin Scorsese’s biopic of Howard Hughes is a movie in love with the movies, a film eager to throw open the doors on a closed life.

As Hughes, Leonardo DiCaprio is all tight-fisted energy fighting against the inevitable withdrawal. As Katharine Hepburn, Cate Blanchett bends herself into right angles and proves a springboard for the movie. Hers is a sink-or-swim role, there’s no middle ground with Hepburn, and yet Blanchett pulls it off.

So does the rest of the cast. This is Scorsese’s finest film since “Goodfellas,” his atonement for “Gangs of New York.” The film of the year.

2. “Million Dollar Baby” – The other film of the year, with Clint Eastwood delivering his most accomplished movie to date. There is an undercurrent of genius here, the tug of something unforgettable that lifts the movie high in its bubbly first two-thirds before Eastwood slams the fun shut with an unexpected twist. Can anyone touch Hilary Swank this year? Is there a movie with an easier chemistry between its principal cast? No and

no. Academy Awards are lining up at ringside. Bank on it, baby.

3. “The Incredibles” – Well, yes, the film’s computer animation is swell, but it’s not everything. This movie could have been drawn with a rusty nail and still it would have been an entertaining tour de force. Brad Bird’s script, characters and direction have layers and wit that are worth savoring, visiting and revisting. Nice when a movie lives up to its name. Better when it surpasses it.

4. “Sideways” – The story of two screwed-up best friends (Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church) who can’t let go of their pasts or figure out who they are in the present. They embark on a tour of Northern California’s wine country, where their gross emotional limitations are tossed into the sunlight. From this, Alexander Payne mines a depth of emotion that’s unexpected. Without Payne’s sensitivity, these men would have been caricatures, but here they’re not.

Payne has too much affection for them, and too much respect for his audience, to allow them to be anything less than real.

5. “Ray” – In lesser hands, this biopic of Ray Charles could have been disastrous, a pantomime of horrors that was all wrong. But as Charles, who died last June at age 73, Jamie Foxx transforms himself with a performance that’s as startling as it is authentic. It’s beyond imitation, an uncanny feat of showmanship that transcends the screen. Who knew that the man who once dressed in drag as Wanda would one day be the front runner for an Academy Award? Who knew that he’d likely win it?

6. “Kinsey” – So, this is what sex is about. And so that’s what a ruler can be used for. A quick, satisfying two hours of watching people talk about sex, explore sex and have sex. And not just any people. Liam Neeson is back in top form as controversial sex researcher Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey; Laura Linney nearly steals the show as Kinsey’s go-for-broke wife. Bill Condon’s direction is solid, but it’s his blisteringly smart script that deserves the Academy Award.

7. “Vera Drake” – From Mike Leigh, a small film with a big subject and a bigger lead performance. As Vera Drake, a backstreet abortionist living in North London in 1950, Imelda Staunton is a mask of efficiency and calm tending to girls who have “gotten themselves into trouble.” When the police take note, Staunton’s masterful performance becomes almost purely physical. So stunned and ashamed is Vera by her situation, words and movement become a near impossibility. It’s her eyes that reveal the truth of what she’s feeling, and that truth is devastating.

8. “A Very Long Engagement” – World War I as sifted and depicted by the quirkiest of French directors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose penchant for the surreal proves a fine fit for war. Here, Jeunet taps Audrey Tautou from his movie “Amelie” and features her as Mathilde, a woman who knows in her bones that her lover, Manech (Gaspard Ulliel), is not dead. Her search for him is the film’s dramatic punch. How the movie ends lets the air out of the room.

9. “Fahrenheit 9-11” – Michael Moore’s burning bush is divisive, outrageous, important and misleading – a zeitgeist that did exactly what it was intended to do. It launched a national discussion about the state of the world as influenced by the Bush administration. Some agreed with it, others vilified it as propaganda. The truth was tucked somewhere in the middle, with audiences left to sort it out. They did, with one hell of a debate launched as a result.

10. “Spider-Man 2” – What makes Tobey Maguire such a perfect fit for Peter Parker are the very qualities that made him so appealing in “The Ice Storm” and “Wonder Boys,” the shrewd intellect simmering beneath his bemused detachment and bashful charm. Director Sam Raimi leans hard on those traits, but he also pulls something deeper from Maguire, the sense of isolation, doubt and sadness that have crept into Peter’s soul. The result? Legs down, “Spider-Man 2” is a winner, a smart, often exhilarating movie that deepened the franchise while giving audiences a kick in the process.

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at Rotten

Tomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.