Images, lines, gestures, moods from the year's
films
By Richard T. Jameson & Kathleen Murphy, Special to MSN Movies
— "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy": Control (John Hurt), aced out of MI6 after the
disaster in Budapest, announces, "Smiley is coming with me." Smiley (Gary
Oldman), his back to the camera, tilts his head a millimeter -- surprise?
acceptance? both?...
— "The Descendants": the sound Matt King's (George Clooney) flip-flops make
on asphalt as he jogs over to his friends' house to get the scoop on his dying
wife's infidelity...
— Three figures frozen on a green lawn, bathed in cold white light, from the
moon and the planet "Melancholia"...
— Matchlight on face in front of red door, "Le Havre"...
— Upside-down shadows of kids at play on gray asphalt, swinging from the top
of the frame in "The Tree of Life"...
— High angle looking down into cave in "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past
Lives": on the ochre floor, figures lie sleeping (dead?) just where radiant
sunlight meets darkest shadow....
— The slow dissolve from one Western landscape into another, a slant of hill
coming to exactly echo a line of clouds; actual and aspirant frontiers in
"Meek's Cutoff"...
— The breathlessly kinetic rhythms of the heist that begins "Drive"...
— "Midnight in Paris": the evolution of the expression on Gil (Owen Wilson)
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald has just introduced him to Ernest Hemingway -- from
gobsmacked to go-with-the-flow delight...
— Peppy (Bérénice Bejo) and Valentin (Jean Dujardin) artlessly falling in
love, as they dance through a series of takes: "The Artist"...
— "Moneyball": daughter (Kerris Dorsey) gravely, shyly singing "I'm Just a
Little Bit Caught in the Middle" for dad (Brad Pitt) in the music store...
— The air in the village church swimming with dust particles that might once
have been people: "Le Quattro Volte"...
— "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy": brusque, bone-shattering dispatch, by "Mr.
Ellis" (Mark Strong), of the owl that has just flown out of the fireplace in his
classroom...
— Laurel and Hardy in drag: Mr. Nobbs (Glenn Close), stiff as a stick, and
broad-shouldered Mr. Page (Janet McTeer) step out in bonnets and dresses --
"Albert Nobbs"...
— In "Midnight in Paris," Gil realizing that the woman he was just dancing
with was Djuna Barnes: "No wonder she wanted to lead."...
— Seduction, foreplay and climax on the subway: "Shame"...
— "The Descendants": the sudden, vengeful kiss Matt King plants on the
unknowing wife (Judy Greer) of his wife's lover...
— A very tipsy Emma Stone to "Photoshopped" Ryan Gosling in "Crazy, Stupid,
Love.": "We are going to bang!"...
— Shrinks Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sabina Spielrein (Keira
Knightley) lying snug as bugs, or babies, in the belly of a boat with red sails,
in "A Dangerous Method"...
— In "Arthur Christmas," the Mission Impossible precision of Christmas Eve
break-in: Santa and ninja elves escape discovery through split-second timing and
improvisation....
— A drop of perspiration falling onto a café tabletop, fatally fracturing the
fourth wall of a Hungarian "play" in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"...
— Closeup of British officer's shining young face (Tom Hiddleston) as he
promises to care for Joey, and bring him back to the boy who loves him: a
singular moment of sincerity in "War Horse" that measures what a world war for
nothing will cost...
— A black horse sinks down in slow motion, as though curtsying to oblivion --
"Melancholia"...
— "Carrying, yeah" -- Christoph Waltz's first utterance in "Carnage." Who
ever doubted the worldly multilinguist of "Inglourious Basterds" could master
American shrug?...
— A Nose (master perfumer) sniffs the aromas of time in a 32,000-year-old
"Cave of Forgotten Dreams."...
— A shower of green leaves along a tree-lined residential street: something
simian this way comes in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."...
— "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy": Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), making a
clean getaway after his incursion into the bowels of the Circus, passes Roy
Bland (Ciarán Hinds) on the stairs and confirms from the tune he's whistling
that Peter's phonecall moments before was monitored. As expected...
— "Shame": the dying fall of Carey Mulligan's voice, until she's nearly
whispering "New York, New York"...
— Afterthought in "Moneyball": "Who's Fabio?"...
— In "The Descendants," Matt's quiet "Don't ever do that again" after his
daughter's boyfriend (Nick Krause) embraces him...
— Over tea at the Pages, the only smile that ever unfreezes -- and
transfigures -- the face of "Albert Nobbs"...
— A Scalphunter (Tom Hardy) in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" caressing the face
of the spy he loves with light reflected from a compact, while she (Svetlana
Khodchenkova) takes her pleasure in the exposure...
— "Phone sex" in "Crazy, Stupid, Love.": Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) tenderly
talking his estranged wife (Julianne Moore) through re-igniting the pilot
light...
— Jung and his former patient discuss their "Dangerous Method" on a park
bench by a sunlit lake, Sabina's perfect little white hat like a lid on crazy...
— College guy, self-impaled on a tree branch, watches a horsefly settle on
his nose -- "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil"...
— Tavern still-life with police inspector (Jean-Pierre Darroussin),
pineapple, and trio of serene Kaurismäki goofs: "Le Havre"...
— "My Week with Marilyn": the look on the publican's face when Miss Monroe
(Michelle Williams) drops by the Dog & Duck to say, "Nice place you got
here"; expertly summoned up by the great Jim Carter, and just as expertly
dropped before the moment spoils...
— Corey Stoll's rhythms and tone as Ernest Hemingway, "Midnight in Paris" --
not free of parody, yet oddly tender withal...
— Karl with a K, Sam Rockwell's lethally deranged dope-dealer -- "The
Sitter"...
