204 - 194 = 10

In 2003, we reviewed more than 200 movies. The great ones, however, you can count on two hands

Of the 204 movies we reviewed from New Year's Day to New Year's Eve in 2003, a majority of them fall into the great gray middle (two to three stars for you star-counters). A rare handful were truly transporting and unforgettable movie-going experiences, and a woeful few made us worry over the future of civilization.

As a rule, we prefer to focus at this time of year on the best. As for the worst, they'll form a small junk heap elsewhere on these pages.

But first, our annual disclaimer: Since "best" is a loaded word, we prefer to call our choices favorites (don't like ours?; pick your own). As always, we'll own up to the fact that our choices might be -- yikes! -- highly personal, thoroughly subjective, even downright idiosyncratic. But then, it's that very single-mindedness and even eccentricity that gives movie reviewing its own contentious energy.

As usual, we've limited our choices to movies that have opened in Tulsa during the 2003 calendar year. That doesn't take in such recently acclaimed pictures as "Big Fish," "Monster," "Girl With the Pearl Earring" and others that have had limited, buzz-inducing runs in L.A. and other large markets for Oscar consideration. Those surely will wander into Tulsa in January or February. (They'll be fodder for the 2004 list.)

So here in no particular order is our list of the 10 best (favorite) movies of 2003, followed by a few pleasant, unheralded surprises and then a few dreadful duds.

Best

Mystic River (Warner Bros.) -- Director Clint Eastwood spins out this moody crime story in the spare, looping rhythms of his beloved jazz compositions (and, fittingly, he wrote this film's evocative musical score). There's not a wasted note or an off-key performance in the whole film, and if Eastwood was at the top of his game in 1992 when he won best-directing and best-picture Oscars for his earthy Western "Unforgiven," he's certainly back at the pinnacle here with his sure-handed grasp of primal human emotions -- from love to hate, from fear to despair.

Finding Nemo (Walt Disney/Pixar Animation) -- The latest from the marvelous pixies at Pixar Entertainment, who previously teamed with Disney to give us two great "Toy Story" films, plus "A Bug's Life" and "Monsters Inc.," is another groundbreaking work of digital animation and inventive storytelling. This set a particularly difficult challenge for the artists -- creating in bytes and pixels the eerie, undulating, eye-dazzling undersea world of the Australia's Great Barrier Reef and populating it with an ensemble of talking fish and aquatic creatures both lovable and amazing to behold.

Cold Mountain (Miramax Films) -- Translated to the screen with grace and gravel by director Anthony Minghella, a master of tough literary adaptations with two prestige projects, "The English Patient" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," this richly mounted adaptation of Charles Frazier's Homeric novel of the Civil War offers up a near perfect wedding of Hollywood star power with fervent love story and blood-soaked historical spectacle.

Lost in Translation (Focus Features) -- In this funny, melancholy meditation on isolation and loneliness by writer-director Sophia Coppola, Bill Murray has found his strongest, most resonant role in years -- one that proves him master of a certain hilarious gravity, a delicate balance between funny and forlorn that bears honest comparison with the golden-age greats such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Young co-star Scarlett Johansson completely holds her own on screen opposite the imposing and idiosyncratic Murray.

In America (Fox Searchlight) -- There's more than a touch of blarney, as well as magical realism, in Jim Sheridan's plucky, witty and achingly personal vision of the immigrant experience. So clearly a labor of love and a close family affair for the artful Sheridan clan (it was co-written with daughters Naomi and Kirsten) that at times it unsettles you with its bald intimacy and naked emotionalism. But within its modest confines lie essential truths that speak to all who come to these shores seeking a fresh, hopeful new life.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (Miramax Films) -- In photographing this movie's three tiny Aborigine escapees against the vast, unforgiving backdrop of Western Australia, director Phillip Noyce creates a quietly powerful portrait of human courage in the face of overwhelming odds. That profound, lingering visual image - along with an eloquent modern-day coda -- gives this true-life story of cruel bureaucratic Social Darwinism the resounding scope of an ancient epic, one in which a little child shows us the way.

Seabiscuit (Universal Pictures) -- Laura Hillenbrand's detailed, richly panoramic book comes to the big screen -- touched with the golden glow of an old-fashioned Hollywood melodrama -- in writer-director Gary Ross' slightly corny but deeply moving film about the little racehorse that could. It's a movie that fairly reeks of turf and manure, of horse sweat and inspiration, of underdog pluck and Oscar honors.

The Quiet American (Miramax Films) -- Whether you view it as a wry cautionary tale, a harsh critique on American interventionism overseas, a passionate anti-war screed or merely a brooding morality tale, director Phillip Noyce's classy adaptation of Graham Greene's potent novel is a movie that makes a timely, passionate contribution to our national debate over America's dubious role on the world stage as a super-power enforcer and builder of nations.

Spellbound (ThinkFilm) -- A more unlikely milieu for a movie about courage, determination, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat would be hard to imagine. But this bright documentary about school spelling bees proves that there's great drama and tense, adrenaline-pumping excitement to be found in even this most cerebral of human endeavors. Words in all their complex, maddening, smorgasbord glory are the driving force of this -- well -- spellbinding movie.

Honorable mentions

Wooley's world

Don't sleep through 'em

Bend It Like Beckham (Fox Searchlight), saffron and sweat mingle in this cross-cultural, girl-power take on English soccer.

Dirty Pretty Things (Miramax Films), a human heart flushed down a toilet propels this intriguing British drama of immigrant struggles and black-market organ trafficking.

L'Auberge Espagnole (Fox Searchlight), struggling students from several nations co-exist in a boho Barcelona apartment in this rainbow coming-of-age charmer.

Man on the Train (Paramount Classics), an outlaw and a poetry professor become friends and reflect on roads not taken in this touching French crime saga.

Nowhere in Africa (Zeitgeist Films), it's a long way from the grim ghettos of Holocaust Germany to the arid beauty of the Kenyan plains, but this remarkable German Oscar-winner spans the distance with uncommon grace and compassion.

Whale Rider (Newmarket Films), set amid New Zealand's myth-shrouded Maori culture, this inspiring story of a little girl trying to connect with her native heritage was one of the year's most pleasant surprise hits.

Lost in La Mancha (IFC Films), this behind-the-scenes documentary captures the high drama of eccentric moviemaker Terry Gilliam's ill-fated effort to film Miguel de Cervantes' classic "Don Quixote."

The Station Agent (Miramax Films), an anti-social dwarf, a grieving mother and a talkative hot dog vendor become unlikely friends in this comedy-drama of lost souls finding refuge in one another's company.

The Way Home (Paramount Classics), a spoiled and petulant city boy learns the value of love and devotion from his poor rural grandmother in this lovely, fable-like story from Korea.

The Good Thief (Fox Searchlight), troubled star Nick Nolte delivers a towering wreck of a performance in this smart, jazzy, world-weary remake of the French caper film "Bob le Flambeur."

Standing in the Shadows of Motown (Artisan Entertainment), in the heyday of Motown Records, a tight ensemble of Detroit session musicians created pop history with the "Motown Sound," and this funky, fun documentary celebrates their combined genius and hard-knock lives.

West 47th Street (P.O.V./Lichtenstein Creative Media), this gripping, compassionate documentary shows us the human side of patients coping with serious mental illness at New York City's Fountain House, a famed social and vocational rehabilitation program.

Shattered Glass (Lions Gate Films), glib golden-boy magazine reporter Stephen Glass weaseled his way into the Journalism Hall of Shame with made-up news stories, and this keenly observed biopic shows us how -- and how the profession responded.

Boo!