86%  Winner:   Million Dollar Baby  132 min,  PG-13,  [Drama, Sport]  [Clint Eastwood]  [28 Jan 2005]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 81%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 91%,   Metacritic: 86%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 4 Oscars. Another 63 wins & 83 nominations.
Actors:  Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Jay Baruchel, Morgan Freeman
Writer:  Paul Haggis (screenplay), F.X. Toole (stories)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Irish    Country:  USA
Plot:  Wanting to learn from the best, aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald wants Frankie Dunn to train her. At the outset he flatly refuses saying he has no interest in training a girl. Frankie leads a lonely existence, alienated from his only daughter and having few friends. Maggie's rough around the edges but shows a lot of grit in the ring and he eventually relents. Maggie not only proves to be the boxer he always dreamed of having under his wing but a friend who fills the great void he's had in his life. Maggie's career skyrockets but an accident in the ring leads her to ask Frankie for one last favor.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) is a veteran boxing trainer who has devoted his life to the ring and has precious little to show for it; his daughter never answers his letters, and a fighter he's groomed into contender status has paid him back by signing with another manager, leaving Frankie high and dry. His best friend and faithful employee Eddie Dupris is a former fighter who Frankie trained. In his last fight, Eddie suffered a severe injury, a fact that brings Frankie great guilt. One day, Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) enters Frankie's life, as well as his gym, and announces she needs a trainer. Frankie regards her as a dubious prospect, and isn't afraid to tell her why: he doesn't think much of women boxing, she's too old at 31, she lacks experience, and has no technique. However, Maggie sees boxing as the one part of her life that gives her meaning and won't give up easily. Finally won over by her determination, Frankie takes on Maggie, and as she slowly grows into a viable fighter, an emotional bond develops between them. When a tragedy befalls one of the three characters, each comes to a decision that shows how the relationships in the film have changed them. Adapted from a short story by F.X. Toole, a former corner man with years of experience in the fight game, Million Dollar Baby also stars Morgan Freeman, Anthony Mackie, and Mike Colter. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

75%  Nominee:   Finding Neverland  106 min,  PG,  [Biography, Drama, Family]  [Marc Forster]  [17 Dec 2004]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 77%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 82%,   Metacritic: 67%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 1 Oscar. Another 19 wins & 80 nominations.
Actors:  Johnny Depp, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, Radha Mitchell
Writer:  Allan Knee (play), David Magee (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English    Country:  USA, UK
Plot:  1903 London. Renowned playwright J.M. Barrie (James)'s latest effort has garnered less than positive reviews, something he knew would be the case even before the play's mounting. This failure places pressure on James to write another play quickly as impresario Charles Frohman needs another to replace the failure to keep his theater viable. Out for a walk with his dog in part to let his creative juices flow, James stumbles upon the Llewelyn Davies family: recently widowed Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (the daughter of now deceased author George L. Du Maurier) and her four adolescent sons. James and the family members become friends, largely based on he and the boys being able to foster in each other the imagination of children, James just being the biggest among them in this regard. Sylvia also welcomes James into their lives, he who becomes an important and integral part of it. Among the six of them, the only one who does not want to partake is Sylvia's third, Peter Llewelyn Davies, who is still grieving the reality of their lives, where his father was there one day planning an outing for the family, and gone the next. Two other people who don't appreciate James in the Llewelyn Davies' lives are: his wife, Mary Barrie, who always feels the need to be the responsible one in their relationship and who feels threatened by his friendship with an unmarried woman; and Emma du Maurier, Sylvia's overbearing mother, who sees him as an obstacle to Sylvia moving on with her life with another potential husband, and an impediment to maintaining discipline within the boys. James still hopes to bring Peter out of his self-imposed shell, but in the process comes up with an idea for another play based on an amalgam of himself and Peter, that play which eventually becomes what Charles sees as a largely unmountable and thus doomed production called "Peter Pan". This process of helping Peter could take a step backward when it looks like Sylvia may imminently befall a similar fate to that of her late husband.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Following up his critically acclaimed Monster's Ball, director Marc Forster took on this biography of playwright James Matthew Barrie, the scribe who penned the children's classic Peter Pan. Johnny Depp stars as the turn-of-the-century writer as the film follows Barrie as he struggles to write and have his play produced while he cares for his down-on-their-luck neighbors who inspired the story in the first place. J.M. Barrie's Neverland also stars Dustin Hoffman, Kate Winslet, and Julie Christie. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

76%  Nominee:   Ray  152 min,  PG-13,  [Biography, Drama, Music]  [Taylor Hackford]  [29 Oct 2004]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 77%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 80%,   Metacritic: 73%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 2 Oscars. Another 52 wins & 54 nominations.
Actors:  Clifton Powell, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Regina King
Writer:  Taylor Hackford (story), James L. White (story), James L. White (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English    Country:  USA
Plot:  The story of Ray Charles, music legend. Told in his adult live with flashbacks to his youth we see his humble origins in Florida, his turbulent childhood which included losing his brother and then his sight, his rise as pianist in a touring band, his writing his own songs and running his own band and then stardom. Also includes his addiction to drugs and its affect on his working life and family life.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Born in a poor town in Georgia, Ray Charles went blind at the age of seven shortly after witnessing his younger brother's accidental death. Inspired by a fiercely independent mother who insisted he make his own way in the world, Charles found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered incorporating gospel, country, jazz and orchestral influences into his inimitable style. As he revolutionized the way people appreciated music, he simultaneously fought segregation in the very clubs that launched him and championed artists' rights within the corporate music business.

88%  Nominee:   Sideways  127 min,  R,  [Comedy, Drama, Romance]  [Alexander Payne]  [21 Jan 2005]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 75%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 96%,   Metacritic: 94%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 1 Oscar. Another 122 wins & 87 nominations.
Actors:  Paul Giamatti, Sandra Oh, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen
Writer:  Rex Pickett (novel), Alexander Payne (screenplay), Jim Taylor (screenplay)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Armenian    Country:  USA, Hungary
Plot:  A week before his friend Jack is to be married, best man Miles and the prospective groom head off to wine country for a week of fun, relaxation and - of course - wine drinking. Miles is the oenophile and does his best to teach Jack a bit about the art of appreciating great wine. All Jack cares about is drinking and carousing, something he accomplishes when he meets the attractive Stephanie at one of the vineyards. Miles is something of a sad sack, a high school English teacher who is a failed writer at heart. He has yet to get over the fact that his wife has divorced him and that she has remarried and he now faces that nerve racking wait for word from a prospective publisher. Miles has an opportunity to start anew when he meets Stephanie's friend Maya but when he let's slip that Jack is about to be married any hope of a relationship seems to be lost.
Rotten Tomatoes:   A wine tasting road trip to salute Jack's final days as a bachelor careens woefully sideways as he and Miles hit the gas en route to mid-life crises. The comically mismatched pair, who share little more than their history and a heady blend of failed potential and fading youth, soon find themselves drowning in wine and women. Emerging from a haze of pinot noir, wistful yearnings and trepidation about the future, the two inevitably collide with reality.

79%  Nominee:   The Aviator  170 min,  PG-13,  [Biography, Drama]  [Martin Scorsese]  [25 Dec 2004]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 75%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 86%,   Metacritic: 77%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 5 Oscars. Another 81 wins & 130 nominations.
Actors:  Cate Blanchett, John C. Reilly, Kate Beckinsale, Leonardo DiCaprio
Writer:  John Logan
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English    Country:  Germany, USA
Plot:  Biopic of billionaire Howard Hughes, starting with his early filmmaking years as owner of RKO studios but mostly focusing on his role in designing and promoting new aircraft. Hughes was a risk-taker spending several fortunes on designing experimental aircraft and eventually founding TWA as a rival to Pan AM airlines owned by his great rival Juan Trippe. When Trippe's politico Senator Ralph Owen Brewster accuses Hughes of being a war profiteer, it's Hughes who gains the upper hand. Hughes also had many women in his life including a long relationship with actress Katharine Hepburn. From an early age however, Hughes was also germophobic and would have severe bouts of mental illness.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Martin Scorsese directed this fast-moving, epic-scale biopic documenting the life and loves one of the most colorful Americans of the 20th century, Howard Hughes. The Aviator follows Hughes (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) as the twentysomething millionaire, having already made a fortune improving the design of oil-drilling bits, comes to Hollywood with an interest in getting into the picture business. It doesn't take long for Hughes, with his passion for airplanes, to jump from producer to director of his first major film project, a World War I air epic called Hell's Angels, which took three years to complete thanks to the shift from silent to sound filming and Hughes' relentless perfectionism. However, the film was a massive hit, and the eccentric inventor became a mogul in Hollywood, making Jean Harlow (Gwen Stefani) a star and enjoying a romance with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). But Hollywood's old-boy network never fully accepted Hughes, and in time his passion for flying began to reclaim his attentions as he began designing new planes, setting air speed records, flying around the world, and risking his life testing aircraft. Hughes also found time to romance Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale) and founded his own airline, Trans-World Airlines, though as his ideas became bolder, his approach became more eccentric, and he gained many powerful enemies, including the head of Pan-American Airlines, Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), and Senator Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), who attempted to prove that Hughes' radical design ideas were actually part of an effort to bilk taxpayers for millions of dollars through government contracts. The Aviator's star-studded cast also includes John C. Reilly, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, and Frances Conroy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi