2014 Muriel Awards: 10th Anniversary Award for the Best Film of 2004

For some reason, I've had a soft spot for this particular category ever since we've started doing these anniversary awards. I think it's because while the 50th and 25th Anniversary Awards feel like they belong resolutely to the past, 10 years doesn't seem like that long ago to me. I can still pinpoint with relative certainty where I saw all three of our nominees shown below, and I even know that I saw at least one, and perhaps even two, of them with one or more current Muriels voter (hi, Kevin!). And yet at the same time, so much has changed in the past decade. I saw nearly 200 new releases in 2004, mostly in theatres, plus no doubt hundreds more classics and favorites, both on the big screen and at home. This past year? Not so much. But then, I also got married and found myself becoming part of a family in the intervening years, so it definitely hasn't been a bad trade.

Also, way to go one other person who voted for Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence.

Moving on.

Third place:

Sideways [directed by Alexander Payne] (81 points / 13 votes)

Second place:

Before Sunset [directed by Richard Linklater] (143 points / 21 votes)

And the Muriel Award goes to...

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [dir. Michel Gondry] (191 points / 28 votes)

"The beauty and futility of romantic love intermingle freely in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which makes it clear that it's impossible to have one without the other. Director Michel Gondry's whimsy and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's cerebral eccentricity combine for a story that uses its intellect to celebrate the value of emotions. That value comes as often in heartbreak as it does in joy, and Eternal Sunshine portrays both with rushes of real feeling. What starts out seeming like a goofy premise, a machine that erases painful memories of a relationship gone wrong, turns into a beautiful meditation on what it means to truly love someone.

"As well as Gondry and Kaufman work together, the movie would never succeed without the lead performances from Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, who make lovers Joel and Clementine into fully realized people, equal parts endearing and maddening. When Clementine tells Joel, -I'm just a fucked-up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind; don't assign me yours,' she simultaneously affirms and refutes every movie stereotype about the free-spirited woman who saves a broken man. She does save Joel, but she also ruins him, and he saves and ruins her in turn. They know exactly how this will happen, and yet they choose to dive in and do it all over again.

"The movie isn't just a constant rush of emotions; it's also funny and weird, especially thanks to the supporting characters played be Elijah Wood, Kristen Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Wilkinson. It's also an effective sci-fi story, with legitimate plot twists. But everything ultimately comes down to love, and especially to the moment when Joel and Clementine listen to recordings of themselves saying awful things about each other, and it only makes them commit more strongly to their renewed relationship. Eternal Sunshine is a great romantic movie not because it has a happy ending, but because it shows how happy endings and sad endings are often the same thing." ~ Josh Bell

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