by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Various Directors

Spiritual people have long known that a story does not have to be factual to be true. One of our choices for the best films of 2003, Big Fish, is about a son who is trying to come to terms with his father's excessive storytelling. He learns that the tall tales he's been hearing his whole life are actually pretty good reflections of the kind of man his father really is.

We are drawn to films that have that ring of truth to them. We are interested in the meaning we can derive from them for our spiritual journeys. A spiritually literate film is a path to self-understanding, engagement with others, connection with the wider world, and awareness of the sacred. This year's best films explore friendship and family life, the immigrant experience and other issues in our multicultural world, destiny and death. Some show us the work of moral mentors and portray the impact of the arts and imagination.

Here, then, are the best films of 2003, listed by the spiritual practice from our alphabet that they demonstrate. Click on the title to reach a full review.

CONNECTIONS
Lost in Translation (Focus Features) is one of the best films of the year with stellar performances by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as two Americans who reach out over the age barrier to connect with each other in Tokyo.

LOVE
The Station Agent (Miramax) is a fine and funny film that explores all the curious ways in which friendship can abound, express love, turn us around, and take us to places we have never imagined.

MEANING
Big Fish (Columbia Pictures) will draw out the story-loving child in you who still enjoys exploring dreams, fantasies, and larger-than-life adventures.

MYSTERY
21 Grams (Focus Films) is a deeply spiritual film exploring the ties that bind together a heart transplant recipient, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con in a riveting journey of guilt, pain, sacrifice, and redemption.

OPENNESS
Dirty Pretty Things (Miramax) is a soul-stirring movie about some immigrants in London that will rock you to your foundations if you just come to it with an open heart.

REVERENCE
Seabiscuit (Universal) crosses the finish line as a convincing winner with its robust story of an underdog horse and three nobodies who join him in a quest that turns into an adventure for the whole country.

SHADOW
House of Sand and Fog (Dreamworks) is an engrossing drama about the downward mobility of a recovering alcoholic and the yearning for upward mobility of an Iranian immigrant.

WONDER
In America (Fox Searchlight) is a soulful and buoyant portrait of a poverty stricken Irish family's winning battle to move beyond the wrenching, contradictory, and chaotic emotions of grief into a new life in Manhattan.

VISION
Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World (Twentieth Century Fox) is a rattling good sea saga filled with two first-class performances, a memorable portrait of friendship, and a substantive exploration of leadership.

ZEAL
Whale Rider (Newmarket Films) is an enchanting and ultimately enthralling New Zealand movie about the struggle of one ardent and determined young Maori girl to fulfill her destiny.

IMAGINATION
Swimming Pool (Focus Features) is a mesmerizing and imaginative psychological thriller about the delights that can come when we explore aspects of ourselves that we have previously ignored or covered up.

MEANING
The Barbarian Invasions (Miramax) is a bracing comedy about all those bothersome outside forces that unsettle our lives along with all those blessings that open our hearts unexpectedly.

MEANING
Mondays in the Sun (Lions Gate), set in a Spanish shipyard, is a deeply ethical work that has a universal quality to its depiction of the soul-destroying capacities of unemployment.

OPENNESS
Together (MGM/United Artists) is a vibrant and touching Chinese film that tugs at the heart and convincingly conveys the challenges faced by a teenage musical prodigy from the provinces after he arrives in Beijing.

QUESTING
In This World (Sundance) is an incredibly moving film directed by Michael Winterbottom about two young Afghan refugees struggling to survive a harrowing overland journey to London in search of a better life.

QUESTING
Marooned in Iraq (Wellspring) charts the adventures of an elderly Kurdish musician and his two grown sons on a mission of mercy in Iraq's danger zones and refugee camps.

SHADOW
Lilya 4-Ever (Newmarket Films) is a disturbing film about an abandoned Russian teenager who finds herself an unwilling victim in the global sex trade.

YEARNING
The Man on the Train (Paramount Classics) is a marvelously acted French film about two very different men who cross paths and discover in each other their own yearnings for something completely different in their lives.

YEARNING
Monsieur Ibrahim (Sony Pictures Classics) is a spiritual adventure story about a Sufi grocer who passes on the wisdom of his path to a lonely adolescent boy, teaching him to slow down, to savor the world's beauty through his senses, and to open his heart to the wonders around him.

YOU
L'Auberge Espanole (Fox Searchlight) is a captivating French film about an industrious young man's experiences abroad in Barcelona and his recognition of his unity with others.

COMPASSION
Sister Helen (HBO and R&R Films) profiles a tough Catholic nun working with addicts in the South Bronx who has let their suffering touch her heart and transform her life into one of compassionate service.

FAITH
Bonhoeffer (First Run Features) is a riveting and poignant overview of the life and work of the German theologian who pointed the way forward to a bold new vision of Christianity.

JUSTICE
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (Artistic License Films) is a passionate documentary about the plight of the Tibetan people whose religion remains one of the wonders of the world with its wisdom on nonviolence, mind training, and compassion.

PEACE
The Yogis of Tibet (JEHM Films) salutes the spiritual disciplines and practices of Tibetan yogis who have mastered their minds and bodies as part of their devotion to the dharma.

QUESTING
Stone Reader (Jet Films) is a fascinating documentary that is part detective story and part tribute to the enchantments of books.

SHADOW
Bus 174 (THINKFilm/HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films) is a compelling documentary using interviews and television news coverage of a bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro to tell the truth about the tragic and dangerous consequences of one young man's poverty, exposure to violence, and brutal treatment while in prison.

SHADOW
The Fog of War (Sony Pictures Classics) is a morally thought-provoking documentary in which Robert McNamara, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, discusses the lessons of World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War.

WONDER
Winged Migration (Sony Pictures Classics) is a glorious celebration of birds in flight, conveying the beauty and the amazing feats of strength and endurance of their long distance journeys.

YEARNING
Balseros (Seventh Art and HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films) is an ambitious and well-realized documentary about seven Cuban dreamers who risked their lives aboard homemade rafts to make it to America to forge a new life for themselves.

YOU
OT: Our Town (Film Movement) is a remarkable documentary about some ghetto kids in Compton, California, who rise to the best in themselves in a rousing high school production of Thornton Wilder's famous play.

BEAUTY
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Lions Gate) is an artistic film par excellence that tells the story of one of Jan Vermeer's most known paintings with visual riches and creative integrity.

FORGIVENESS
Levity (Sony Pictures Classics) offers a fresh exploration of forgiveness through the poignant story of a repentant murderer's quest to make amends with the sister of the person he killed years ago.

GRACE
Holes (Buena Vista), a hoot from start to finish, is one of the most dramatically inventive and emotionally satisfying children's films to hit the screen in many a moon.

LOVE
Finding Nemo (Buena Vista) is a rousing computer-animated adventure that celebrates youthful independence and lances the illusion that parents can make the world safe for their children.

LOVE
Pieces of April (United Artists and IFC Productions) revolves around a Thanksgiving dinner and draws out all our mixed feelings about families, memories, nasty grievances, and moments of deep gratitude.

PLAY
Bruce Almighty (Universal) is a cinematic parable about a selfish and obsessed television reporter whose spiritual journey opens his heart and sets him on a path of using his gifts to serve others.

QUESTING
Cold Mountain (Miramax) is a universal quest story about the yearning for hope and home that enables two lovers to deal with the harrowing menace and senseless violence of war.

SHADOW
The Magdalene Sisters (Miramax) is an unflinching and compelling drama about the unjust incarceration of young women in Ireland by the Catholic Church for their so-called sexual indiscretions.

TRANSFORMATION
The Last Samurai (Warner Bros.) is an exquisitely rendered drama that mixes the raw savagery of war with magical moments of Zen peacefulness and spiritual uplift.

TRANSFORMATION
Secondhand Lions (New Line) is a very special coming-of-age movie that salutes the odd ways eccentric individuals can inspire us to become all we are meant to be.

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Reviews and database copyright © 1980-2005 by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat.